The Murder of George Floyd and the Response To It

[N.E. Brigand]

And reading the police report, I am also glad that the entire thing was filmed.

In some other discussion a while back, I posted a link to a Twitter thread someone compiled of roughtly 1,000 videos showing at least a few hundred incidents of police violence last summer at the various George Floyd protests. As the compiler pointed out: that's what some police (but by no means all police) do when even when they know they're probably being filmed.

Anyway, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said tonight on his program that this verdict is the result of an "attack on civilization" because the jurors likely convicted Chauvin only because they feared for their lives.

(Speaking of Carlson, he also said tonight on his program that "this is a news show". But Fox News has successfully argued in court that Carlson's program is opinion not news, and a judge agreed that he therefore can't be sued for statements he makes even when he says they are factual, because no one takes him seriously.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I was surprised and quite pleased to see this news this morning.

AG Garland announces DOJ probe into policing practices in Minneapolis

[Sunsilver]

Yes, another step in the right direction!

[N.E. Brigand]

From a thoughtful piece from New York Times columnist Elizabeth Bruenig:

Chauvin Was Convicted. Something Is Still Very Wrong.

In a sense, their unease with the outcome of Mr. Chauvin’s trial echoes responses to the conviction of Harvey Weinstein, whose downfall incited the #MeToo movement. At the time, commenters pointed out that Mr. Weinstein’s rape conviction was only “a partial victory” for the movement, “less significant” than it seemed. They were right — not only because in Mr. Weinstein’s case, as in Mr. Floyd’s, the trial had become a metonym for a wider movement with unfinished business, but also because the things he had done, like the things Mr. Chauvin has done, could not be reversed.

It’s a fact so obvious that it bears restating. Mr. Floyd is still dead, was still murdered, remains a person whose life ended abruptly and violently on a street in Minneapolis in broad daylight while bystanders looked on: None of that will ever change. Nor will Mr. Weinstein’s victims receive in recompense the lives, the confidence, the dispositions they had before he violated them. The trouble is that no crime — in fact, no harm — is ever undone, and no loss affected by moral evil is ever entirely restored.

- - - - - - - - - - -
Mind you, some people have other notions (source: Bemidji Pioneer) about Floyd's death:

ZUMBRO FALLS, Minn. -- A dinner hosted by the Wabasha County Republican Party last month featured keynote speaker Trevor Loudon, a far-right conspiracy theorist who told the GOP faithful that more than a hundred members of Congress should be investigated for espionage, that the killing of George Floyd and the unrest that followed "was planned since 2016," and suggested that voting machines were rigged in last year's presidential election. ...

In his remarks to the 400 gathered at the GOP event, Loudon ... [o]ffered a conspiracy theory that the killing of Floyd and the subsequent civil unrest was planned since 2016. "This was planned since 2016, folks. This was all organized by a group headquartered in Minnesota called the 'Freedom Road Socialist Organization.'" ...

While the GOP chairwoman declined to comment, the Wabasha County Republicans hailed the evening on its Facebook page as an "amazing night with so many of our conservative friends from across southeast Minnesota!"

"Trevor Loudon ... [ellipsis original] did an amazing job talking about the future of America and our Republican Party," it said.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Another indication that the Garland DOJ is going to be aggressive at investigating police practices.

Garland announces Justice Department investigation into the Louisville Police Department

[Frelga]

Social workers, EMS — not NYPD — to respond to non-violent mental health calls citywide

The expanded citywide program is part of a multi-pronged approach to mental health, which also includes a new mobile treatment unit that will respond to more severe situations.

The unit will consist of 25 teams of highly trained professionals that can be quickly dispatched to the scene.

De Blasio also announced a new initiative that will train community-based organizations and peer counselors on how to handle mental health needs right in their community.

[N.E. Brigand]

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal grand jury has indicted the four former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd's arrest and death, accusing them of willfully violating the Black man's constitutional rights as he was restrained face-down on the pavement and gasping for air.

A three-count indictment unsealed Friday names Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao.

Specifically, Chauvin is charged with violating Floyd's right to be free from unreasonable seizure and unreasonable force by a police officer. Thao and Kueng are also charged with violating Floyd's right to be free from unreasonable seizure, alleging they did not intervene to stop Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd's neck. All four officers are charged for their failure to provide Floyd with medical care.

Some observers say the Dept. of Justice process that led to this indictment would almost certainly have started during the Trump administration.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Just about to post that, but you beat me to it.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It should be noted that Chauvin was also indicted by the federal grand jury for a separate 2017 incident for willfully depriving a Minneapolis resident who was 14 at the time of the "constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/07/us/derek ... index.html

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison today.

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/derek- ... 7f4de58e06

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Grand jury indicts police officers and paramedics in 2019 death of Elijah McClain

Of all of the high profile situations involving law enforcement actions leading to the death of African-Americans in the past few years, this one hit me particularly hard. I am glad to hear that some degree of justice might be served.

[RoseMorninStar]

Good. What a horrible crime perpetrated against that young man. Just awful.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Another small pebble that will hopefully lead to an avalanche of justice.

Former District Attorney Jackie Johnson indicted on charges of Violation of Oath of Public Officer and Obstruction of a Police Officer in connection to Ahmaud Arbery killing

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were found guilty of violating George Floyd's civil rights by a federal jury in St. Paul, Minnesota today.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/us/georg ... index.html

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I could put this article in one of several different threads: the 2020 election thread talking about 1/6; the Supreme Court thread talking about Judge Brown's confirmation hearings; the challenges ahead thread. But I'll put it here as it its core it is talking about the backlash to the racial reckoning sparked by George Floyd's murder.

Black progress, white anger

[N.E. Brigand]

"Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something."

--President Donald Trump, in a question to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper about George Floyd protesters (per Esper's forthcoming book)

[N.E. Brigand]

"This is not a George Floyd situation. George Floyd was unarmed. This is not okay. ... My kids have to deal with this and probably have a mental illness now because they almost lost their lives. There’s bullet holes in my kitchen because he sat in the f***ing hallway watching me move. He tried to kill me in front of my kids. ... I have Black children; I am a woman of color!"

Those were the words of Minneapolis resident Arabella Foss-Yarbrough, responding to activists outside her apartment building protesting the police shooting last Thursday of Andrew "Teckle" Sundberg, her neighbor, the man she says tried to kill her.

I note this here because she references George Floyd and as a reminder that not all incidents of people being killed by police are the same. And in this case the activists are doing the cause of protesting police misconduct no favors (and I write this as someone who believes that MCAB -- the M stands for "many" -- not to mention cowards; and as someone who thinks most such protests are just), particular when one of them responded to Ms. Foss-Yarbrough's statement that there were "bullet holes in my kitchen" by saying to her: "Not in you, though."

I rather think those activists wouldn't be protesting if Sundberg had murdered her and then been arrested but not killed by the police.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It still is not clear why the police shot and killed Sundberg, however. It was not because he was shooting into Foss-Yarbrough's apartment, because that had happened some time earlier and she and her children, and others that were deemed to be in danger, had already been moved to safety. Maybe there was a good reason why the police shot him when they did, but they are not saying and are refusing to release body camera footage. So no, it is not the same situation at all as George Floyd, but there are still very significant questions as to why, yet again, law enforcement used deadly force with a black man, when so often it seems like equally or much more dangerous white suspects are taken into custody with no incident (when they don't take their own life).

[Frelga]

To state what I'm sure is blindingly obvious to all of us, taking the suspect into custody with minimal damage should be the default police behavior regardless of the severity of the crime. Unless there is absolutely no other option to stop the person from actively threatening physical harm, it is never OK for the police to kill.

That the US police is able to get away with killing innocent people, disproportionately non-white, and often minors, is absolutely intolerable and is the opposite of the rule of law.

[River]

Unless there is absolutely no other option to stop the person from actively threatening physical harm, it is never OK for the police to kill.

There was a police shooting in my area a few years ago that fit this situation. A domestic dispute two towns and two counties away turned into a kidnapping. The local police and multiple sheriff's departments chased the vehicle with the kidnapper and the victims into another local town not far from where I currently live. The kidnapper had a gun to the driver's head the entire time. Our sheriff sent in a sharpshooter who shot the kidnapper. Very dramatic. No one was protesting. Our sheriff got re-elected at least once since that happened, maybe twice (he's retiring from service and I actually paid attention to the primary because I've been rather pleased with our local disaster response and want the replacement to be as good as the old guy in that regard).