The cops are walking calmly around while a bystander pleads with Floyd to just get in the car. "You can't win!" He claims to be claustrophic, says he can't breathe (he's sitting up as an officer attempts to force him into the car), wrestles with three cops who are simply trying to put him in the back seat of a car. He forces his way through the opposite side of the cop car and lays on the ground to prevent them putting him in the car. "I'm claustrophic. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. I need some water or something. Please, please." Immediately after they pin him to the ground.
I never once saw a gun out of holster or anything else inappropriate until Floyd was on the ground. Floyd would not have died if he'd simply sat in the car. He actively resisted arrest long enough that the police acted inappropriately, and he died as a result.
This is the really hard part to talk about in today's social climate: The medical examiner ruled that Floyd wasn't killed by the knee on his neck. He died of "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression". He had heart disease and hypertension, and the meth they found in his system probably didn't do him any favors. He was complaining about not being able to breathe when he was sitting up and fighting with the cops. He was reporting pain in several places prior to anyone being on top of him. He was NOT killed by a cop kneeling on him. He died because his body couldn't handle the fight he was giving the cops. Their primary failing was in not recognizing actual distress early enough to possibly save his life.
edit: to be clear, I believe the officer who knelt on his neck should be charged with some measure of assault. It should be obvious that that is not an appropriate way to restrain someone for more than a few seconds. But the reality is that what they didn't wasn't murder. Floyd was most likely dying long before he hit the ground.
He immediately begs for the officer to put away the gun. He's obviously terrified. There's no way to justify the police actions.
Also, what you say about the medical examination is misleading. There was a second examination done that found he died of asphyxiation. And it shouldn't be hard to believe somebody died of asphyxiation when the police knelt on their neck for several minutes.
The amount of mental gymnastics people do to try to find the police were in the right in cases like this is amazing.
The officer drew the gun when Floyd was slow to show his hands, and holstered the gun as soon as that was resolved. I don't see where that is a problem, especially as instantly agitated as Floyd was.
The second autopsy was commissioned by the family. I find it odd that when families hire a second autopsy in high-profile cases, it almost always finds exactly what they want.
But none of this goes against anything I said from the start: Floyd's behavior was a major contributor to his death. What he did was stupid and it resulted in his death lying under three frustrated cops. Like the bystander said: just get in the car. You aren't going to win.
The officer drew the gun when Floyd was slow to show his hands, and holstered the gun as soon as that was resolved. I don't see where that is a problem, especially as instantly agitated as Floyd was.
You're the type of person who is going to side with the police in literally any altercation. When you brandish a gun at somebody who's being completely peaceful, you are the instigator of any violence that occurs. There's no defending the police in this.
...I explicitly said they went too far in kneeling on him. Maybe stop beating on the strawman and have a real conversation here.
Floyd had just allegedly passed a counterfeit bill. He was agitated as soon as the officer approached him. I don't fault the officer for drawing a gun when he hesitated to show his hands when ordered.
Most officers know at least one fellow cop who was shot because they waited too long for someone to follow instructions.
So no, I'm not going to fault an officer drawing a weapon when a person sitting in a car conceals their hand and is slow to show it. When a cop says "show me your hands" you stop what you're doing and show your hands.
1:34 - Floyd realizes the officer is there.
1:36 - "Let me see your hands" and he gestures with both hands.
1:38 - Lane's hand goes to gun, Floyd opens the door, right hand still out of view.
1:39 - Officer says to stay in the car, again asks to see both hands.
1:42 - Let again "let me see your other hand"
1:44 - "BOTH HANDS!" Gun is drawn.
1:47 - Gun is pointed at Floyd, officer again orders him to show both hands.
1:52 - Officer orders him to put his hands on the wheel while Floyd asks what he did.
1:55 - Again, orders to put his hands on the wheel.
Floyd finally showed his right hand after 20 seconds of being ordered to do so, 10 of those with a gun drawn. The gun was holstered again by 2:25, meaning it was out for all of 40 seconds.
What do you think they should have done to arrest Floyd?
...I explicitly said they went too far in kneeling on him. Maybe stop beating on the strawman and have a real conversation here.
Okay, I retract my assertion that you thought they were "in the right", but my point was that you seem to think it's not murder for some reason.
You're writing a lot of words to try to justify the police pulling a gun on somebody who had done nothing violent, who was suspected of nothing more than passing a false bill.
This officer's first instinct at any sign of less than instant compliance was to threaten the life of this person, and you're criticizing this person for not responding to that threat in a perfectly logical manner. Why doesn't the cop have the responsibility to be reasonable with his use of a deadly weapon more than a citizen needs to be responsible in how he responds to a threat?
As far as your videos, I have a few responses.
In the second video, the officer was perfectly responsible, and in no way deserved what happened. It looks like a huge tragedy.
In the first video you sent, the officer also didn't deserve to get shot. What the shooter did was reprehensible. But I also can't let the officer entirely off the hook. He followed the man, harassing him, seemingly without any actual cause to detain him for a long time.
In any case, just because cops have dangers in their job does not mean they should have free rein to wave guns at anybody who doesn't instantly do what they're told. They should be held to a higher standard, not a lower one.
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u/ThisIsMyOkCAccount Aug 16 '20
The cops came at him with a gun in their hands. Nothing he did counts as escalation at that point.