Thursday, May 28, 2020

"he'd not be dead if he was white"

So George Floyd is dead in Minneapolis. Cops killed him.
True.

He was a nice guy and didn't deserve it.
Maybe. I don't know.

It is odd that black men nearly never surrender when being arrested. That is one thing that the media never notes when they are doing what they can to fire the race wars.

"If he was white this wouldn't have happened"
Probably true. If he was white, or hispanic, or chinese or Irish or lithuanian or south american or nearly any other race, he probably would have stopped struggling once he was arrested.
Ask any cop, they'll agree with the above statement.

Did he deserve to die? No. Did he deserve to be arrested? I don't know. Chances are if he had stopped struggling such that it took several men to hold him down he might be alive. Did his behavior lead to his death? Probably, but the media hasn't shown us any video from earlier in the incident.  All we get is the dramatic parts. Probably because they really don't want us to see it since it might damage their meme.

How you end up after the arrest mostly depends on your behavior. Choose wisely.

Should the cops be disciplined and charged with murder? I don't know enough about the whole incident to judge.  Hell, I don't know enough to be sure that he WAS struggling, but it is likely.
I'd like to see the whole video, and if he submitted without a struggle, then I'd expect the cops should be charged with murder.


ETA: If his trachea was crushed, or if the cop was pressing his neck to the ground so hard that his airway was restricted, then why can we hear him telling the cops "Officer, I can't breathe"? 

9 comments:

Wisconsindude said...

Based on him sitting on top of a car (NYTimes) and appeared under the influence I suspect Excited Delirium will play a BIG part.

Pete said...

Last night the evening news aired additional footage that shows Mr. Floyd offering no resistance while being walked around the crime scene in handcuffs. Unfortunately, there is no footage (yet released) that shows how the incident progressed from the above to the knee-on-neck moment. Also,

"How you end up after the arrest mostly depends on your behavior."

In the case of black folk, I might question this statement to a certain extent. Our country has a rich history of lynching minorities, many times with law enforcement either taking part or standing by and allowing it to happen.

The trust in law enforcement to treat me fairly that I might have as a white man, may not be shared by other races.

Pete

B said...

Pete:
I don't trust the police to "treat me fairly" either.
But the police don't pile on someone without good reason.

I would expect that there is more to this story that we simply don't know.

I strongly doubt that he offered zero resistance before the incident.

We will have to wait and see, not depend on the media (which likes to foment race wars, especially about this time every election year) for unbiased data.

Old NFO said...

I'm adhering to the 72 hour rule on this one, as I always do.

Matt said...

Jim, I’ll take the 72 hours as well .... minus the 9 minutes that guy had his knee on Floyd’s neck. I’ve been burnt by these things before but for the life of me can’t see why when when he was on the ground and there were 4 cops there that one of them had to do the knee thing until the man was dead.

Pete said...

"But the police don't pile on someone without good reason."

Except when they do.

I look forward to finding out which of the above describes this event.

Pete

The Freeholder said...

I'll wait for the coroner's report.

riverrider said...

the probable cause brief states the officer kept his knee on him even after other cops told him he needed to let up. even after a he had no pulse...squeezing out "i can't breath" is exhaling remaining air from the lungs. breathing is inhaling. been there, done that, never again...was once a cop long ago. don't care what he did b4 the knee, after he was subdued and then unconscious it was way excessive. if they remained rowdy we gave them a hollywood screen test, not killed them.
the rioting likewise excessive. idiots burning their own hood.

Karl said...

Didn't see a full autopsy report yet, but it was done and they ruled out neck injury as cause of death.

I think those who want to resist arrest need to change their thinking after they turn 40. That is a bad habit to take into one's hypertension years...