The Minneapolis police officer who was filmed kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for several minutes even as he said “I can’t breathe” has previously been the subject of multiple complaints filed to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division, it has emerged.[FONT="]Mr Chauvin, who has been fired along with the other three police officers who apprehended Mr Floyd, was reported to the division 18 times. According to a police summary, only two of the complaints were “closed with discipline”.[/FONT]
[FONT="][/FONT]While full details of Mr Chauvin’s career have yet to be released, he is known to have also been involved in several police shootings, and has been the subject of several complaints filed by civilians to police oversight bodies.
I'm just surprised there isn't a thread yet.
The Nation said:I would never throw a rock at the police. I would never throw a brick through the window of a big-box store. I would never set fire to an office building. But I want to. I understand why some people do.
I know I am supposed to counsel “nonviolence.” I’m a 42-year old man with a wife, two kids, and a mortgage; I’ve got a college degree and a law degree and a blue checkmark on Twitter; I know I am supposed to shun “rioters” and “looters” who allegedly cede the moral high ground of protests when they respond to tear gas and rubber bullets with stone and flame. But every person has a limit to the injustice they can bear before lashing out.
The second day of protests in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd erupted into violence last night. I understand why. And I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often.
Put yourself in the position of a relatively conscious black person in America just since this past March. Black people have seen a pandemic disproportionately rip through their communities while the media continually runs live press conferences of a racist president lying about the disease. We’ve seen layoffs and unemployment ravage our communities, while Congress funnels billions of dollars to white-owned businesses. We’ve seen white people absolutely lose their minds, waving guns and Confederate flags at police officers, pushing them into lakes, and gathering in large groups without consequence, while we’ve seen police literally sit on black people for allegedly violating social distancing orders.
And then the stories of the killings started. In the past three weeks: Ahmaud Arbery was lynched, on video. Breonna Taylor was killed by police in her own bed, offscreen. And George Floyd was choked out on the street in broad daylight by police while strangers literally begged for his life.
Imagine you’ve been black this whole time and watched all of this happen, and you show up to protest and, instead of being met with docile, restrained police like the white Confederates get, you are confronted by police in full riot gear who use tear gas and rubber bullets to “control” your crowd.
...
Experts on police use of force told The Associated Press that the officer clearly restrained the man too long. They noted the man was under control and no longer fighting. Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton, Florida, police chief who now testifies as an expert witness in use-of-force cases, called Floyd's death “a combination of not being trained properly or disregarding their training.”
“He couldn’t move. He was telling them he couldn’t breathe, and they ignored him," Scott said. "I can’t even describe it. It was difficult to watch.”
Given he was a cop, on duty, he deserves the maximum sentence.Minnesota
Minnesota law originally defined third-degree murder solely as depraved-heart murder ("without intent to effect the death of any person, caus[ing] the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life").[7][8] In 1987, an additional drug-related provision ("without intent to cause death, proximately caus[ing] the death of a human being by, directly or indirectly, unlawfully selling, giving away, bartering, delivering, exchanging, distributing, or administering a controlled substance classified in Schedule I or II") was added to the definition of third-degree murder.[7][9] Up until the early 2000s, prosecutions under that provision were rare, but they began to rise in the 2010s. Some reports linked this increase in prosecutions to the opioid epidemic in the United States.[10]
Minnesota law also defines the crime of third-degree murder of an unborn child, with the same elements of depraved mind and lack of intent to kill distinguishing it from first- or second-degree murder of an unborn child.[11][12] Both third-degree murder and third-degree murder of an unborn child are punishable by a maximum of 25 years' imprisonment.[7][12]
That phrase goes back to the civil rights era, known to have been invoked by a white police chief cracking down on protests in the 1960s and a segregationist politician.
"So often Trump has engaged in dog whistles," Lusane said. "But he also engages in blaring trumpets. And this is a pretty clear and very loud message that the response should not be let's try to address the justice issues that are involved here but let's be hard-line."
<snip>[FONT="]Police in Minnesota arrested a black [/FONT]CNN[FONT="] reporter reporting live on television early on Friday morning while covering [/FONT]the Minneapolis protests[FONT="] over the death of [/FONT]George Floyd[FONT="], and led him and three crew members away in handcuffs, in what has been criticized as a racist incident.[/FONT]
In contrast[FONT="], another of CNN’s correspondents, Josh Campbell, who is white, was reporting about a block away from Jimenez. He said police were “polite” when they approached him to ask him which outlet he was with, and they told him: “OK, you’re good.”[/FONT]
America is definitely broken. Link <snip>
Yep. Just saw some other footage of a female reporter being targeted by police. I guess targeting reporters is to be expected after years of being told that the press is the enemy of the people, though.The claim by the police was that the reporter and crew wouldn't move when the police asked. In the live video you can hear him explaining to the police that they were in the process of moving, and that they would happily go anywhere the police directed them to. They received no direction, but instead were arrested.
Third degree might sound like a weak charge, but in Minnesota it's not what it seems.
From Wiki Third Degree Murder
Given he was a cop, on duty, he deserves the maximum sentence.
If we make it out of this with some sort of cohesive vision, we're going to have to grapple the fallout the way Germany has had to grapple with their history. The trouble is, Germany had the allies ready to back up their rebuilding toward liberalism, and right now, there is no one in the world that can do that for us. We either have to save ourselves, or I agree with Nighttimer. There won't be peace between white and black in America, because there isn't going to be an America to find peace in. Unfortunately, I can't see the path toward self-preservation, either.
All empires fall. We can't be shocked ours will, too.
I'm quite disgusted by the news that they're trying to partly blame medical conditions for the poor's man death. Like a cop putting a knee on somebody's neck so he can't breathe can't possibly be something to die from. Gah.
It's also not remotely relevant. But this is a longstanding tactic: "it was just this one guy; there's no systemic violence against black and other non-white people, really."
Yep. Just saw some other footage of a female reporter being targeted by police. I guess targeting reporters is to be expected after years of being told that the press is the enemy of the people, though.