“Murder,” “brutality,” “reprehensible” and “indefensible” — police across the US have condemned the actions of Minneapolis officers in the custody death of George Floyd, who cried for help as an officer knelt on his neck, pinning him to the pavement for at least eight minutes.
Authorities say that Floyd was detained on Monday because he matched the description of someone who tried to pay with a counterfeit bill at a convenience store and the 46-year-old resisted arrest.
A bystander’s video shows officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck even as Floyd begs for air, and stops talking and moving.
Photo: AFP
“There is no need to see more video,” Chattanooga, Tennessee, Police Chief David Roddy tweeted on Wednesday. “There no need to wait to see how ‘it plays out.’ There is no need to put a knee on someone’s neck for NINE minutes. There IS a need to DO something. If you wear a badge and you don’t have an issue with this ... turn it in.”
Sheriffs and police chiefs have criticized the Minneapolis officer on social media and praised the city’s police chief for his quick dismissal of four officers at the scene. Some even called for them to be criminally charged.
“I am deeply disturbed by the video of Mr Floyd being murdered in the street with other officers there letting it go on,” Polk County, Georgia, Sheriff Johnny Moats wrote on Facebook. “I can assure everyone, me or any of my deputies will never treat anyone like that as long as I’m sheriff. This kind of brutality is terrible and it needs to stop. All officers involved need to be arrested and charged immediately. Praying for the family.”
Typically, police call for patience and calm in the wake of a use of force. They are reluctant to weigh in on episodes involving another agency, often citing ongoing investigations or due process.
“Not going hide behind ‘not being there,’” tweeted San Jose, California, Police Chief Eddie Garcia. “I’d be one of the first to condemn anyone had I seen similar happen to one of my brother/sister officers. What I saw happen to George Floyd disturbed me and is not consistent with the goal of our mission. The act of one, impacts us all.”
However, Gloria Browne-Marshall, a civil rights attorney and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said she would not be a “cheerleader” for a “handful” of chiefs who decried the Minneapolis officers’ behavior.
“Any minute progress is seen as miraculous because so little has been done for so long,” Browne-Marshall said. “It’s nothing close to progress or what outrage would be taking place if it was a white man as the victim of this assault.”
Melina Abdullah, cofounder of Black Lives Matter in Los Angeles, said she was not “particularly moved” by the relatively few police who voiced outrage.
Abdullah said the three other officers who witnessed Chauvin’s actions and did not intervene contributed to a long-standing system of police racism and oppression against people of color.
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