George Floyd (1973-2020)
#ICan'tBreathe #CaughtonCamera #AmINext #UnknownOthers #JusticeInPolicing
On Monday May 25, 2020, Minneapolis, Minnesota police officers were dispatched to a convenience store at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago in response to a store employee’s complaint of a patron passing a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill.
Arriving on location, officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng approached the vehicle occupied by George Floyd and two other passengers, with weapons drawn. Officer Lane directed Floyd to place his hands on the steering wheel. Questioning why he was being arrested, Floyd pleaded with the officers not to arrest him, stating that he was claustrophobic and that he was recovering from COVID 19. Officers handcuffed Floyd and moved him to the sidewalk to continue their interrogation, eventually walking him across the street to their squad car.
A second unit containing Officers Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao arrived on scene to assist in the arrest. Chauvin, the senior officer, took the lead in attempting to subdue Floyd. While Lane and Kueng held his body down, Chavin placed his knee on Floyd’s neck with enough force to pin him to the ground.
Officer Thao turned his attention to crowd control as a small group of onlookers had gathered to plead with Officer Chauvin to remove his knee and summon medical attention for Floyd, who could repeatedly be heard complaining that he could not breathe. Seventeen year old Darnella Frazier’s cell phone footage is now infamous: 9 minutes and 29 seconds with Officer Chauvin’s knee on the neck of a handcuffed George Floyd. Unconscious and unresponsive, the victim was transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police initially reported the death as the consequence of Floyd’s resisting arrest. Around midnight, however, Frazier posted her video to social media, leading to the immediate termination of all four officers and igniting a worldwide response. By early June, the video had been viewed 1.4 billion times.
Derek Chauvin was indicted on state charges, and on April 20, 2021 was found guilty of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter of George Floyd. He was sentenced to 22 ½ years in prison. He also plead guilty to federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
In February 2022, a jury in the federal case against the other officers found all three guilty of willfully violating George Floyd’s constitutional rights by not providing medical care. Keung and Lane were additionally found guilty of not intervening to stop Chauvin from placing his knee on Floyd’s neck. At the writing of this website their state trials are still pending.
In March 2021 the family of George Floyd reached a $27 million dollar settlement with the city of Minneapolis.
The Department of Justice announced an investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department would ensue. In the aftermath of the Floyd murder, the Minnesota legislature passed a bipartisan police accountability bill. Rep. Karen Bass also proposed The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. A bipartisan group of lawmakers met for several months hoping to have a bill approved by the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, but negotiations broke down in September 2021, leaving federal police reform legislation in limbo.