How Minneapolis Police first described the murder of George Floyd, and what we now know

How Minneapolis Police first described the murder of George Floyd, and what we now know

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That was the headline of a Minneapolis police statement on May 25, 2020, hours after a man in his 40s died unnamed. Absent from the post of nearly 200 words, any mention of officers restraining him on the ground is a knee to his neck or any sense of how long this ‘interaction’ lasted.

Thanks to video from a 17-year-old bystander, we now know what really happened: Former police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, using excessive and unreasonable force as he knelt on Floyd’s neck and back. for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Chauvin was convicted Tuesday of two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter in a Minnesota criminal court.

In light of his conviction, the original press release is worth checking out to understand the ways in which police statements can hide the truth with a mixture of passive language, blatant omissions and a common sense of timing.

Derek Chauvin convicted of all three charges for the murder of George Floyd

The report begins by saying that Minneapolis police officers responded to a report of a ‘forgery going on’, noting that the suspect was ‘apparently under the influence’.

“Two officers showed up and tracked down the suspect, a man who was presumably in his 40s, in his car. He was ordered to get out of his car. After getting out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to stop the suspect in got the handcuffs.and noticed that he was apparently in medical need.Officials called an ambulance.He was transported by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died shortly afterwards.

At no time were any weapons used by anyone involved in the incident. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was called in at the request of the Minneapolis Police Department to investigate this incident.

“No officers were injured in the incident. Cameras worn on the body were activated on and during this incident.

The post was sent by John Elder, the director of the Minneapolis Police Department of Public Information.

How police language obscures the truth

Everything in the police post is technically true.

Police responded to the report of a man using a suspected $ 20 bill. According to a toxicological report, Floyd was under the influence of fentanyl and methamphetamine at the time. He physically resisted officers when they tried to land him in the group car. They were able to handcuff him.

The officers noticed that he was apparently in medical distress, and they called an ambulance. No weapons were ‘used’, at least in the sense that they did not shoot him or hit him with a weapon.

Here's what happened to George Floyd from every perspective and angle

But together, the post is deep misleading and working to obscure the officers’ role in his death.

It shows the timing of the handcuffs and hides the fact that Floyd was in handcuffs almost from the beginning of their interaction.

It is noted that he was put in handcuffs in the same sense and ‘suffered medical distress’, although they occurred about 20 minutes apart. Most importantly, it ignores what the police did between these two events.

There is no question that the police confined him to a light position on the ground or that Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck. It is not mentioned that Chauvin remained in that position for a long time – 9 minutes and 29 seconds. It does not mention that Floyd repeatedly said, “I can not breathe” and asked his ‘mama’ before losing consciousness, stopping breathing and losing his pulse. It does not read that Chauvin remained on his neck until paramedics signaled for him to get up from Floyd’s limp body.

Nor does it mention that former officer Thomas Lane aimed his rifle at Floyd while in his vehicle, which could be interpreted as a ‘use’ of a weapon.

Ministry of Justice to investigate policing practices in Minneapolis after George Floyd's death
We know the truth of all this because of a remarkable amount of video that shows what really happened that day.

The 17-year-old Darnella Frazier posted her video on Facebook, which has been seen by people around the world, including the Minneapolis police chief. Genevieve Hansen, a firefighter who did not serve and who was assisted by Floyd, also filmed parts of the scene from a slightly different angle. Another high school student used her friend’s phone to film the incident, she testified.

A city camera across the street showed Floyd’s control at a distance. A 911 distributor watching the live stream of the video called her supervisor to express her concern about what she saw. Other videos of the Cup Foods store, outside a Chinese restaurant and of a bystander in his car, showed what happened before the fatal restraint.
Eventually, three of the officers’ body cameras showed their extensive interactions with Floyd up close. Chauvin’s camera fell under the group car before the restraint, and it does not show everything, but it reveals his arrival at the scene and his attempt to defend his actions thereafter.

What the police did after watching bystander video

After learning that a man had been admitted to the hospital while in police custody, Medaria Arradondo, Minneapolis police chief, alerted the Minnesota Crime Bureau and called the mayor. He testified at Chauvin’s trial. He then watched the video of the arrest from a city camera across the street, but nothing came out of it, he testified.

Around midnight, a member of the communications team contacted him to show Frazier’s bystander video and to see the head of the incident up close, he testified.

Minneapolis police fired all four officers involved the next day.

On May 26, when Frazier’s video went viral and sparked outrage, the Minneapolis police statement was updated with another vague line: ‘As additional information became available, it was determined that the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( sic) will be available. part of this investigation. ‘

A teenager with
Chauvin was arrested on May 29 and charged with murder, and the three other officers were arrested on June 3 and charged with aiding and abetting. They have pleaded not guilty and are expected to stand trial this summer.
Elder, the police spokesman who issued the warning, told the Los Angeles Times last year that he based the initial release on information from sergeants working in the area and computer-aided dispatch, not to mention the use of force. He has not yet reviewed the footage from the body camera.
“It literally had no intention of misleading or being dishonest or uninhibited. If we knew this (situation) was what we saw in the video, the statement would have been completely different,” Elder told the LA Times said.
According to the CNN subsidiary WCCO, the Minneapolis City Council voted last summer to move the Public Information Office out of the police department and under the city’s control.

On Wednesday, George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, said the presence of cameras opened doors for the ‘historic’ verdict in the Chauvin trial.

“To me, Emmett Till, he was the first George Floyd,” referring to the 14-year-old black boy who was tortured and killed in Mississippi in 1955. “It was just no cameras. That was the only thing that changed – the cameras, the technology. It helped open doors, because without it, my brother would have just been another person along the way to die. ‘

CNN’s Aditi Sangal contributed to this report.

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