August 7, 2020
The release of the video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of black suspect George Floyd rightly horrified our nation. Elevating the horrible injustice was the accompanying narrative depicting the four police officers as racists who murdered a compliant suspect of a minor crime, simply because he was a black man. Never before seen evidence belies this assertion.
Leaked Bodycam Footage
Videos, from the bodycams of two of the four police officers charged in connection with the killing of Floyd, was leaked to the London-based newspaper The Daily Mail. These tapes provide context to the events leading up to Floyd’s death.
The bodycam tapes of officers Thomas Lane and Alex Kueng show that from the moment the police approached Floyd, he resisted their commands. Floyd, who was sitting behind the wheel of a parked car, refused to show his hands until one of the officers took out his gun. He also refused to get out of the car and had to be pulled out.
From the start of the encounter, Floyd was screaming and crying more like a child than a grown man. When the officers instructed him to get into the police car, Floyd acted irrationally, screaming “I’m a die”, and that he could not get into the car because he was claustrophobic. This claim was especially odd because a few minutes prior, Floyd was sitting in a car without incident.
Bystanders on the street even screamed out to Floyd to “stop resisting”. Another yelled, “you can’t win, get in the car”.
Throughout the newly released videos the two officers can be heard repeatedly telling Floyd:
“Stop resisting”.
“You ain’t listening to nothing we’re saying.”
“Sit still”
“You’re not listening.”
“Are you ion something? You’re acting really erratic”
“You’re still having to reach on your side, you’re making me really nervous.”
The most striking aspect of these videos is that despite Floyd’s resistance and bizarre behavior, the officers never displayed anger, and even showed Floyd compassion. Several times one of the officers can be heard telling Floyd that they would open the windows in the car to ease his anxiety.
At another point, attempting to soothe the emotionally disturbed Floyd, an officer tells him, “We’re going to sort all this out”.
When finally in the car, Floyd continued acting hysterical and screamed, “I can’t breathe” multiple times. Yes- this is before officer Chauvin put a knee on his neck. Seemingly, as a result of Floyd’s crying and thrashing in the backseat, he fell out of the car onto the street.
While these videos do not exonerate Chauvin’s placing his knee on the neck of a prone handcuffed suspect for almost nine minutes, it does explain why Floyd’s cries that he could not breathe went unheeded. They did not believe him. The videos also provide context as to how the situation escalated, leading to Floyd lying on the ground.
For months many in the media have been working in concert with leftist activists and reported that the four police officers brutalized Floyd simply because he was black. Based on these tapes there is no reason to suspect the officers held a racial animus towards Floyd. Further belying this claim is the fact that two of the officers charged with aiding his killing are not even white.
Perhaps this is why far-left Minneapolis Attorney General Keith Ellison has not allowed the release of these videos to the public. They do not comport with the narrative pushed by those looking to advance a social justice agenda.
George Floyd’s Autopsies
Further, although many have been lead to believe that Chauvin is guilty of murder, the precise cause of Floyd’s death is in dispute. Dr. Michael Baden, a private medical examiner hired by the Floyd family, determined that he died as a result of “asphyxiation from sustained pressure”. It’s noteworthy that Baden did not have access to toxicology results, tissue samples, and some organs,
However, according to the autopsy performed by the Hennepin County medical examiner, traumatic asphyxia, or strangulation as the cause of death was discounted. They determined that Floyd died from a “cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer(s)”.
The county medical examiner found that Floyd had many “other significant conditions” including – severe heart disease, high blood pressure, Fentanyl intoxication, and recent methamphetamine use.
The Fentanyl level alone in Floyd’s blood was enough to be fatal. According to the Center for Disease Control, Fentanyl is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and many times that of heroin. Moreover, when someone overdoses on Fentanyl their breathing can slow or stop,
Before Chauvin arrived at the scene one of the officers asked Floyd if he was “foaming at the mouth”. Floyd admitted he was, but denied that he had taken drugs. Early in the encounter, officer Lane called for an ambulance. Unfortunately, it went to the wrong location and arrived at the scene too late.
Also not mentioned by most of the media is that officer Lane, who is white, desperately tried to revive Floyd by administering CPR. But again, this fact does not support the political agenda of those wishing to exploit his death to prove the U.S. is systemically racist.
When the media first reported on Floyd’s death everyone was outraged, and almost all believed that the four officers were guilty of a heinous hate crime. We should have known better. Shamefully, the mainstream media often has a political agenda behind their reporting,
What happened to George Floyd is a tragedy. However, the hijacking of his death by those on the left to promote a lie that police are targeting black men, stoking civil unrest and violence, is also contemptible.
