Minneapolis, Minnesota
The city of Minneapolis, Minnesota is where the death of a man named George Floyd happened. George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, by a police officer that was kneeling on his neck. The officers were responding to a call from a cashier that told them that George Floyd had paid for some cigarettes with a fake $20 bill. The Minneapolis Police Department put out a statement, saying that George Floyd appeared to be “under the influence,” according to the New York Times. The Police Department said that the officers that responded had ordered George to step out of his car and that he resisted the police officers after he stepped out of the vehicle. Officers said that George Floyd seemed to be suffering mentally and called an ambulance after. A bystander on the street caught the fatal interaction on their phone and recorded the encounter between Floyd and the three officers. In the footage captured by the officer’s body camera, he tapped his flashlight on Floyd’s window and asked to see his hands. Floyd opened the door and apologized after being asked several times to do as the police officer asked him to do. The situation escalated very quickly as the officer, Mr. Lane, drew his gun at George and tells him to put his hands up. He then proceeded to pull George out of his car without an explanation for why he stopped George. After pulling George out of his car two officers, Mr. Lane and Mr. Kueng, handcuffed him and walked him over to their police car on the other side of the street. They attempted to force him into the police car, but George refused and told them that he is claustrophobic. He pushed himself out of the other side of the car and said he was just going to lay on the ground. Three officers then pinned George Floyd to the ground while another officer, Mr. Thao, was trying to keep bystanders out of the way. An officer named Mr. Chauvin was kneeling on his neck while Mr. Keung and Mr. Lane were holding George Floyd’s legs and wrist. George Floyd kept saying that he couldn’t breathe, but the officer never moved his knee from George’s neck and kept it there for nine and a half minutes. Bystanders had shouted at the officers to attend to George and Mr. Keung checked his pulse, but he said he couldn’t feel it. Despite being told that Mr. Keung couldn’t feel George Floyd’s pulse, the officers continued to hold George in a position that restricted his breathing. Emergency responders arrived within 2 minutes of all this and they loaded George Floyd into an ambulance. Later that evening, George Floyd was pronounced dead.
The day after George Floyd was murdered by those four police officers, huge protests were happening in Minneapolis in reaction to his death. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced that all four officers involved in Floyd’s death had all been terminated, and he had asked the F.B.I. to investigate. A post from the mayor on social media included the statement, “Being Black in America Should not be a death sentence.”Eventually, Mr. Chauvin, the man that was kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, was charged with third-degree murder. Judge Peter A. Cahill oversaw the trial and dismissed the third-degree murder trial and changed it to a second-degree murder charge, as well as a second-degree manslaughter charge. However, Judge Peter A. Cahill “allowed prosecutors to reinstate the third-degree murder charge,” according to the New York Times. Mr. Chauvin was eventually found guilty on all three charges, and he faces up to 40 years in prison. The other three officers involved were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
The death of George Floyd was a death that was a big shock to people all around the world and sparked protests all over the United States, as well as across the entire globe. The news of the death hit the hardest in the town the death occurred in. People in Minneapolis immediately took to the streets the next day to raise their voices and to have the police officers sentenced for their wrong-doings. They were pouring into the streets after the release of the video of the arrest of George Floyd and demonstrated for several nights. The police used rubber bullets and tear gas on the crowds of people that were demonstrating and protesting. There was evidence on social media and television that some buildings were being destroyed and stores were being broken into, stolen from, and vandalized. A precinct of the Minneapolis Police Department had to be abandoned by officers and was burned by protestors. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz described the situation as “‘absolute chaos’” according to The New York Times. The New York Times reports that “in total, a five-mile stretch of Minneapolis sustained extraordinary damage.” The protests and riots that took place in the city of Minneapolis were a reaction of rage to the event of George Floyd’s death.
www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd.html
