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George Floyd killing: police officer charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter – live George Floyd killing: police officer charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter – live
(32 minutes later)
Derek Chauvin may also face ‘subsequent charges later’, says county attorney, while three other fired officers have not yet been arrestedDerek Chauvin may also face ‘subsequent charges later’, says county attorney, while three other fired officers have not yet been arrested
A tearful California governor Gavin Newsom reflected in his biweekly press conference on the death of George Floyd and the protests across the county.
Newsom recounted the conversations he’s been having with his children around the events, explaining his daughter first encountered the video of Floyd’s killing on TikTok and has been deeply distraught about the incident since.
Newsom argued that the US needs a fundamental culture change to deal with structural racism and the meaningless loss of life. “I sit here deeply humbled, a bit emotional, and deeply resolved to do more and do better,” Newsom said.
The Trump campaign accused Democrats and the media of twisting the president’s words about the Minneapolis protesters, even though news outlets (including this one) have been directly quoting from the president’s tweets.
“We have witnessed again the media’s relentless twisting of President Trump’s words, and the Democrats seizing on that, to take the entire nation down the worst road imaginable,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. “Twitter also played a role by mislabeling the President’s tweet and fueling the misinformation.”
Trump wrote in a tweet about the demonstrators who are protesting in response to the death of George Floyd, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter hid the tweet from the president’s timeline with the warning that it glorified violence against the protesters.
“The facts show that the President expressed horror over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and ordered the Department of Justice to get involved,” Parscale said. “When riots erupted in that city and elsewhere, he warned on Twitter that looting could quickly turn into violence.”
But Trump’s warning about looting was a direct quote from former Miami police chief Walter Headley, who said his officers “know what to do” when unrest broke out in black neighborhoods during the 1968 Republican National Convention. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” Headley told his officers. So the expression that Trump repeated was less of a warning and more of a directive.
Donald Trump has announced he is pulling the US out of the World Health Organisation, three weeks ahead of an ultimatum he laid down earlier this month.
On May 19, Trump sent a four-page letter to the WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warning he would permanently cut US funding of the WHO and reconsider US membership if the organisation did “not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days.”
He has made the break only ten days later, falsely claiming that “China has total control over” the global health body.
Trump said: “We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engage with them directly, but they have refused to act because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms. We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs.”
The move will confirm the suspicions of many in the WHO and in western capitals that the US was seeking reforms and a dialogue was a smokescreen for a politically-motivated break with the WHO.
Beth Cameron, a biologist and former senior official in the National Security Council said on Twitter: “There aren’t words for how much this decision will hurt the US, our global partners, and our ability to to impact the #COVID19 pandemic that is a threat to our national and global peace and security.”
Civil rights leaders say they warned Minnesota authorities many times about community anger building at unfair policing, inequalities.
At an impassioned, measured and powerful rally earlier, Leslie Redmond, president of NAACP Minneapolis, said civil rights leaders in the city had succeeded many times in stopping anger boiling over into violence.
“I cannot tell you how many governors and how many mayors we have sat down with and warned them that Minneapolis was going to burn. We stoped it from burning so many times,” she said.
But she protested that the “poverty and oppression” that too many black residents are subjected to did not change.
She raged against “disrupters in our midst” who marred what she termed an uprising by turning instead to looting.
And Redmond addressed the US president. “Trump, you have not sent resources to Minnesota [to assist in tackling the coronavirus crisis] but you were quick to send in troops. This is not just a black people’s issue, this is a human right issue.”
Tamika Mallory, co-founder of the Women’s March, said America was “in a state of emergency.”
She accused Donald Trump of promoting white nationalism and even police bias and brutality by declaring himself a nationalist at election rallies and, during the 2016 campaign, encouraging violence against protesters at his rallies.
Democratic lawmakers criticized Trump after he left his press conference without taking any questions about George Floyd’s death or the protests breaking out across the country.Democratic lawmakers criticized Trump after he left his press conference without taking any questions about George Floyd’s death or the protests breaking out across the country.
Congressman Bobby Rush said Trump has “objectively failed as a leader” and congressman Danny Davis referenced the proverb, “Without vision, the people perish.”Congressman Bobby Rush said Trump has “objectively failed as a leader” and congressman Danny Davis referenced the proverb, “Without vision, the people perish.”
Trump made another announcement during his Rose Garden event, expanding upon secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s announcement earlier this week that the US no longer considers Hong Kong to be autonomous of China.Trump made another announcement during his Rose Garden event, expanding upon secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s announcement earlier this week that the US no longer considers Hong Kong to be autonomous of China.
The president said his administration will begin the process of eliminating policy exemptions that give Hong Kong “different and special treatment.”The president said his administration will begin the process of eliminating policy exemptions that give Hong Kong “different and special treatment.”
After making his two announcements, Trump left the event without taking any questions, an unusual choice for a president who has consistently answered reporters’ queries since the start of the coronavirus crisis.After making his two announcements, Trump left the event without taking any questions, an unusual choice for a president who has consistently answered reporters’ queries since the start of the coronavirus crisis.
Trump opened the event by saying, “I am here to talk about China,” indicating he would not be addressing the death of George Floyd or the protests breaking out across the country.Trump opened the event by saying, “I am here to talk about China,” indicating he would not be addressing the death of George Floyd or the protests breaking out across the country.
As the president departed, he ignored questions about the protests and whether he has spoken to Floyd’s family, as Joe Biden has.As the president departed, he ignored questions about the protests and whether he has spoken to Floyd’s family, as Joe Biden has.
Trump has just announced that the US will be “terminating” its relationship with the World Health Organization.Trump has just announced that the US will be “terminating” its relationship with the World Health Organization.
The president blamed China for the spread of coronavirus and accused the WHO of failing to hold China accountable.The president blamed China for the spread of coronavirus and accused the WHO of failing to hold China accountable.
“When was murder ever worth it?”“When was murder ever worth it?”
Retired NBA basketball player Stephen Jackson, who was such a close friend of the late George Floyd that he described the man as his twin, spoke out fiercely at a rally in Minneapolis a little earlier.Retired NBA basketball player Stephen Jackson, who was such a close friend of the late George Floyd that he described the man as his twin, spoke out fiercely at a rally in Minneapolis a little earlier.
He said of the police in a killing like Floyd’s: “The first thing they try to do is cover it up and bring up your background, to make it seem like the bullshit that they did was worth it. When was murder ever worth it?”He said of the police in a killing like Floyd’s: “The first thing they try to do is cover it up and bring up your background, to make it seem like the bullshit that they did was worth it. When was murder ever worth it?”
He added: “You can’t tell me that when that man had his knee on my brother’s neck, taking his life away, with his hand in his pocket and a smirk on his face [that he was saying] ‘I’m protecting you’.”He added: “You can’t tell me that when that man had his knee on my brother’s neck, taking his life away, with his hand in his pocket and a smirk on his face [that he was saying] ‘I’m protecting you’.”
Trump’s original tweet about looting was hidden by Twitter because the platform said the message glorified violence against the Minneapolis protesters.Trump’s original tweet about looting was hidden by Twitter because the platform said the message glorified violence against the Minneapolis protesters.
The president said of the original tweet, “Nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media.”The president said of the original tweet, “Nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media.”
But the president’s warning was met with widespread shock and horror, and Trump did not offer any kind of apology for the tweet.But the president’s warning was met with widespread shock and horror, and Trump did not offer any kind of apology for the tweet.
The president will soon hold a press conference on China at the White House, where he will almost certainly be bombarded with questions from reporters about the tweet.The president will soon hold a press conference on China at the White House, where he will almost certainly be bombarded with questions from reporters about the tweet.
Trump has sent another tweet about his menacing warning to Minneapolis protesters last night that, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”Trump has sent another tweet about his menacing warning to Minneapolis protesters last night that, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
“Looting leads to shooting, and that’s why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night - or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot. I don’t want this to happen, and that’s what the expression put out last night means,” Trump said.“Looting leads to shooting, and that’s why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night - or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot. I don’t want this to happen, and that’s what the expression put out last night means,” Trump said.
The president added, “It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement.”The president added, “It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement.”
However, former Miami police chief Walter Headley absolutely meant the expression as a statement when he first used it in 1967, as unrest broke out in black neighborhoods.However, former Miami police chief Walter Headley absolutely meant the expression as a statement when he first used it in 1967, as unrest broke out in black neighborhoods.
When violence started up again in 1968, Headley said his officers “know what to do” and repeated, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The expression was a clear directive to police officers on how to respond to unrest.When violence started up again in 1968, Headley said his officers “know what to do” and repeated, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The expression was a clear directive to police officers on how to respond to unrest.
The Hennepin county attorney said Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
“There may be subsequent charges later,” Mike Freeman told reporters at a press conference. He said a detailed complaint would be made available this afternoon.
When asked why the other three fired police officers had not yet been arrested, Freeman said, “We felt it appropriate to focus on the most dangerous perpetrator.” He later said he anticipated charges to be filed against them, but he did not get into details.
Freeman noted Chauvin was arrested less than four days after George Floyd’s death. “That’s extraordinary,” said Freeman, who has been criticized for not arresting Chauvin more quickly. “We have never charged a case in that kind of time frame.”
Freeman emphasized he and his team would not have moved ahead with the case if they were not confident they had evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer was guilty. “As of right now, we have that,” Freeman said.
Joe Biden called for justice in the death of George Floyd and warned that silence in the wake of his death amounted to complicity.
“The original sin of this country still stains our nation today and sometimes we managed to overlook it,” Biden said, speaking from a lectern at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. “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.”
During his nearly six-minute remarks, which were hastily arranged on Friday, Biden announced that he had spoken to Floyd’s family and vowed to do “everything in our power to see to it that justice is had.”
Biden never mentioned Trump by name, but he assailed the president’s response on Twitter, which called the protestors “thugs” and warned that additional violence could ensue: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
“This is no time for incendiary tweets. It’s no time to encourage violence,” he said. “This is a national crisis. We need real leadership right now.”
Quoting Martin Luther King, who warned of the “appalling silence” of good people, Biden urged the nation to imagine the pain and fear felt by many black Americans on a daily basis.
“With our complacency, our silence, we are complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence. Nothing about this will be easy or comfortable. But if we simply allow this wound to scab over once more without treating the underlying injury, we’re never truly heal.
“We need justice for George Floyd,” Biden said. “We need real police reform that holds cops to a higher standard that so many of them actually meet, that holds bad cops accountable.”
Senator Kamala Harris said the other three police officers who were fired over George Floyd’s death must also be brought to justice.
The California senator said of the arrest of Derek Chauvin, “A start, but every single officer involved must be held accountable for George Floyd’s murder.”
Harris has been named as a potential running mate to Joe Biden, but some progressives have expressed concern about her criminal justice record, citing her tenure as California’s attorney general.
Senator Amy Klobuchar confirmed Derek Chauvin has been arrested in connection to the death of George Floyd and is in the custody of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
The Minnesota senator called Chauvin’s arrest “the first step towards justice.” Klobuchar has been criticized for not prosecuting police officers involved in fatal encounters while she was serving as Hennepin county attorney.
Kenya Evelyn reported yesterday:
In an interview with MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell this afternoon, Klobuchar said it was “absolutely false” she declined to prosecute Chauvin.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been identified as the man who put his knee on George Floyd’s neck, has been arrested in connection to Floyd’s death.
John Mark Harrington, the Minnesota department of public safety commissioner, announced the news shortly after a press conference about the Minneapolis protests ended.
Harrington did not offer any information about the specific charges filed against Chauvin, and it’s unclear whether the three other officers who were also fired after Floyd’s death will be arrested.
Despite his strong words condemning structural racism, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell dodged a question about Trump’s tweet threatening violence against the Minneapolis protesters.
“I generally don’t comment on the President’s tweets,” McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I can speak for myself.”
In contrast, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer condemned Trump’s tweet, which read in part, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
“President Trump is pouring gasoline on the flames by quoting a racist police chief,” Schumer wrote in a tweet.
Trump’s tweet appeared to be referencing a quote from former Miami police chief Walter Headley during unrest among black residents in 1967. Headley repeated the quote when violence broke out in a black neighborhood as Miami hosted the Republican National Convention.
In response to criticism of his policies, Headley said, “Don’t these people know that most of the crimes in the Negro districts are against Negroes? Don’t they know we’re trying to protect Negroes as well as whites?”
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell released a statement condemning violence amid the protests and demanding structural change to avoid more deaths like George Floyd’s.
“The killings of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, George Floyd in Minneapolis, and Breonna Taylor in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky have shaken our nation,” McConnell said.
“For millions and millions of outraged Americans, these tragedies do not appear as isolated incidents, but as the latest disturbing chapters in our long, unfinished American struggle to ensure that equal justice under law is not conditional on the color of one’s skin.”
But the Kentucky Republican stressed that the protests in response to the deaths of Arbery, Floyd and Taylor should remain peaceful. McConnell expressed dismay about seven people being shot in Louisville last night during a protest over Taylor’s death.
“Our city, our state, and our country have to pull together,” McConnell said. “Violence does not make our streets safer. Injustice does not promote justice. Destruction does not build a better society. We will only be able to chart the future we want if we do it together.”
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Twitter said Trump’s tweet threatening Minneapolis protesters glorified violence. The platform has hidden the president’s tweet about the protests in reaction to the death of George Floyd, which read in part, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Barack Obama said Americans needed to create a “new normal” to address structural racism. “This shouldn’t be ‘normal’ in 2020 America,” the former president said of Floyd’s death. “It can’t be ‘normal.’”
Minnesota governor Tim Walz pledged “swift” justice for Floyd. Walz said the four police officers who were fired over Floyd’s death must be held accountable, but he argued the state needed to “restore order” before addressing the issues that led to Floyd’s death.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Leading civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Lee Merritt have called on the US Congress and the United Nations to become involved in addressing the killings of black Americans in recent weeks that have further inflamed deep-seated anger and grief in the country over entrenched racism and systemic inequality.
The two lawyers held a virtual press conference this morning with representatives of three families who recently lost their loved ones - George Floyd in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. The first two victims were killed by police while Arbery was gunned down by two white men as he went jogging in their neighborhood.
“We need a national response. Civil rights attorneys around the country say we can no longer do this on a case by case basis,” Merritt said. “We know there are, on average, 1,000 police officer involved shootings a year. We live in the most incarcerated nation on planet Earth,” he said, adding there was a weariness of getting mere “trickles of justice”.
Merritt said he would be requesting that the United Nations Human Rights Committee hear the cases of the three killings. The lawyers plan to present a case to the UN calling for sweeping changes to America’s criminal justice system - which Crump earlier in the week equated to two, far from equal, systems “one for black America and one for white America”.
The two lawyers called for a congressional hearing and the creation of a national task force to craft bipartisan legislation aimed at “ending racial violence and increasing police accountability” in the US.
Crump said it was “so necessary that we have this action today to finally address this national pandemic. We have coronavirus, but communities of color have been dealing with another pandemic for far too long.”
He said Breonna Taylor, an EMT, was killed for “sleeping while black in the sanctity of her own apartment”, after police shot wildly during a plain-clothes raid on her address in March; Ahmaud Arbery was cut down for “jogging while black” and George Floyd died “just trying to breathe while black”.
Floyd was pinned to the street with a white police officer’s knee on his neck for almost nine minutes on Monday, with him losing consciousness about halfway through, according to witnesses.
Merritt concluded: “Every other modern nation in the world has figured out a way of policing its citizens without killing so many of them and without incarcerating so many of them.”
The White House has just announced Trump will hold a press conference in the Rose Garden at 2 pm ET.
The president said yesterday that he would hold a press conference on China, as Trump has tried to blame the country for the spread of coronavirus.
Trump has also involved China in his ongoing spat with Twitter, accusing the platform of targeting him for fact-checking while ignoring false claims from Chinese officials. (Twitter has since added fact-check labels to some tweets from Chinese officials.)
Even though the press conference is meant to focus on China, the president will almost certainly be bombarded with questions from reporters about his tweet threatening violence against the Minneapolis protesters.