brushfire"This, yes, this, it was always like this." -Stanley Koehler
REFLECTIONS OF AN EMPTY NESTER
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Nine minutes and 29 seconds. That’s the length of time George Floyd lay handcuffed and pinned facedown on the ground while former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin ground his knee into his neck and two other officers sat on his back. Meanwhile passersby, including a nine-year-old girl, gathered on the sidewalk, pleading with the officers to show mercy. Chauvin is facing three charges of murder — second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter — in the May 25 2020 death of George Floyd. The trial began Monday, March 29, with witness testimony and security, body cam and phone video footage piecing together the events leading to Floyd’s death, from when he wandered around Cup Foods, a neighborhood store on the corner of 28th Street and Chicago Avenue, to when he lay motionless on the pavement under Chauvin’s knee. There’s the moment Floyd is sitting in his SUV, his hands on the steering wheel, while one of the officers draws his weapon and another shouts obscenities at him. “Please, Mr. Officer, don’t shoot me,” Floyd begs. There’s the struggle as the officers try to put him in the back seat of the squad car. He resists, saying, “I’m not that kind of guy!” He says he can’t breathe, that he’s in pain, that he’s claustrophobic. The officers manage to handcuff him and force him into the back seat. After a few moments, the car appears to rock. The officers drag Floyd out of the car on the street side and force him to the pavement. Witnesses for the prosecution unravel the sequence of events leading to the final moments of George Floyd’s life. A worker at the Speedway across the street filmed early interaction between Floyd and the police. “I always see the police and they’re messing with people,” she said. “And it’s wrong and it’s not right.” A 911 dispatcher, who caught sight of the security footage on a wall-mounted display, said the officers and Floyd were motionless for so long, she thought the video had frozen. Her “gut instinct” prompted her to report the incident to the officers’ supervisor, a police lieutenant. “You can call me a snitch if you want to,” she said. Donald Williams, a professional mixed martial arts fighter out for air that evening, also “called the police on the police” after witnessing what he believed was a murder. In his testimony, he said he and Chauvin locked eyes when he accused the officer of conducting a "blood choke," a martial arts move that cuts off the flow of blood to the brain. While Williams acknowledged he called the officers names, he refused to succumb to the defense painting him as an angry Black man, insisting he remained professional and "stayed in my body." Off-duty firefighter Genevieve Hanson arrived at the scene and immediately determined the man held by the police was in medical distress. She heard him pleading for his life, calling out for “mama,” and saying "I can't breathe" 27 times. She saw his eyes roll back in his head and fluid leak from his body. She identified herself as a firefighter and EMT to the officer keeping the crowd at bay. She begged him to let her administer medical aid. He told her if what she was saying was true, she would know better than to intervene. She told the prosecution she felt “desperate to help.” A 17-year-old who took the video footage that went viral, sending so many Americans to the streets last summer in protest, said she stays up nights apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more to help him. She also said she saw several officers, including Chauvin, reach for their mace, causing her to be afraid. A 61-year-old eyewitness broke down on the stand, telling the court he “felt helpless.” The 19-year-old cashier at Cup Foods, where Floyd was accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill — resulting in a call to the police — described Floyd as friendly and talkative, but suspected he was high. He also expressed guilt and remorse for his role in the tragedy. “If I would've just not taken the bill, this could’ve been avoided,” he said. Paramedic Seth Bravinder said he and his partner, when they arrived at the scene, did everything in their power to give Floyd "a second chance at life." Bravinder gestured to Chauvin to get off Floyd’s neck and then verbally directed him to do so when Chauvin didn’t comply. It didn’t take long for the paramedics to assess what the three officers must have known already. George Floyd was not moving. He was not breathing. He had no pulse. He was unconscious and unresponsive. The paramedics moved Mr. Floyd's limp body to a stretcher, Bravinder cradling his head to prevent it from smashing on the pavement. They drove away from the scene, but pulled over to open Floyd’s airway and administer chest compressions — the very same lifesaving measures Hanson begged the officers to allow her to perform in those critical moments after Floyd stopped breathing. When asked if he had an opinion on when the restraint on Floyd should have ended, Chauvin’s supervising officer replied, “When Mr. Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers, they could have ended their restraint.” And that was after he was handcuffed and on the ground and no longer resisting?” the prosecutor clarified. “Correct,” the officer said. The first week of testimony ended with Lt. Richard Zimmerman, the highest ranking officer with the Minneapolis police department, testifying that the use of force during that time period was “totally unnecessary.” “First of all, pulling him down to the ground face down and putting your knee on a neck for that amount of time is just uncalled for,” Lt. Zimmerman said. “I saw no reason why the officers felt they were in danger if that’s what they felt, and that’s what they would have had to feel to use that kind of force.” "So in your opinion, should that restraint have stopped once he was handcuffed and prone on the ground?” the prosecutor asked. “Absolutely,” Lt. Zimmerman said.
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Mary Anne BrushJournalist, fiction writer, wife and mother |