Anybody can say anything about anything.
“He calls it murder.”
I watched the video once in its entirety. I do not remember seeing the lawyer call it murder.
Also, I would like to have seem him address the issues raised by the summary of the autopsy.
Very good analysis of what and how George Floyd’s body reacted to the type of restraint being used AND the officer’s on going responsibility once he was unconscious.
In the comments he posts the UoF in effect. Nothing in that document justifies what we saw in the video.
Virtue signaling for personal gain. His business is representing cops in lawsuits. He jumps in on the wave out there now, then later he gets to look “reasonable” when he defends other cases.
He’s a lawyer, his lips are moving.
“Very interesting. This is a guy who defends police. He calls it murder. “
No.
I think lawyer did NOT call it murder and I watched vid twice. Nor should we call it murder. That vid looks bad. I cannot personally think of any justification for the cop’s actions.
But TBTG we have a Constitution that disallows jumping to conclusions or misreading of lawyers words saying he called it murder to be the final word.
Cop has a right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty BRD. He also has a right to a competent lawyer.
Let’s remember that.
This same lawyer, if paid a million dollars to defend the officer would probably make a very strong case that no crime was committed.
No one can argue that George Floyd should not have died under these circumstances. The hard problem is accepting that we live in a world of cause and effect that is driven by our conditioned behavior.
This chain goes back a long way for both George and the officers to their births but they never would have crossed paths except for George’s decision to try to cheat a shopkeeper by paying him with a counterfeit $20. This caused the shopkeeper to call the police. George reacted emotionally in a way that caused the police to think he was on drugs or somehow a threat when they couldn’t get him in the squad car.
They reacted based on their training which was faulty and used an unnecessary compliance technique. There was still a chance for George to survive but the officer’s conditioned reaction to the taunting from the crowd that surrounded him was to not show weakness and lose command control. He held the constraint to the point of killing Floyd who, unknown to the officer, suffered from cardio vascular disease and hypertension that made him exceptionally vulnerable to this technique.
Karma acts like the butterfly effect in circumstances like these. Small reactions can escalate to become tragedies when fear and ignorance take over behavior and overwhelm proper training by law enforcement.
I used to handle police brutality cases. It was absolutely wrong for the officer to kneel on the decedent’s neck, because that is bloody dangerous. Here that open and obvious breach of a duty of care was followed by a very predictable death. The manslaughter charges against the cop are fully justified. It wasn’t murder. It was manslaughter.
For example, I can restrain you with my hand clasped around your wrist ... and you can claim all kinds of squeezing too hard ... but If I'm much stronger than you (and a knee is stronger than a neck so same thing) ... I don't need to squeeze hard, I just need to keep my hand closed.
It's conceivable there were only a few pounds or ounces of pressure in the down direction on his neck -> just enough to keep him from getting out from under it.
Did he pass out because the artery was blocked? Is that what killed him? Can the officer claim he used his knee because of corona and didn't want to hold him with his hand or let George potentially puke on him?
I'm not saying that's what happened ... but if this was a heart attack, and the cop can claim, with support, that the knee was only holding George in place to protect himself from infection ...
Like I said - not arguing for or against ... and it certainly APPEARS to not be legit. But ... Covid defense? Defense that the knee wasn't using much force ... and if it was a heart attack and there is not bruising on the neck? Defense that they KNEW an ambulance was coming (I'm not sure when it was called -> maybe 6 of the 8 minutes was waiting.
The cop LOOKS guilty to me. I'm only presenting the other side because .... well it behoves anyone who cares about this to play prosecutor and play defense. And of course ... we don't know all the facts. Autopsy, toxicology etc.
The cop DOES seem to say 'just get up and get in the car' and George is like 'well get yer damn knee off my neck and I will' (I paraphrase) ... but that seems pretty damning. THAT seems like a cop being an explicit douche.
But why does he continue when he's getting filmed? I mean regardless of what the heck happened -> doesn't he have the self awareness to know this is going to be a nightmare no matter how it turns out? Even if he DID want to hurt George ... why continue while on film when he seemed, at least from the video point of view, to be so obviously unresponsive? Chance that George was faking it? Paranoid of Covid? That seems like the only defense that seems reasonable (reasonable is a stretch)
Excellent systematic analysis.
I would add when you have multiple officers you can have one on each leg and that lessens the need for head control. His comment was you can use your hand or forearm on the head. that is correct. You can also use a knee on a shoulder blade. one officer should be ready to tase should the end arise, which is rated less-than-lethal on a healthy person.
I haven’t seen the cause of death called correctly yet. The actual cause of death was CoVid-19. Yes, a clear case of another CoVid death.