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First
published on Politicalcartoons.com, Canada, May 27, 2020 | By Dave Whamond
|
Police officer filmed kneeling on George Floyd's
neck charged with murder
Derek Chauvin charged with third-degree murder and
manslaughter as county prosecutor suggests additional charges may be brought
Kenya
Evelyn in Washington
@LiveFromKenya
Fri 29 May
2020 20.29 BSTFirst published on Fri 29 May 2020 19.29 BST
Derek
Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer captured on video kneeling on the neck
of 46-year-old George Floyd as he begged for his life, was charged on Friday
afternoon with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
The state’s
bureau of criminal apprehension took Chauvin, a 19-year veteran, into custody.
“We are in
the process of continuing to review the evidence. There may be additional
charges later,” the Hennepin county attorney, Mike Freeman, said.
Based on
law enforcement review of body-cam video, state charging documents allege that
the now former Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for a
total of nearly nine minutes, including two minutes and 43 seconds after Floyd
became non-responsive.
Floyd’s
family released a statement calling the arrest a “welcome but overdue step on
the road to justice” and added that members “expected a first-degree murder
charge”, which they still demand.
“The pain
that the black community feels over this murder and what it reflects about the
treatment of black people in America is raw and spilling out on to streets
across [the country],” the statement read.
Under
Minnesota law, a first-degree murder charge would require prosecutors prove
Chauvin’s actions were willful and premeditated. Freeman confirmed authorities
are still investigating.
The charges
came as Andrea Jenkins, the city council vice-president, confirmed Floyd and
Chauvin knew each other as “co-workers for a very long time”. The men worked
together for more than 17 years as bouncers at a local club, El Nuevo Rodeo.
Maya
Santamaria, the owner of El Nuevo Rodeo, told CNN Friday that on “urban
nights”, Chauvin was known to treat black patrons more “skittish” and “anxious”
than the club’s usual Latino patrons, eagerly reaching for “pepper spray with
any little thing that might happen”.
“They
certainly acted like a group mentality,” she said. “They always had to call
backup. It was different than what we saw on our Latin nights.”
In
Washington, the US attorney general, William Barr, called the video footage
“harrowing to watch and deeply disturbing”. He also confirmed a separate US
justice department investigation “to determine whether any federal civil rights
laws were violated”.
Thursday
protests spill over
Smoke hung
over the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis on Friday after demonstrators
burned down the city’s third police precinct, the headquarters of the officers
involved in Floyd’s death.
As flames
engulfed the building, chants of Floyd’s name and “No justice, no peace” rang
out. Some protesters celebrated with fireworks, while police officers watched
from two blocks away but did not intervene.
Floyd died
in police custody on Monday after the white officer handcuffed him before
kneeling on his neck , despite Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe.
Four
officers, including Chauvin, were fired the next day.
Cellphone
video footage of Floyd suffocating under the officer’s knee has gone viral,
prompting three nights of protests in Minneapolis and reigniting longstanding
anger over systemic racism in America, especially in the criminal justice
system.
While the
majority of protesters were peaceful, some demonstrators looted businesses. Seven
people were shot and injured in demonstrations in Louisville, Kentucky, 40 were
arrested in New York city protests occurred in several other states.
“I’m really
angry about George Floyd because we went through all of this with Michael Brown
[who was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014] and it seems nothing
changes,” said Marie Johnson, who described herself as black and Native
American, as she watched looting in Minneapolis.
“But I’m
not at peace with this either. I get that people are angry but it feels like a
lot of people here are just grabbing the opportunity for free shopping.”
In
Louisville, protesters demanded justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman
fatally shot by police in her home in March.
The
families of Taylor, Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, a black jogger who was recently
killed by two white male vigilantes – including a retired police officer – in
Georgia, released a statement late on Thursday calling their killings part of
“a national crisis”.
“Our
government needs to take immediate and widespread action to protect our black
and brown communities,” the statement read.
The
families appeared in a joint press conference on Friday to call for more police
accountability and an intervention by Congress and the United Nations.
Trump
denounced protesters as “thugs” on Thursday night and appeared to threaten
lethal force, tweeting that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”.
Trump
rarely comments on incidents of police brutality against black people.
Twitter hid
Trump’s post, saying it violated their policies “regarding the glorification of
violence”.
On Friday
morning the police and national guard sealed off the streets around the third
precinct, allowing in only clean up crews to deal with the debris of the
previous night’s destruction. The ground was layered with shattered glass.
Some
passers by taunted the police officers with promises to be back later.
Then came
news that the police officer who was filmed kneeling on George Floyd’s neck was
charged with murder.
“Y’all
should be charged with murder,” shouted a young man on a bike at the police
line. “Y’all got blood on your hands. Not just George’s blood. Centuries of
blood.”
Then he
cycled off.
Others were
more sanguine.
“Maybe
it’ll help quiet things down,” said Ashley Sanders, who said she took part in
only the peaceful side of the protests the previous evening.
“I hate to
say this but if these buildings weren’t burning, would they have taken it as
seriously? ”
Others were
less forgiving. Ayanle Hashi was cleaning up the looted shops in the bottom of
his apartment block. He had stood guard all night for fear his home would be
razed.
“How does
this help George Floyd get justice?” he said. “You think the police care if these
people destroy this place where we live?”
Sandra
Hilbrands, wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt, joined a volunteer clean-up crew
picking up glass.
“Our city
needs help right now more than anything,” said the primary school teacher. “I’m
very privileged. I don’t know what it is like to be afraid of the cops. I think
people are reacting.” Initially reluctant, she did watch the video. “I have to
watch this. I have a responsibility,” she said.
The
presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Joe Biden, said: “The original
sin of this country still stains our nation today and sometimes we managed to
overlook it. But it’s always there. And in weeks like this, we see it plainly
that we are a country with an open wound.
“None of us
can be silent,” he continued. “None of us can … hear the words ‘I can’t
breathe’ and do nothing.”
Trump also
faced intense backlash to the tweet that spread outside political circles. Pop
star Taylor Swift joined the uproar on Friday, vowing to “vote [Trump] out in
November” “after stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism [his] entire
presidency”.
Barack
Obama later called for Americans to come together to heal the country’s “legacy
of bigotry”.
“This
shouldn’t be ‘normal’ in 2020 America,” Obama said, referring to the discrimination
many Americans experience in their day to day lives, and called on Americans to
come together to create a “new normal” to root out institutional racism.
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