George Floyd Death (Police Brutality?)

[Indraman]

TITLE: AntiFa Leftists Torch Police Union In Night 52 Of Riots, Media Blames Trump And Police

 

SOURCE: TimCast

 

 

"The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!"

 

Indy

[Indraman]

Missouri Governor Says Pardon Likely If St. Louis Homeowners Are Charged

The Missouri couple who was seen brandishing firearms as Black Lives Matter protesters marched on a private street and allegedly broke down a gate will likely be pardoned, said Gov. Mike Parson in an interview.

 

Parson, a Republican, told a St. Louis radio station that he believes Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who are both lawyers, will be pardoned if they are charged in the June 28 incident.

 

“I don’t think they’re going to spend any time in jail,” Parson said, adding that a pardon is “exactly what would happen” should they be convicted.

 

The McCloskeys displayed a pistol and an AR-15-style rifle as protesters walked on their street. The demonstrators were heading to the home of St. Louis Mayor Ldya Krewson after she read aloud the names and addresses of activists who sought to defund the city’s police department in a Facebook Live conference.

 

After the incident, which was captured on video, prosecutor Kim Gardner launched an investigation and alleged the couple infringed on the demonstrators’ rights. Later, police in St. Louis seized a rifle from the couple’s home after getting a search warrant.

 

But Parson told 97.1 FM the McCloskeys “did what they legally should do,” reported The Hill. “A mob does not have the right to charge your property,” he said, according to the paper. “They had every right to protect themselves.”

 

Parson later commented on Twitter that his office will “not allow law-abiding citizens to be targeted for exercising their constitutional rights.”

Gardner, a Democrat, has faced criticism from Parson, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and President Donald Trump, while Parson cited Missouri’s “castle doctrine” law that justifies lethal force for people protecting their homes.

 

“This means that if someone illegally enters your front porch or backyard, you can use deadly force against them without retreating first,” according to the FindLaw website.

 

The McCloskeys have defended their actions in interviews, saying that they felt threatened by the protesters, who had allegedly made threats to them.

 

“I didn’t shoot anybody,” Mark McCloskey said in an interview last week. “I just held my ground, protecting my house, and I’m sitting here on television tonight instead of dead or putting out the smoldering embers of my home.”

 

The longtime lawyer said that the legacy “media is right behind the mob,” describing them as “a loud crowd of angry people and they are supporting these entities which are, from my understanding, Marxist and oppose everything that I stand for and I hold dear and near.”

 

https://link.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/missouri-governor-says-pardon-likely-if-st-louis-homeowners-are-charged_3429814.html

 

Indy

[Indraman]

TITLE: Ninja Defense Skills Are Now Mandatory | AntiFa Attacks The Wrong Car

 

SOURCE: Matt Christiansen

 

 

Indy

[Indraman]

Charges Filed Against Missouri Couple Who Brandished Guns at Protest

 

The St. Louis couple seen in a viral video brandishing firearms as Black Lives Matter protesters marched near their home were charged, coming shortly after Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said they would likely be pardoned.

 

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were charged by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner with unlawful use of a weapon, a felony, she announced. They also face a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault.

 

“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest,” Gardner, a Democrat, said in a statement on Monday. “This type of conduct is unacceptable in St. Louis,” she added.

 

Gardner told The Associated Press that she is recommending a diversion program such as community service rather than jail time if the couple is convicted. In the statement, Gardner said the charges came after a police investigation.

 

The McCloskeys’ lawyer, Joel Schwartz, called the charges “disheartening as I unequivocally believe no crime was committed.”

 

Schwartz added that “the First Amendment right of every citizen to have their voice and opinion heard… must be balanced with the Second Amendment and Missouri law, which entitle each of us to protect our home and family from potential threats,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He previously said that “based upon Missouri law and the Castle Doctrine, the McCloskeys were 100 percent within their rights.”

 

The couple, who are both lawyers, said they feared for their lives when protesters were seen on their street. They were going to the house of Democrat St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson to protest perceived injustices.

 

Mark McCloskey and lawyers for the couple have alleged that the protesters broke down the gate and entered a private residential street. Protesters have denied his claims, saying they came through an unlocked gate, according to the Dispatch.

 

“I believe in my heart of hearts that the only thing that kept those mobsters, that crowd, away from us is that we were standing there with guns,” Mark McCloskey told the paper.

 

In the video footage captured last month, the couple were seen telling protesters to leave.

 

Last week, Parson, a Republican, said that he will likely pardon the couple if they are convicted.

 

“I think that’s exactly what would happen,” Parson said when asked about a possible pardon in a radio interview. He added: “I don’t think they’re going to spend any time in jail.”

 

############################

 

"The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!"

 

Indy

[Indraman]

Rioters Set Fires, Try to Break Into Federal Courthouse in Portland

 

Rioters tried breaking into a U.S. courthouse in Portland overnight as they and federal forces clashed again.

 

Video footage from Oregon’s largest city showed a large gathering of hundreds on the steps of the courthouse, as demonstrators goaded federal officers to emerge from the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse.

 

The group used cars, motorcycles, and bicycles to block the streets around them, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

 

At one point, rioters started to assault the building. They began breaking plywood covering one side using tools like hammers and crowbars. Many of the rioters were armed with bats and shields and wore helmets and gas masks.

 

At about 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday, the mob broke through the plywood and started pounding windows with metal objects, breaking at least one window.

 

Around the same time, federal forces utilized tear gas and other crowd-control munitions to push the rioters away. As they did so, many people hurled rocks, bottles, and other projectiles at them, according to police officials.

 

Video showed dozens of people with shields in a tight formation facing off with officers.

 

People reassembled at the courthouse less than two hours later and lit a fire near a door on the side of the courthouse before pouring accelerant on it. Federal officers again dispersed the crowd.

 

Other fires were set, including a fire on the awning and side of a building at SW 4th Avenue and SW Yamhill Street, which required Portland Fire & Rescue to respond. Another fire was started in the middle of a sidewalk next to the county courthouse.

 

Before firefighters arrived, people “continually added flammable material to it causing it to grow and burn against the building,” the Portland Police Bureau said. Police officers responded to provide security for firefighters.

 

During the mayhem downtown, some of the rioters broke into a jewelry store and stole valuables from inside.

 

For the most part, police officers refrained from engaging with the demonstrators. At Mayor Ted Wheeler’s insistence, they have cut lines of communication with federal forces.

 

Videos showed a federal officer trying to arrest one man. A group rushed in and broke the man free.

 

The PNW Youth Liberation Front, a group linked to the far-left Antifa, said on social media that “fed just got physically beat back by protestors to de-arrest someone in Portland.” The group added: “Don’t let them kidnap your friends.”

 

And footage showed demonstrators hurling some of the munitions back at the officers, an action that ended earlier this month with a demonstrator being hit in the head with a round. That incident is under investigation.

 

The violent demonstrations caused $23 million in damage and lost business, a police official told reporters on July 8.

 

“We’re always hopeful that we’re winding down, but we’re six weeks into this,” Portland Deputy Police Chief Chris Davis said.

 

“We’ve never seen this intensity of violent, focused criminal activity over this long of a period of time, at least in the time I have been here.”

 

Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber

 

#######################

 

"The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!"

 

Indy

[Indraman]

Missouri AG calls felony charges against armed homeowners 'a political prosecution'

 

He claims the McCloskeys were targeted for exercising their fundamental rights

 

By David Aaro | Fox News

 

St. Louis' top prosecutor faced intense criticism on Monday – including from the state's governor and attorney general – after bringing felony charges against the homeowners seen in cellphone video brandishing guns when protesters appeared outside their home in a gated community back in June.

 

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt told "Fox News @ Night" Monday that he is seeking to have the charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey dismissed, calling it "a political prosecution."

 

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the city’s top prosecutor, said the McCloskeys – both personal injury attorneys in their 60s – will be charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon following the June 28 incident.

 

"It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner -- that is unlawful in the city of St. Louis," Gardner said in a statement.

 

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, said last week he would consider pardoning the couple should they be criminally charged.

 

"Kim Gardner’s action toward the McCloskeys is outrageous," he wrote on Twitter Monday. "Even worse, the Circuit Attorney’s office has admitted there is a backlog of cases and dozens of homicides that haven’t been prosecuted, yet she has accelerated this case forward."

 

Schmitt argued that the right to self-defense is "deeply rooted" in the Constitution and said the state has an expansive "castle doctrine," which "gives broad authority to individuals to protect their lives, the lives of their family members, their homes, and their property."

 

"At a time when there's calls to defund the police, at a time with skyrocketing violent crime rates – including here in Missouri and in St. Louis – we've got a prosecutor now targeting individuals for exercising their fundamental rights under the Second Amendment," Schmitt said.

 

The McCloskeys have said they were defending themselves, with tensions high in St. Louis amid nationwide police protests sparked by the police-involved death of George Floyd. They said that the crowd of demonstrators broke an iron gate marked with "No Trespassing" and "Private Street" signs and that some violently threatened them.

 

The husband and wife have insisted they were protecting their home. St. Louis police seized the rifle from the home pursuant to a search warrant. No shots were fired but the incident quickly went viral and fueled the debate over rights property owners have when confronted with perceived threats.

 

Schmitt on Monday noted how the incident was on a private street and said you have a right to "defend your castle" under Missouri law.

 

"This is a politically motivated prosecution by a prosecutor who's not interested in prosecuting violent crimes," he added.

 

Schmitt added that he is seeking to have the case dismissed "not just for the McCloskeys, but for every Missourian whose rights are threatened by a rogue prosecutor who seeks to punish people for exercising their fundamental right to self-defense."

 

Fox News' Bradford Betz and Louis Casiano contributed to this report

 

#################

 

" The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!"

 

Indy

Edited July 21, 2020 by Indraman

[Shelley]

This prosecutor should be disbarred !!!!

in a press conference she said it would be unethical to place charges on the protesters that were destroying and looting ..,, unethical ... 

she’s protecting the criminals from law abiding citizens .,, really crazy times 

[Indraman]

TITLE: Massive Backlash Against Sorros-Linked Prosecution Of St Louis Couple Defending Themselves

 

SOURCE : 

 

Indy

[Shelley]

15 minutes ago, Indraman said:

TITLE: Massive Backlash Against Sorros-Linked Prosecution Of St Louis Couple Defending Themselves

 

SOURCE : 

 

Indy

Thank you Indy,  I hope Kim Gardner gets what she has coming to her , I truly hope she gets disbarred !!! 

[Indraman]

Denver Police Given Stand-Down Order Before Pro-Police Rally Attacked: Union Head

 

Denver police officers were told to retreat before a pro-police rally was attacked on Sunday, the head of the city’s police union said.

 

“I found out that a retreat order was given by the incident commander,” officer Nick Rogers, president of the Denver Police Protective Association, said.

 

“And we had one lieutenant step up and said, ‘We’re not leaving.’ And this lieutenant said, ‘These people are going to get killed if we don’t stay.’ So he kept his group there. And that’s the only reason that this didn’t get worse, because somebody broke rank and decided to not retreat. And they stayed so that they could provide some assistance.”

 

Rogers was speaking on KNUS radio.

 

The Denver Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

 

Michelle Malkin, a conservative activist, and Colorado House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, a Republican, were among those scheduled to speak at the rally, which was held on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Civic Center Park in Denver.

 

Video footage showed a group of Black Lives Matter demonstrators and people dressed in gear similar to that worn by the far-left Antifa group approaching the stage shortly after the rally started. Some were wielding weapons like a collapsible baton and a metal rod.

 

They then began assaulting people at the rally, according to video footage from the scene and accounts from those involved.

 

“Nothing was done as women who were wearing Trump gear and holding their flags were throttled and strangled by other brutish women, women all dressed in black and paramilitary gear,” Malkin said.

 

Rogers, who was not at the event, said he came forward because after he learned what happened, he was embarrassed and sad.

 

“Michelle, anybody that’s listening who was there, that’s not the rank and file, that’s not the cops. That decision was made by someone else, it’s wrong, and I’m sorry,” he said.

 

Neville said on Fox News’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that the pro-police group was “essentially surrounded by Antifa” and outnumbered four-to-one.

 

“We were completely surrounded and then, before I know it … one of my friends was beaten down by four or five Antifa members.”

 

“And then eventually we had to evacuate,” he added. “All this occurred right on the stage of the facility where we were supposed to be having our rally. It wasn’t like it was a minor scuffle on the outskirts of the rally. It was right there on the stage,” Neville said.

 

It wasn’t clear whether Denver Mayor Michael Hancock or Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, both Democrats, were involved in the stand-down order, according to Neville.

 

The offices of Hancock and Polis didn’t respond to requests for comment. Neither have addressed what happened on Sunday. Hancock this week joined other mayors in urging President Donald Trump not to send federal forces to their cities.

 

Attorney Randy Corporon, who helped organize the rally, said Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen requested beforehand that the event be rescheduled or moved to a different location, citing a planned Black Lives Matter counter-protest.

 

“He was agitated that we’re going to get his officers hurt,” Corporon told the Denver Post. “My response to him was that he should allow his officers to do their job and if people are down there breaking the law, to stop them. Because they’ll have nothing to fear from us.”

 

Corporon said Pazen should resign after the violence happened while his officers stood by.

 

Lillian House, part of Denver’s Party for Socialism and Liberation, which helped organize the counter-demonstration, told the Post that most of the demonstrators on her side were not violent.

 

“The majority of the crowd was simply making noise and making verbal resistance to their pro-police celebration,” she said. “To act like the physical confrontations that happened were initiated primarily by us is just absurd.”

 

Malkin said that people should be politically and civically engaged, but added, “If you’re going to do it, you can’t rely on the police.”

 

#########################

 

"The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!"

 

Indy

[nstoolman1]

Until these anti American protesters are treated like the thugs(No offense Thugs) and terrorists that they are, things will stay the same or get worse. 

[Indraman]

TITLE: Trump's new secret DHS operation exposed, Democrats have fallen right into his trap

 

SOURCE: TimCast

 

 

"The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!

 

Indy

[Indraman]

TITLE: Gutfeld On Portland's 50 Days Of Violence

 

SOURCE: Fox News

 

 

"The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!"

 

Indy

[Indraman]

TITLE: Progressive Paradise

 

SOURCE: John Stossel

 

 

"The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!"

 

Indy

 

[Indraman]

TITLE: Armed BLM Supporter Shot And Killed In Austin After Rushing Car, CO Leftist Shoots Another Protestor

 

SOURCE: TimCast

 

 

"The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!"

 

Indy

[Indraman]

TITLE: Trump Is Winning The Propaganda War Over BLM Rioting And Some BLM Leaders Agree Slamming AntiFa

 

SOURCE: Tim Pool

 

 

"The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!" 

 

Indy

[PeaceSign]

George Floyd was a psy op...those two worked together. Crisis actors are real. What is even more interesting is that the words, "I can't breathe" have been hijacked by the marxists, and the george floyd false flag did a couple things for marxist...

 

1. get people angered cuz emotions rule rationality

2. "i can't breathe" cuz the masters of the marxist forsaw the future protests from mask wearers and wanted that phrase for themselves, these guys have been planning this for decades...it looks soooooooooooo fake to me....

 

Good news guys, George Floyd isn't dead!

Edited July 27, 2020 by PeaceSign

[nstoolman1]

He is probably sitting with Epstein sipping Mai Tais and eating Nachos.  

[PeaceSign]

3 hours ago, nstoolman1 said:

He is probably sitting with Epstein sipping Mai Tais and eating Nachos.  

 

I think the fact that guy flew everyone on that plane, and so many pictures of him and ghislane with all kinds of people was to get pics with everyone and names on logs, so that they could blackmail people...but that is because i have watched a lot of movies in my life and played a lot of worst case scenario games that i don't believe the mainstream for sure.

 

When you are at the top you got to think as far ahead and far back and sideways to make sure your power don't leave...you think of all kinds of ways to win whatever game...at least if you were after power anyways.

 

Obviously i don't know one way or another, however, i def don't believe "official" narratives...

[Indraman]

Michael Goodwin: Barr eats Nadler's lunch during testimony

Another congressional hearing, another Dem disaster

 By Michael Goodwin | New York Post

 

 

 

He came, he saw, he ate their lunch. Bill Barr, denied a meal break, feasted instead on a gaggle of Democratic amateurs.

 

Another congressional hearing, another Dem disaster. They planned a public hanging of the attorney general and spent weeks constructing their scaffold. He is corrupt, a liar, a toady, they and their media handmaidens assured us, and the House Judiciary Committee will reveal all.

 

Two obstacles quickly became apparent. The first is that the Dems were led by Rep. Jerry Nadler, whose rabidness is exceeded only by his haplessness.

 

The start was delayed because Nadler was in a minor car accident. That was obviously an omen, but Nadler doesn’t take hints, so he plowed forward into a head-on crash with a heavyweight opponent superior in ­every way.

 

Video

 

Nadler specializes in duds, demanding that former special counsel Robert Mueller testify a year ago, only to see the Russia, Russia, Russia hysteria collapse on national TV. Then Nadler, bearing a lifetime grudge against President Trump, did such a terrible job in the first impeachment hearings on Ukraine that Speaker Nancy Pelosi demoted him and turned the task over to Rep. Adam Schiff.

 

Yet Nadler is a slow learner and there he was Tuesday, opening the ballyhooed attack on the AG with a statement that was a farrago of lies, fake news and slanderous attacks on law enforcement, Barr and Trump. It was so over-the-top, so fact-free and unsupportable, that it had zero chance of setting the stage for a meaningful interrogation.

 

Then again, honest interrogation was not the intent. Pelosi’s House only does character ­assassination.

 

Recently caught on camera calling Antifa violence in Portland a “myth,” Nadler repeated the gist of that. He said Barr had “endangered Americans and violated their constitutional rights by flooding federal law enforcement into the streets of American cities . . . to forcefully and unconstitutionally suppress dissent.”

 

So hundreds of black-masked Antifa-types using guns, knifes, Molotov cocktails, commercial-grade fireworks, lasers and ­Tasers to attack federal agents on federal property is now called “dissent.” Got it.

 

 

After the GOP’s Jim Jordan countered with an attack on the FBI’s spying on Trump’s campaign and played a video of pundits calling the violence in Portland and elsewhere “peaceful protests,” the air had left the room before Barr said a word.

 

When he got his chance, he didn’t just defend his tenure — he went on offense to demand an end to the “demonizing of police” and the dangerous defunding movement.

 

The war against law enforcement, he said, is making police “more risk-averse,” and that is part of the reason crime is soaring across America — leading to the deaths of the very people the Black Lives Matter movement says it wants to help.

 

“The leading cause of death for young black males is homicide,” he said, adding that about 7,500 are murdered each year, 90 percent by other black Americans.

 

“Each of those lives matter,” the attorney general declared.

 

Thankfully, somebody is not afraid the truth will get him canceled.

 

It was the first of many times Barr turned the tables on his would-be tormentors. He often appeared bored, but when he was allowed to speak, his words cut through the room like a knife. He called the attacks in Portland and elsewhere “an assault on the government of the United States.”

 

Later, he chided Nadler & Co. for their silence in the face of clear criminal activity.

 

“This is the first time in my memory that the leaders of one of our two great political parties, the Democratic Party, are not coming out and condemning mob violence,” he said. “Can’t we just say the violence against the federal courts has to stop? Could we hear something like that?”

 

The room was silent. The attorney general challenged their loyalty, and not a single Democrat objected. For them, it was just another day at the office.

 

Nearly every time I watch Barr in extended interviews or read one of his substantive speeches, I find myself saying, “If only.”

 

If only Barr had been Trump’s first attorney general, the last four years would have been dramatically different. Bob Mueller could have stayed in retirement because there was never real evidence of Russian collusion, not even enough, we now know, to start an FBI investigation.

 

It was all ginned up to thwart Trump during the campaign, and then upend his presidency. Yet because Trump picked Jeff Sessions to be AG, and because Sessions, in a supreme act of selfishness, took the job knowing he would recuse himself from overseeing the FBI probe, the nation got put through the wringer.

 

Dems were able to cow Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein into appointing Mueller and succeeded in putting the White House ­under a cloud of suspicion for nearly three years. All those leaks and screaming headlines — they were all just a bunch of nothingburgers. Some were Pulitzer Prize-winning nothing­burgers.

 

The entire episode, starring Jim Comey, James Clapper, John Brennan, Hillarious Clinton and other unindicted co-conspirators of the Obama-Biden administration, was the dirtiest dirty trick in American political history. And although there was no collusion, Dems and much of the media have never let go of the red-baiting insinuation that Trump is a Russian agent and an illegitimate president.

 

The growing political violence, 99 percent of it from the far left, is a direct consequence, yet most Democrats don’t dare denounce the insurrection. They save their condemnation for the federal officers who are under attack.

 

At one point Tuesday, Barr said flatly, “We have to take a stand.” He was talking to Congress, but he meant all of us.

 

*****/END OF THE ARTICLE\*****

 

"The Democrat Clown Car Is Broken And Only Steers, NO Veers LEFT!"

 

Indy

 

 

[CSM (R) Thack]

Nadler = “Wimpy” Ass-hat (weeble wobble) lib-tard!!!👍🇺🇸 

[PeaceSign]

On 5/30/2020 at 7:11 PM, M.I.B. said:

All of you whom don't understand the linkage of social outrage or can't empathize with the victim of an illegal execution to the founders that set this nation on its sad racist and elitist path need to read the Constitution and Bill Of Rights because those ancestors put everything on the line to change the future of this developing nation! They had that set of concepts correct except for their seminal error of not including all of the nation's people of color in print. 

 

Protests against institutional hatred and inequalities that lead to unhealthy living conditions, taxation without inclusion, etc., REQUIRES  REVOLUTION(S) TO THROW OFF TYRANNY!  Yes...people get so stirred up that they are willing to destroy, riot, and war TO CHANGE THE CONDITIONS OF THEIR LIVES! 

 

Sound familiar? Jefferson and most of the others agreed.

 

All men are created equal by God.

 

All yall are doing is showing your fear. Yall are gonna hurt yourselves without regular folks ever being involved. Burn the democrat cities down! 

 

You want to be self empowered then your gonna have to realize that you were BORN FREE. By God not man. You want victimhood, then you get victimhood. . You don't get to blame your parents, you don't get to blame the cards your were dealt, you got to realize that you are here to align to Gods Will which provides the path of freedom for every man.

 

You will not find freedom burning **** down. I mean you will make noise and at least I know where not to step, but that is it...yall aint doing nothing to ACTually free yourself.

 

Only one way out of here that is true freedom. And that is Gods Will.

 

i can hear it now, "i am an atheist" well keep burning it all down then, the law of reaping what we sew will show up in your life.

 

You are a slave of the propaganda machine and it doesn't matter what you burn down you will continue in your slavery and self wallowing until you align to the one Law.

 

I say this with experience that my way is not the way, doing it my way lead to misery, and throught the misery God has set me free.

 

Misery is a way to freedom but boy it hurts so much more. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mary B]

The death of George Floyd: What you need to know

• NATIONAL
•  
• CIVIL RIGHTS
•  
• CRIMINAL JUSTICE
•  
• RACE AND ETHNICITY
•  
• PUBLIC SAFETY

A protester sprays graffiti on a wall near the Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct on May 28, 2020, in Minneapolis. (AP/Minchillo)

 

By Bill McCarthyMay 29, 2020

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

• Protests raged in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after an officer pinned Floyd’s neck under his knee.

• The Hennepin County Attorney announced May 29 that Derek Chauvin, the officer who restrained Floyd, has been charged with murder and manslaughter.

• Investigations into the incident and the other officers involved are ongoing. It’s the latest in a long series of fatal encounters between black men and white police.

 

Protests have flared up in Minneapolis and across the country as demonstrators decry the May 25 death of George Floyd. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in police custody after a white officer pinned Floyd’s neck under his knee while Floyd pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.

Protesters, fed up with the latest in a long series of fatal encounters between black men and white law enforcement officers, have stormed the streets, looted city stores and set fire to a Minneapolis police department building. 

"The chapter that’s been written this week is one of our darkest chapters," said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who deployed the Minnesota National Guard, in a May 29 press conference.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced May 29 that Derek Chauvin, the officer who pinned Floyd, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. 

Freeman said the county has never filed charges so quickly. Between witness statements, a medical examiner’s preliminary report, bodycam footage and bystander videos that spread widely on social media, he said his office had everything they needed.

Chauvin is now in custody, Freeman said. Ongoing investigations could bring further charges against him and the other three officers involved with Floyd’s death, who have all been fired. 

The FBI and Justice Department are conducting a federal civil rights investigation as a "top priority," and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the incident.

In short, a lot has happened since Floyd’s death. Here’s what we know about the story so far.

A 911 call, a violent arrest and a viral video

Around 8 p.m. on May 25, a staffer at Cup Foods, a local convenience store, called 911. He told the operator that Floyd had paid for cigarettes using "fake bills" and that he was outside the store, "sitting on his car" and appearing "awfully drunk," according to a transcript of the call.

The owner of Cup Foods later told CNN the issue was over a counterfeit $20 bill.

The Minneapolis Police Department said in a statement that officers responded "on a report of forgery in progress" and, finding Floyd in his car, ordered him to exit the vehicle.

The statement said Floyd "physically resisted officers," who handcuffed him and called for an ambulance because "he appeared to be suffering medical distress." 

Video recorded by a bystander at the scene shows Chauvin restraining Floyd behind a parked police cruiser and pinning Floyd’s neck to the pavement with his knee. Three more officers can be seen at various points, with one keeping onlookers off the street.

The 10-minute video is disturbing, but can be watched here.

Floyd can be heard repeatedly telling the officers, "I can’t breathe." After a few minutes, Floyd becomes silent, closes his eyes and stops moving, but Chauvin keeps his knee in place.

Bystanders can be heard begging the officers to let him breathe, with one person telling the officers his nose is bleeding and another demanding that they check his pulse.

"He’s not resisting arrest or nothing," one bystander says.

Medics arrive in an ambulance and roll Floyd, still motionless, onto a stretcher before loading him into an ambulance and taking him away.

The Minneapolis Fire Department’s report said Floyd was unresponsive and pulseless in the ambulance, adding that witnesses on the scene said the police "killed the man." 

He was pronounced dead at the Hennepin County Medical Center at 9:25 p.m, according to the medical examiner.

Additional videos show no resistance

As protests mounted, so did the evidence that Floyd had not resisted arrest, as the police report said.

A portrait of George Floyd is seen on May 27, 2020, as part of the memorial for him near the site of his arrest in Minneapolis. (AP/Mone)

One witness told CNN he did not think Floyd was resisting arrest. The owner of Cup Foods said that surveillance video from his store does not show Floyd resisting arrest.

Other publicly available videos — including one video captured by a bystander from their car and another pulled from the surveillance tape of a nearby Dragon Wok restaurant — show Floyd stepping out of his car with no apparent resistance.

According to the Minneapolis Police Department’s policy and procedure manual, neck restraints that are meant to control are allowed only against "a subject who is actively resisting." 

Neck restraints that are designed to knock someone unconscious are reserved as last-ditch measures for dealing with aggressive resistance, per the manual.

Floyd’s family has called for murder charges to be filed against the officers, as has Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who said May 27 that he "saw nothing that would signal that this kind of force was necessary" and that the knee-to-neck technique "should not be used, period."

In a statement after Freeman announced charges against Chauvin, Frey said the move was "an essential first step on a longer road toward justice and healing our city." 

A history of similar incidents

Floyd grew up in Houston. He played sports in high school and later at a community college in Florida, according to the New York Times. He moved to Minneapolis four or five years ago. 

He worked as a bouncer at a restaurant owned by Jovanni Thurnstrom, who was also his landlord, before it closed on-site dining due to the coronavirus.

"Everyone here loves him," Thurnstrom told a local ABC affiliate, adding that Floyd was "a very calm, nice guy" who wanted to learn to Bachata dance and once drove an intoxicated diner home from the restaurant.

Floyd joins a growing list of black men dead from fatal run-ins with law enforcement. 

Some people drew comparisons to the 2014 death of Eric Garner, who died in New York after an officer put him in a chokehold. Others remembered Philando Castile, who was shot to death in 2016 during a traffic stop in Minnesota.

Both incidents touched off similar protests. So have more recent events, such as the fatal shooting in Georgia of Ahmaud Arbery by a white former police officer and his son.

Protesters demonstrate outside of a burning Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct on May 28, 2020, in Minneapolis. (AP/Minchillo)

Myron Orfield, professor of civil rights and civil liberties law at the University of Minnesota Law School, said race-related riots have swept the country before. They came in the 1960s, during both World Wars and in other times, always hitting segregated cities particularly hard.

"It happens when social conditions become unlivable, and then usually the police conduct is like a match," Orfield said.

Minneapolis is particularly segregated, Orfield said, citing a report he authored on the city’s racial disparities. It doesn’t help that the U.S. is battling a pandemic.

"When the white community gets a cold, the black community gets pneumonia," he said. Against that backdrop, an episode of police brutality is bound to "light a fuse."

In his career, Chauvin had 18 complaints and two letters of reprimand filed against him, according to a summary released by the Minneapolis Police Department. Tou Thao, another officer involved, had six complaints, one of which was still open.

Chauvin shot suspects in other incidents, the Associated Press reported. Thao was sued in federal court in 2017 for allegedly using excessive force.

"The Minneapolis Police Department, in my experience, has always had a number of really brutal, racist police officers," Orfield said. "It’s been a part of the culture of that department for quite a while. Most of the police officers are good, but there’s a bad element."

 

https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/may/29/death-george-floyd-what-you-need-know/

[PeaceSign]

George Floyd Isn't dead. It was a Psychological Operation to hijack the words, "I can't breathe" and to enlist young kids, because their energy is the greatest and they are least experienced in the world ergo clueless, to join a group called black lives matter so that they can be a part of a "greater cause.", unknowingly and unrealizing that the blm is a marxist organization. Unfortunately, they have to learn the hard way. Just like i did when the tea party and occupy protests were hijacked by big money like "freedomworks" which the RNC took over, and "mediamatters" owned by Soros who hijacked the Occupy movement which the DNC took over. Agent Provacateurs. 

 

It will clean itself out in time.

 

And by the way,  MOST people know that all lives matter. That should have been the first clue.

 

 

[DinarDavo]

14 minutes ago, PeaceSign said:

And by the way,  MOST people know that all lives matter. That should have been the first clue.

 

 

Exactly.......