Murder is murder.

I was on the VMI Judo team as a cadet.  This was a "club" sport as opposed to a varsity sport, but we traveled to matches in the eastern parts of the US.  Yes, I had my ass whipped all over the place, had a couple of  broken bones (small bones).  You heal well at that age.   You get the idea, not a great athlete but a willing participant for several years.  The experience was very useful during my army career.   This was not because I was a "sidewalk superman."  No, it was because the experience built up my self-confidence.

I learned a lot.  One of the basics was concerned with chokeholds.  These are legal in Judo with certain restrictions.  The method is simple.  From the facing opponent position you cross your wrists, grasp the lapels of the person's judogi and rotate your arms inward so that your forearms press against the carotid arteries.  If he can't break loose he loses consciousness in ten or twelve seconds from oxygen starvation in the brain.  From a position behind the opponent you do a similar thing with the same result.

In Judo, when the opponent claps his hands you immediately release him.  If he loses consciousness you immediately release him.  Why?   He  will die if you maintain the pressure on the carotid artery or arteries.

Are we supposed to belief that the ass in blue did not know that?  The man was unarmed, was cooperative and was handcuffed.  Other asinine policemen (please don't call every cop an "officer") stood around and watched as their colleague ignored the pleas of the victim and onlookers to let him up.

Murder is murder.  Throw the book at them.  At the same time let us remember that these were Minneapolis police, not state of Minnesota or federal police.  pl

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/28/minneapolis-protests-george-floyd-death/

Comments

[walrus]

Agree with Col. Lang. I had this discussion with Policeman Son today. He is also appalled. He questioned why the police thought they needed to act so quickly and didn’t let up - undue haste. The guy was already cuffed and supine, what’s the hurry? - was his comment.

[Eric Newhill]

The video is hard to watch. The cop killed that guy with intent and malice (=murder) and the cop's partner just watches. Right out in the street in daylight. Why the cops weren't arrested days ago is beyond my ability to comprehend. Minneapolis seems like a fairly liberal city with liberal government. That makes the failure to arrest even weirder.

[ex PFC Chuck]

As a native Minnesotan who's lived here all but 12 years of my live I agree. I've seen two conflicting narratives of what the alleged offense was: forging a check; and passing a counterfeit $20 bill. If it was the latter, the irony is he may well not have any idea the note was a fake. Floyd was a bouncer at a nightclub and may well have received it as a tip.

[Deap]

Be sure to view the six minute street security camera footage leading up to this fatal incident. Something happened between the clearly professional conduct of the policemen shown in that preceding six minutes, and this ultimately fatal event a few minutes later.

[Pollychrome]

Thanks, honored Colonel.  YES, what horror: the arse-in-blue murdered George Floyd, but worse, slowly TORTURED him to death, as the poor soul gasped for life, and the killer's hench-slobs cruelly looked on and must have kept aghast witnesses away.

[Jack]

Footage prior to the choke hold.

https://www.tmz.com/2020/05/27/surveillance-footage-before-george-floyd-killed-minneapolis-not-resisting/

I don’t get why looting Target is the right response by some folks in Minneapolis. The focus ought to be on an impartial investigation and then holding people accountable. Unfortunately there is a lot of cynicism as we’ve seen time and time again a two tier justice system. Roger Stone vs Jim Clapper. Both lied to Congress.

Then there’s this story of Archie Williams. Prosecutors blocked for years the matching of crime scene fingerprints with the FBI’s national database.

https://twitter.com/agt/status/1263677683457642501?s=21

[Grumete Elora Danan]

Thank you, Pat, for saying this. De Opreso Liber!

Elora does not know whether you will be able to view this video in the US, or it will be censored by Twitter, but in it gets very clear the process through which this US citizen died. The man keeps stating he can not breath, it seems that he even called for his mama ( most probably seeing he was about to die...), to then lose conscience, but the ass in blue does not loosen a bit the presure, he kneeels on him as if it were a vermin...Gets obvious the life of the balck man has no value for him...

https://twitter.com/descifraguerra/status/1265547382139375618

Just what was needed in the middle of the social and economic disaster caused by the pandemic...

Do not you have the impression that there is a sector of people in the US ( and everywhere for that matter, this happens also in Spain...)that want to stir up things to the very limit so as to provoke a national confrontation, being the certain chaos provoked by the measures on the pandemic what they were expecting as alibi to set everything in fire?

[Serge]

Yes, a really horrifying thing to see, especially the length of time it went on. On the TV I've only seen short seconds-long clips with the dead man's face blurred out. You don't get the full effect of how terrible this was, as you do from watching the unedited video.

[Laura Wilson]

Agreed and useful information. Thank you.

[srw]

Just read this:
Klobuchar Declined to Prosecute Cop Who Killed Floyd

While serving as Minnesota’s chief prosecutor between 1999 and 2007, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) “declined to bring charges against more than two dozen police officers who had killed citizens while on duty – including against the officer that killed George Floyd” in Minneapolis this week, MintPress News reports.
The Washington Post examined Klobuchar’s record as a prosecutor early last year: “As a prosecutor in heavily white Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar declined to go after police involved in fatal encounters with black men.”

I would definitely say Klobuchar is off Biden's short list for VP!

[blue peacock]

"Something happened between the clearly professional conduct of the policemen...."

Deap,

The video also shows that George Floyd was compliant during the period of the video clip and did not resist arrest.

No matter what occurred the cop had no business asphyxiating Floyd to death especially since he was already handcuffed and prone on the street and there were other officers in the immediate vicinity.

[Christian J Chuba]

I was surprised to see at how few publicly free videos are available there are to view this. In the few seconds I saw I was struck by the demeanor of the officer who pinned him on the ground. He looked like someone who was gleeful as in 'yeah, this is how my instructor taught me to do this'.

We can punish the officer but find out who trained him. BTW I wrestled High School and college. The great thing about wrestling was that it taught you how to overpower someone without injuring them. But once in High School I think I broke a kids rib without even realizing it but I was overwhelmed with the moment. So I recognize the look and loathe it.

In college, someone tore my ACL. In High School someone broke nose so I got my karma. I do not like bullies. I go out of my way to make everyone comfortable in my ever weakening presence.

Break the cycle, who trained him, do better.

[Fred]

Col.,

I agree. The video Jack linked too makes you wonder just what made the assailant kill this man.

Grumete Elora Danan ,

"Just what was needed in the middle of the social and economic disaster caused by the pandemic...Do not you have the impression that there is a sector of people in the US ...that want to stir up things to the very limit so as to provoke "
Sure looks that way to me. The pandemic is over, the red states have shown that it is long past time to get back to work. The other news bodes ill for the left - the deaths due to response to the pandemic - which affected Black and elderly Americans the most, the job losses due to state governor's orders, the media campaign of fear, the ongoing local and state government control of Americans, covering up China's complicity in the spread of the virus, the outsourcing of manufacturing and a whole lot more - all were going to blow up come election day and in a way that would leave them out of power for a generation if the election were honest. This tragedy is now the political media narrative globally. I'm sure President Xi and the staff surrounding that guy in the Biden Bunker will take full advantage of it.

[Christian J Chuba]

BTW sorry if my last post got too personal

The worst thing I did was break a kid's rib in a one-on-one wrestling match when we were both the same weight with a referee standing over us. Today we have one cop choking the victim with another cop looking over him.

In my situation, it did not even occur to me to choke him. Even IF he wanted to resist, the hold I had on him was very brutal. I had my forehead pressed against his temple (above his ear) and my knee against his ribcage and a lot of pressure.

Sorry for relieving my youth but this is my experience.

Let's suppose that my vaunted 'cross face cradle' went out with Buster Crabbe movies, okay, but do we still need choke holds? Why can't Mixed Martial Arts guys teach our Police how to subdue people without killing them?

UNZ claims that the most brutal part of the IDF is training our Police. Please tell me they are wrong. Who was the Dutch guy on 'Kevin can Wait', he seemed like a nice guy, if he's an Israeli, I'm 100% cool with that as long as he's good.

[Seward]

What can you expect from Minneapolis. (I'm from St. Paul.)

[ex PFC Chuck]

srw,
I posted that Mint Press News link elsewhere earlier this am and a commenter later said the previous refusal to press charges came after her she had left the prosecutor job for the US Senate. I haven't had the time yet since to check that out, but she was notorious for giving police violence a pass during her watch.
Jack, up-thread.
Target is HQed here in the Twin Cities and it's my understanding that particular store had been their test bed for loss prevention techniques for roll-out to the rest of their properties. Some of what they tried out there didn't go down well with that inner city community and as a result the store became a focal point of dissatisfaction. Not justifying; just explaining a factor involved.

[ex PFC Chuck]

While we're on the subject of looting, there's this"
https://sirota.substack.com/p/looting?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyNzMyMzU2LCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0OTczOTQsIl8iOiI3S3UzciIsImlhdCI6MTU5MDY4OTQ1NywiZXhwIjoxNTkwNjkzMDU3LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMzc3NzgiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.HFa9p8BiwkUqxRuXa05mqgpblZC3ZXFWHR_Qqyr4HN4

[ex PFC Chuck]

And this: https://www.theonion.com/protestors-criticized-for-looting-businesses-without-fo-1843735351/amp

[Terence Gore]

No excuse for the murder.

No excuse for the destruction and looting.

[Ray pugh]

Eyewitness account from Target store in St. Paul

This was from our daughter who was working today at Target in St. Paul....

Tale of the Twin Cities…..after a police killing
From our daughter who is 25 who works at the Midway St. Paul Target.
Ok so just an update: the Target I work at was swarmed with people intending to loot today around 11:20am. Management knew it was going to happen but did not formulate any plan for employees beforehand, so when we were told to seek shelter half of us ended up stuck in the back of the store and half of us were stuck in the front break room. We were effectively trapped in confined quarters as we waited for the police response. There was a lot of crying and frantic calling of loved ones
I was late to getting to shelter because nobody thought to tell the pharmacists so I doubled back for them. Luckily they were able to lock up the medications. A local CVS was not so lucky and their prescriptions were fully looted
Since I was one of the last people to get back to safety I saw the rush of people coming in through the front doors and holy shit... even though it was only probably around 50 people total, it was terrifying
I’ve been listening in to police scanners since I got home (the store is fully shut down) and it sounds like windows have been smashed and looters are trashing the store, so I’m not sure if I have a job anymore.
Looters have also gone to the Roseville Target, the East St. Paul Target, Maplewood Target, and Rosedale Mall
Everyone in the twin cities area, don’t go out if you can help it! I have a friend living in an apartment a few blocks off Grand Ave and the police have made them create emergency bags and evacuated the area
While the people looting weren’t super interested in the employees evacuating, multiple employee’s cars were broken into and vandalized because their owners fled the stores and didn’t want to deal with the madness in the parking lot to go get them
The one good note: I got the email test results back for my Covid-19 nasal swab as the cops were trying to clear the front doors for us to get out. I’m negative! Yay!
2020 has been a garbage year.

[elaine]

Wisconsin law differs from many states IMO. After a quick search on topic it appears felony murder charges may not be brought due to
the difficulty to prove premeditation. Intentional homicide could
also be difficult to prove or maybe not...

More likely a charge of reckless & negligent homicide will be brought. The state must prove every element of the crime.

Shame on that sadist, craven cop & even if he outranked the other
cops, there's no excuse for their behavior. Bring charges asap!

[Babak makkinejad]

Eric Newhill

So, all of a sudden, you, a denigrator of Law, are shocked, shocked that the Law is violated and, in this case, by the Officers of the Law.

That is really rich.

What happened to the Constitution of the United States? Or the Constitution of the State of Minnesota?

And is it not time for you to climb down from your high horse and admit that the United States has very deep social problems that will not be resolved by fighting the Muslims, the Russians, and the Chinese of this world?

Quite clearly, Liberty without Law is License, in this case to murder a man in broad daylight with seeming glee and impunity.

I am not White, I am Beige, but I am deeply angered by this incident.

And what succor your Spiritual orientation can bring to the relatives and relations of this man?

Who is free in the United States and who is protected by the Law?

[akaPatience]

Thank you for saying this colonel. I'm weary of the tendency towards hagiography regarding law enforcerment when OF COURSE, just as in any other profession, there are some bad ones like this cop and his partners in MN.

[Jose]

“Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.” ― Jean Racine

After watching this, I'm leaning to manslaughter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWBH9OO6Xt0

[anon]

Controlled force.nice and casual.and done in full view,so definitely a message