Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who pinned down George Floyd, has been taken into custody and charged with homicide and manslaught
Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who pinned down George Floyd, has been taken into custody and charged with homicide and manslaughter, Hennepin County Lawyer Mike Freeman introduced on Friday.
Video of the incident confirmed Chauvin pushing down on Floyd’s neck along with his knee as Floyd yelled, “I can’t breathe!” As onlookers complained of the police’s use of drive, Floyd went silent and his physique went limp — and he died.
The three different officers within the case are nonetheless being investigated, Freeman mentioned. He mentioned that the preliminary prices are meant to give attention to the “most harmful perpetrator.”
All of the officers have been beforehand fired after Floyd’s demise.
Floyd’s demise set off protests and riots in Minneapolis all through the week, with some protesters burning down buildings and looting shops. Gov. Tim Walz (D) activated the Nationwide Guard on Thursday in anticipation of additional unrest.
In response to the occasions, President Donald Trump tweeted that “when the looting begins, the capturing begins” — in a tweet that was later flagged by Twitter for “glorifying violence.”
Whereas Floyd’s killing was the speedy catalyst for the protests and riots, underlying them are deeper resentments about big racial disparities in policing and use of drive.
In keeping with the Guardian’s “The Counted” mission, black individuals have been greater than twice as more likely to be killed by police than their white counterparts — at a price of 6.66 per 1 million for black individuals versus 2.9 per 1 million for white individuals.
It’s additionally very uncommon for police to be held accountable for police killings. The Nationwide Police Misconduct Reporting Undertaking analyzed 3,238 felony instances towards law enforcement officials from April 2009 by December 2010. They discovered that solely 33 % have been convicted, and 36 % of officers who have been convicted ended up serving jail sentences. Each of these are about half the speed at which members of the general public are convicted or incarcerated.
It’s this mix — of extreme use of drive towards black People and the dearth of accountability for law enforcement officials — that has led protesters to take up the mantle of “Black Lives Matter” since police killings in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore in 2014 and 2015 led to related protests and riots as we noticed in Minneapolis this week.
The unresolved query now could be whether or not this time will probably be completely different — and whether or not Chauvin, because the police officer concerned in Floyd’s demise, will probably be held accountable.
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