Police officer filmed kneeling on George Floyd's neck charged with murder

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/29/derek-chauvin-police-officer-charged-george-floyd

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Derek Chauvin charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter as county prosecutor suggests additional charges may be brought

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, said Floyd and Chauvin knew each other as “co-workers for a very long time” as bouncers at a local club, El Nuevo Rodeo.

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, the night before.

As flames engulfed the building, chants of Floyd’s name and “No justice, no peace” had rang out. Some protesters celebrated with fireworks, while police officers watched from two blocks away but did not intervene.

Protests continued on Friday, in Minneapolis and in cities across the country, as protesters demanded justice for Floyd and decried the treatment of black Americans by the police.

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.

On Friday night, protesters once again filled the streets in cities across New York, Arizona, California, Texas and Georgia, as well as in Washington DC.

Gatherings were largely peaceful as people marched, but in Atlanta, demonstrators set a police car ablaze and broke windows at CNN’s headquarters. In New York, police responded aggressively to protesters who had gathered in Brooklyn. In California, authorities in Oakland and Los Angeles declared assemblies unlawful as demonstrations continued into the night. Meanwhile, in Washington, the White House temporarily went under lockdown orders as protesters gathered outside.

“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 passersby 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.