Ilhan Omar, Minneapolis, ‘offside’ over outcome of Derek Chauvin trial, says | George Floyd

Omar was reminded on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that some trials involving police officers had been convicted, and asked, “Are you and your city prepared for the possibility of a jury or an innocent verdict?”

“The community is on point about this,” Omar said. “We see that justice has not been done in our community for many years. I think there is a lot of confidence in [state] Attorney General Keith Ellison and the prosecutors in this case, but we are all eagerly awaiting to see how this trial shakes.

“It was really horrible to see the defense execute George Floyd instead of the former police officer charged with his murder.”

Floyd, 46, died in May last year when Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest. The killings sparked international protests against police brutality and racial injustice. The vast majority of the protests were peaceful, but in Minneapolis and other cities, some became violent.

Chauvin is facing charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty. Three other officers will receive separate hearings.

On Monday, prosecutors are expected to call Medaria Arradondo, chief of police, as a witness. It is rare, if not unheard of, for a police chief to testify against a former officer. Experts said Arradondo’s evidence could open the door to more chiefs being summoned in the future.

“He’s going to tell you that Mr. Chauvin’s behavior is not in line with the training of the Minneapolis police,” prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said in his opening statement to jurors. “He will not chop words. He is very clear. He will be very decisive: it was excessive force. ”

Arradondo’s evidence is expected to be a powerful tool for prosecutors, as they want to refute the defense’s claim that Chauvin’s decision to kneel on Floyd’s neck is in line with the use of force.

Dr Cedric Alexander, a former police chief and public safety director of DeKalb province, Georgia, told the Guardian this week that Arradondo was a “fairly remarkable step of the prosecution.”

“It is very rare that you will see a chief for the defense or the prosecution,” he said. ‘But each of these kinds of events brings its own circumstances. And in this particular case, where you have a knee to the neck and are asked, ‘Was this a trained technique?’ Being able to have the chief of police … to testify under oath is clearly going to be important. ”

Laurie Robinson, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney General who co-chaired Barack Obama’s Taskforce on 21st Century Policing, which was launched after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, said: ‘ The head is under tremendous pressure.

‘It could be the toughest police chief job in the country at this point, amid tensions surrounding this trial, pressure from the community dealing with the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, calls for change in the department and community protection . it has to do with increasing gun violence and crime. ”

Arradondo will not be the only Minneapolis officer to testify that Chauvin’s actions deviate from the department’s policies. Lt Richard Zimmerman, who heads the department of murders, testified on Friday that he had never been trained in four decades to restrain an arresting man with a knee to the neck.

“If your knee is on a person’s neck, it could kill them,” he said. ‘Once someone is handcuffed, the threat level drops completely. They are handcuffed, how can they really hurt you? ‘

Floyd was handcuffed before police forced him to the ground.

“I saw no reason why the officers felt they were in danger, if that’s what they felt,” Zimmerman said. “And that’s how they feel about using that level of power.”