Where's the Thread on "George Floyd" ????

Twin_Moose

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AMERICAN NEWS Jun 29, 2021 1:14 PM EST

BLM activists block Minneapolis councilwoman's car until she agrees to drop charges against rioters


Extreme Black Lives Matter activists blocked Minneapolis City Council member Andrea Jenkins's car in the street, forcing the councilwoman to stop and sign an agreed statement.

BLM activists block Minneapolis councilwoman's car until she agrees to drop charges against rioters

https://thepostmillennial.com/author/mia



On Sunday, extreme Black Lives Matter activists blocked Minneapolis City Council member Andrea Jenkins's car in the street, forcing the councilwoman to stop and sign an agreed statement that commits to dropping charges against alleged rioters. The signing was captured on video.
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Jenkins, a biological male who is the nation's first black, openly transgender person elected to public office, was sitting in the car's passenger seat when the enraged mob accosted her.
After the Taking Back Pride march ended on Sunday, marchers called for an end to police at Pride festivals, for the protection of black transgender residents, and for the local community to have control over police. A Facebook Live video captured the incident at Loring Park.
DJ Hooker, an activist involved with Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, narrates the 23-minute long footage, in which he says that Jenkins arrived at the event "for a photo op," before she was confronted by the protesters.
 

Twin_Moose

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Judge Orders Minneapolis To Hire More Police Officers

UPDATED 12:31 PM PT – Friday, July 2, 2021​

A Minnesota judge has ordered the city of Minneapolis to address it’s police staffing issues. Reports on Thursday detailed the ruling brought after a group of people sued the city council, citing a rise in crime and stressing the current number of officers is below what the city charter calls for.

Like many departments across the country, officers in Minneapolis have been leaving amid the Black Lives Matter and defund the police movements.

“If the officers themselves are feeling as though they have no support to do their jobs, they’re leaving their jobs. We gotta try harder to come together because this right here, we’re going to destroy this city,” said one of the plaintiffs in a suit against Minneapolis, Cathy Spann......More
 

spaminator

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'THIS IS A JOKE, RIGHT?': George Floyd video game draws rage
Author of the article:Denette Wilford
Publishing date:Nov 25, 2021 • 11 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
Demonstrators march through downtown Minneapolis demanding justice for George Floyd and Daunte Wright while jury deliberations begin for former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin's murder trial at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis April 19, 2021.
Demonstrators march through downtown Minneapolis demanding justice for George Floyd and Daunte Wright while jury deliberations begin for former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin's murder trial at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis April 19, 2021. PHOTO BY OCTAVIO JONES /REUTERS
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A video game that challenges players to save George Floyd from being murdered by police was unveiled in Iran this week.

Early chatter about the possibility of this game actually coming to life began in October 2020, reported Kayhan Life .


The game, called Save the Freedom, was developed by Iran’s Basij paramilitary force — an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Players must work their way through 30 levels that increase in difficulty, facing waves of enemies who are presumably trying to kill Floyd, reported Malekafzali.

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Unsurprisingly, People online couldn’t hold back their feelings of shock, rage and disgust.

“What the hell,” tweeted one person. “Why are they making his murder seem like a game and as a way to make money. Disgusting.”

Another wrote, “This is a joke right, can someone confirm that for me?”


One person asked, “So are they giving the profits to his family or are they making money off a murder?”

The consensus? “This is so sick.”

Floyd was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minn., in May 2020, with footage of the white cop kneeling on the Black man’s neck for nine minutes inciting protests around the world.

In this file still image taken on May 25, 2020, from a video courtesy of Darnella Frazier via Facebook, shows Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin during the arrest of George Floyd.
In this file still image taken on May 25, 2020, from a video courtesy of Darnella Frazier via Facebook, shows Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin during the arrest of George Floyd. PHOTO BY DARNELLA FRAZIER/FACEBOOK /AFP via Getty Images
The outrageous game idea came from Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, who initially asked the Basij software programmers to design a Floyd-inspired computer game as part of the Nationwide Event for the Production of Basij Digital Content, reported the U.K. Sun .

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“The first challenge for this competition is to design a game for mobile phones and computers titled Rescuing George Floyd,” said Naghdi.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin is shown in this police booking photo after a jury found him guilty on all counts in his trial for second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn., Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Picture released on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.
FATAH: Will the verdict in George Floyd trial change America?
People react after the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, found guilty of the death of George Floyd, at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, Minn., April 20, 2021.
CHAUDHRI: Chauvin guilty verdict signals new era
In this file photo taken on Oct. 10, 2013, singer and actress Cher poses in Paris.
Cher apologizes for George Floyd tweet

“Rescuing this black citizen from American police should be the aim of this computer game,” he continued. “Nowadays, the only place left for America to turn its defeats into victories is the internet.”

Naghdi continued: “People inside the U.S. shout ‘death to America’ and burn the American flag. The U.S. domestic and foreign policies have failed. The public is increasingly becoming polarized in that country.”
 
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spaminator

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Derek Chauvin pleads guilty to violating George Floyd's rights
Author of the article:
Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:
Dec 15, 2021 • 18 hours ago • 3 minute read •
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Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin addresses his sentencing hearing and the judge as he awaits his sentence after being convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. June 25, 2021 in a still image from video.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin addresses his sentencing hearing and the judge as he awaits his sentence after being convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. June 25, 2021 in a still image from video. Photo by POOL /Pool via REUTERS
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Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a federal court to charges he violated George Floyd’s civil rights, likely extending his prison sentence by several years after his earlier conviction for the Black man’s murder.
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Chauvin, 45, appeared in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota in an orange jumpsuit to waive his right to a trial by changing his plea to guilty in an agreement with prosecutors, precluding the risk of a sentence of up to life in prison had he gone to trial.

A state judge had already sentenced Chauvin to 22-1/2 years in prison in June after a jury convicted him for the 2020 murder of Floyd, and he has since been held in solitary confinement in a maximum-security Minnesota prison. In Minnesota, prisoners are eligible for supervised release after completing two thirds of their sentence.

Chauvin, who is white, was seen in videos recorded by horrified onlookers kneeling on the handcuffed Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes in a brutal arrest on a Minneapolis street corner on May 25, 2020.
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The killing ignited one of the largest protest movements ever seen in the United States.

Chauvin’s April conviction in state court on charges of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter was seen by many as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans.

Chauvin admitted on Wednesday that in his role as a police officer he breached Floyd’s constitutional right to be free from “unreasonable seizure” and to not face excessive force.

Federal prosecutors told the court that the sentencing guidelines call for Chauvin to spend 20-25 years in prison, though they noted that the court could rule for a harsher sentence, up to life in prison.

They said that under the plea agreement prosecutors would ask the court for a 25-year sentence to run concurrently with the state one, meaning Chauvin would extend his current prison term by several years.
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Federal prosecutors said he would be moved to a federal prison, which are often perceived to be safer than their state counterparts.

District Judge Paul Magnuson said he would hold a sentencing hearing at a later date, where Chauvin and Floyd’s relatives, some of whom were in court on Wednesday, will have a chance to address the court.

As part of the agreement, Chauvin admitted he also breached the civil rights of a boy he arrested in 2017 who was 14 at the time, beating the boy’s head with a flashlight and kneeling on his neck, which drew charges in a separate federal indictment.

The boy, who is Black, attended Wednesday’s hearing with a lawyer, and later exchanged elbow bumps with Floyd’s brother Philonise in the hallway outside.
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“It’s a good day for justice,” Philonise told the boy, according to the pool report.

Chauvin, who originally pleaded not guilty in September, signed the plea agreement in court, which also requires him to pay restitution, with the amount yet to be determined. He further agreed never again to be licenced as a law enforcement officer.

He was asked by prosecutors if he willfully deprived Floyd of a constitutional right and whether he had his knee on Floyd even after the man was unconscious.

“Correct,” Chauvin replied as Floyd’s girlfriend, Courtney Ross, watched from the public gallery, dabbing tears from her eyes.

Chauvin and three other officers – Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao – were arresting Floyd on suspicion of using a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes.

Lane, Kueng and Thao were also fired from the Minneapolis Police Department and face charges in a state trial, due to begin in March, that they aided and abetted the killing of Floyd. The three face a federal trial in January as well on charges they deprived Floyd of his rights.

The indictment said Thao and Kueng violated Floyd’s rights by not intervening to stop Chauvin from kneeling on his neck, and that all the officers involved showed deliberate indifference to Floyd’s serious medical needs.
 
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spaminator

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Minnesota jury to decide if Chauvin's colleagues had duty to stop deadly Floyd arrest

Author of the article:
Reuters
Reuters
Jonathan Allen
Publishing date:
Jan 20, 2022 • 18 hours ago • 3 minute read •
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In this file still image taken on May 25, 2020, from a video courtesy of Darnella Frazier via Facebook, shows Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin during the arrest of George Floyd.
In this file still image taken on May 25, 2020, from a video courtesy of Darnella Frazier via Facebook, shows Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin during the arrest of George Floyd. Photo by DARNELLA FRAZIER/FACEBOOK /AFP via Getty Images
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The federal prosecution of three former Minneapolis police officers who took part in the deadly arrest of George Floyd begins on Thursday in a trial that turns on when an officer has a duty to intervene in a colleague’s excessive use of force.
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Tou Thao, J. Alexander Keung and Thomas Lane are charged with violating Floyd’s civil rights during the arrest on a road outside a Minneapolis grocery store in May 2020.

All three men were peripheral characters in a chaotic, violent scene that galvanized some of the largest anti-racism protests in the United States. They can all be glimpsed at times in a widely seen cellphone video that shows their colleague Derek Chauvin with his knee on the handcuffed Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes.

A jury found Chauvin, 45, guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death at the end of a nationally televised state trial in April 2021, and a Minnesota judge sentenced him to 22-1/2 years in prison.

Another jury, the selection of which begins on Thursday in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, will now be asked to decide what, if anything, his colleagues should have done to stop Chauvin kneeling on Floyd, who was suspected of buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.
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Federal prosecution of U.S. police officers for killing someone while on duty are rare; the prosecution of other officers for willfully violating someone’s rights by not stopping a colleague who is using excessive violence is even rarer, legal observers say.

“Now the question is: who else gets held accountable?” said David Schultz, a law professor at the University of Minnesota. “Am I my fellow officer’s keeper? If I see Derek Chauvin do something wrong, do I have some kind of duty to intervene?”

Mark Osler, a law professor at Minnesota’s University of St. Thomas and a former federal prosecutor, said most police misconduct trials, including that of Chauvin, focus on an officer’s actions.

“This is about the actions that were not taken,” he said. “This is a very different trial.”
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Chauvin, who is white, was also charged alongside his colleagues by federal prosecutors with violating Floyd’s civil rights. He changed his plea to guilty last December.

Thao, Keung and Lane, who could face years in prison if convicted, have all pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division will seek to convince the jury that the men “willfully failed to aid Floyd” as he fell unconscious beneath Chauvin’s knee. The indictment says that a person under arrest has a right to “be free from a police officer’s deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs.”

Thao and Keung face an additional count in the indictment, which says they “wilfully failed” to stop Chauvin using excessive force against a prone, handcuffed Floyd, violating Floyd’s right to be free from unreasonable seizure.
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Lane, who helped Keung physically restrain Floyd’s lower body, avoided being charged with the second count in part because videos record him asking his colleagues whether they should roll Floyd on his side, a position in which it is easier to breathe. Thao, meanwhile, contended with anguished onlookers, who screamed at police that Floyd had stopped breathing, by ordering them to stay on the sidewalk.

In his plea agreement with prosecutors, Chauvin agreed with the prosecution assertion that Thao and Lane did and said nothing to stop Chauvin’s use of force.

Many of the onlookers, who testified at Chauvin’s state trial, are expected to be called as witnesses at the federal trial. Neither prosecutors nor defense lawyers have publicly said if they will call Chauvin to testify.
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Thao had worked for the Minneapolis Police Department for eight years; Lane and Keung had joined only a few months prior to the arrest, and Chauvin was their field training officer, something their defense lawyers are expected to emphasize.

Legal experts said the prosecution might accelerate challenges to the “thin blue line” culture prevalent in U.S. police departments that discourages individual officers from speaking out against colleagues’ misconduct.

“It does run counter to the old-style culture of law enforcement, but it is not new,” said Candace McCoy, a criminal justice professor at New York’s John Jay College. “We’ve seen this concept develop over the past decade, with several large police departments that specially train officers on a duty to intervene.”
 

spaminator

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Three Minneapolis ex-police officers were indifferent to George Floyd's pleas, jury hears
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jonathan Allen
Publishing date:Jan 24, 2022 • 12 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng in a combination of booking photographs from the Minnesota Department of Corrections and Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis, Minn.
Former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng in a combination of booking photographs from the Minnesota Department of Corrections and Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis, Minn. PHOTO BY MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE / HANDOUT /REUTERS / FILES
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ST. PAUL — Three former Minneapolis officers broke the law by failing to stop Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd during an arrest and were indifferent to the handcuffed Black man’s dying pleas, a prosecutor told a jury in opening statements in the federal trial on Monday.

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Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane are charged with violating Floyd’s civil rights during the arrest of the 46-year-old on a road outside a Minneapolis grocery store in May 2020, video of which sparked street protests against racism and police brutality around the world.

Federal prosecutor Samantha Trepel, from the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division, said the defendants had broken their oath with a callous indifference to Floyd. She said video captured how Kueng at times seemed more preoccupied with some gravel lodged in the tire of the nearby police car than the man beneath him repeatedly saying: “I can’t breathe.”

Last year, the defendants’ former colleague Derek Chauvin, 45, was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death at the end of a nationally televised state trial in April 2021, and a Minnesota judge sentenced him to 22-1/2 years in prison.

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Chauvin, who is white, was also charged alongside his colleagues by federal prosecutors with violating Floyd’s civil rights in their capacity as police officers. Chauvin changed his plea to guilty last December. Thao, Kueng and Lane, who could face years in prison if convicted, have all pleaded not guilty.

“For more than nine minutes, each of the three defendants made a conscious choice over and over again not to act,” Trepel told the jury. “They chose not to intervene and stop Chauvin as he killed a man slowly in front of their eyes on a public street in broad daylight.”

She said that the officers had sworn an oath to care for people in their custody, and were required by law to stop Chauvin.

Defence lawyers say the three defendants had a right and a duty to arrest Floyd on suspicion he used a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes, and were not criminally liable for Chauvin’s conduct.

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“The death of Mr. Floyd is indeed a tragedy,” Robert Paule, a lawyer for Thao, said in his opening statement in which he described the dangers police officers face in making arrests. “However, a tragedy is not a crime.”

Prosecutors are seeking to convince the jury in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul that the men willfully failed to help Floyd during what Trepel called Chauvin’s “slow-motion killing.” The indictment says a person under arrest has a right to “be free from a police officer’s deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs.”

Thao, 36, and Kueng, 28, face an additional count in the indictment, which says they willfully failed to stop Chauvin using excessive force against a prone, handcuffed Floyd, violating Floyd’s right to be free from unreasonable seizure.

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Thao had worked for the Minneapolis Police Department for eight years. Lane, 38, and Kueng, who helped restrain Floyd’s lower body, had joined only a few months prior to the arrest, and Chauvin was their field training officer.

Kueng was “a rookie officer” on his third shift ever on the job and was let down by his seniors with “inadequate training,” his lawyer Thomas Plunkett told the jury. He grew up in a racially diverse household and had hoped to change the police department “from within,” Plunkett said.

The jury will hear from other Minneapolis police officers who will testify that the three defendants were trained in how to administer medical aid to people in their custody, and taught that simply moving Floyd onto his side could have saved his life, Trepel said.

They will also hear from some of the horrified bystanders who shouted at the officers to check Floyd’s pulse as he said repeatedly that he could not breathe, Trepel said.

“After Mr. Floyd lost the ability to speak, the people on the sidewalk stood up for him,” Trepel told the jury. “They understood just by seeing his body go limp, listening to his words and then listening to his silence that, unless somebody changed what was happening, he would die.”

After the federal trial, the three men still face a state trial for aiding and abetting the murder of Floyd.
 

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Two former police officers to testify in own defense about George Floyd arrest
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jonathan Allen
Publishing date:Feb 14, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
Former Minneapolis police officers (clockwise from top left) Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng poses in a combination of booking photographs from the Minnesota Department of Corrections and Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Former Minneapolis police officers (clockwise from top left) Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng poses in a combination of booking photographs from the Minnesota Department of Corrections and Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. PHOTO BY HANDOUT /via REUTERS
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ST. PAUL — Two former Minneapolis police officers, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, told a U.S. judge on Monday they planned to testify in their own defense against federal charges that they violated George Floyd’s civil rights during a deadly 2020 arrest.

A lawyer for Thomas Lane, the third police officer on trial at the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, had previously said Lane would also testify in his own defense, but told Judge Paul Magnuson on Monday that Lane was still considering his decision.

Derek Chauvin, the white police officer convicted at a separate state trial last year of murdering Floyd, has already pleaded guilty to federal charges of violating the 46-year-old Black man’s civil rights by failing to give medical aid.
 

spaminator

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Minneapolis ex-cop trusted colleague's use of knee in deadly Floyd arrest
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jonathan Allen
Publishing date:Feb 16, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
In this file photo taken on January 11, 2022 former Minneapolis Police Officer Tou Thao arrives at the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota.
In this file photo taken on January 11, 2022 former Minneapolis Police Officer Tou Thao arrives at the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota. PHOTO BY KEREM YUCEL /AFP via Getty Images
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ST. PAUL — Two of the three former Minneapolis police officers on trial for violating George Floyd’s civil rights testified on Wednesday that they deferred to their ex-colleague Derek Chauvin’s years of seniority as he knelt on the handcuffed Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes.

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Taking the stand in his own defence, J. Alexander Kueng, told the jury that he was a rookie cop still on probation during the deadly arrest of Floyd, 46, on May 25, 2020, fearful of discipline or dismissal by his seniors.

He testified that the Minneapolis police academy had drilled into him a deeply hierarchical culture where the authority of senior officers such as Chauvin, who had been his field training officer earlier that year, was never to be questioned.

Earlier in the day, his co-defendant Tou Thao, 36, repeatedly told the jury in U.S. District Court in St. Paul he assumed Floyd must be fine and not in need of medical intervention because Chauvin was an experienced police officer.

Chauvin, who is white, was sentenced to 22-1/2 years in prison for murdering Floyd in a separate state trial last year, and later pleaded guilty to the federal charges of violating Floyd’s rights. The killing was captured on a widely seen cellphone video that also shows Thao stood nearby keeping increasingly alarmed bystanders up on the sidewalk while Kueng and their co-defendant Thomas Lane, 38, pin down Floyd’s legs.

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Prosecutors have said the defendants ignored both their own training and basic common sense, violating Floyd’s right to not face excessive force or be denied medical aid in police custody.

Kueng, a 28-year-old Minneapolis native who described himself as mixed race, testified that he had received minimal police training on either the duty to intervene or the dangers of not moving a handcuffed prone person onto their side to make it easier for them to breathe.

He said he had been trained that an officer should intervene with a colleague when “you see something obviously wrong,” saying the examples he had been given were an “officer kicking, punching or hitting a handcuffed subject, typically in the face.”

His lawyer Thomas Plunkett read aloud a section of the Minneapolis police training manual on following orders that “instant and unquestioned obedience is demanded.”

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“You don’t think about it, you don’t second guess it, you just follow it,” Kueng said.

Kueng and Lane, another rookie only a few days out of field training, were the first to respond to the Cup Foods store where Floyd had been accused of passing a fake $20 to buy cigarettes.

Chauvin arrived with Thao as the two rookies struggled to get the handcuffed Floyd to stay in the back of their squad car.

“I’ve never been involved in a struggle like I had with Mr. Floyd,” Kueng said, adding that seeing the arrival of Chauvin, his former trainer, made him think he was doing something wrong.

Chauvin was widely respected in the force, Kueng said.

“He was very quiet, but he had a high level of experience, he was by the book,” Kueng said. “He was upright, fair but tough.”

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Kueng can later be seen on a body-worn camera video telling Chauvin he cannot find Floyd’s pulse after Floyd has stopped moving, but he testified on Wednesday he mistakenly believed Floyd was still breathing when the ambulance arrived and so did not think there was a medical emergency.

His co-defendant Thao rejected the repeated suggestion by a prosecutor that he should have listened to shouted demands from bystanders for officers to get off an unconscious Floyd and to check his pulse.

“I don’t take orders from them,” he said, saying instead he deferred to Chauvin’s authority. “I think I would trust a 19-year veteran to figure it out.”
 

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Taking the stand in his own defence, J. Alexander Kueng, told the jury that he was a rookie cop still on probation during the deadly arrest of Floyd, 46, on May 25, 2020, fearful of discipline or dismissal by his seniors.
If he's that clueless and cowardly, he shouldn't have a badge, a gun, or police powers until he grows a pair.
 

spaminator

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George Floyd restraint seemed 'reasonable,' ex-officer testifies
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jonathan Allen
Publishing date:Feb 21, 2022 • 8 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
This still image taken from a May 25, 2020, video courtesy of Darnella Frazier via Facebook, shows a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer Derek Chauvin restraining George Floyd (not pictured).
This still image taken from a May 25, 2020, video courtesy of Darnella Frazier via Facebook, shows a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer Derek Chauvin restraining George Floyd (not pictured). PHOTO BY DARNELLA FRAZIER/FACEBOOK /AFP via Getty Images
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ST. PAUL — Pinning George Floyd face down on a Minneapolis road in a May 2020 arrest seemed reasonable in the moment, one of three former Minneapolis police officers on trial for violating the handcuffed Black man’s civil rights testified on Monday.

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Thomas Lane was the third of the three defendants to take the stand in his own defence at the federal trial in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, charged with denying Floyd’s right to receive medical aid once in police custody.

Answering questions from his lawyer Earl Gray, Lane told the jury how he had called over the radio for an ambulance after seeing Floyd’s mouth bleeding from his struggle with Lane and another officer trying to get him in the back of a police car.

He became emotional as he recalled helping Floyd onto a stretcher and seeing Floyd’s face several minutes after he fallen unresponsive beneath Lane and two other officers.

“He didn’t look good,” Lane said, his voice beginning to waver.

Co-defendants Tou Thao, 36, and J. Alexander Kueng, 28, took the stand last week to say they deferred to the authority of Derek Chauvin, the most senior officer at the scene. Lane, who was on Floyd’s ankles, and Kueng, who was on Floyd’s thighs, were rookies only a few days out of training. Thao stood a few steps away from Floyd in a hands-off role he has described as being a “human traffic cone.”

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Cellphone video of Chauvin, who is white, kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes while Floyd begged for his life triggered huge protests against racism and police brutality. Chauvin was convicted in a separate state trial last year of murdering Floyd and sentenced to 22-1/2 years in prison, and in December he pleaded guilty to the federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights.

Prosecutors have said the officers have a duty of care to anyone in their custody, and the three men breached their training and common sense in not doing more to help Floyd.

Lane, 38, can be heard on body-worn camera videos asking his colleagues if they should roll the prone Floyd onto his side, something officers are trained to do to avoid positional asphyxia.

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Chauvin, 45, rebuffs the suggestion, and continues to kneel on Floyd’s neck as Floyd falls motionless while bystanders scream at the officers to check his pulse.

“OK, I suppose so,” Lane recalled responding. “It just seemed reasonable at the time. This guy is out of control.”

He said he believed the ambulance would be “here any minute.”

He said he was unable to see Floyd’s face for the entire nine-minute restrain. Lane got in the back of the ambulance and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Floyd under a parademic’s instruction.

Prosecutors have previously called medical experts who said Floyd would almost certainly had lived if rolled on his side once he had been restrained.

In cross examination by a prosecutor, Lane said he was not concerned about positional asphyxia when he suggested rolling Floyd onto his side.

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“I just wanted to get a better assessment of him,” he said.

The jury was due to hear closing arguments on Tuesday before beginning deliberations.

Thao and Kueng face an additional count of violating Floyd’s rights in their role of police officers by failing to intervene to stop Chauvin’s use of excessive force.

Both have said they assumed Chauvin knew what was he was doing from his nearly two decades on the force and did not realize the force was excessive.

Minneapolis Police Department fired all four officers.

“I found out I was terminated the next day in a Subway parking lot,” Lane said, referring to the chain of sandwich stores. “I read a news article. That’s how I found out I got fired.”
 

Tecumsehsbones

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Co-defendants Tou Thao, 36, and J. Alexander Kueng, 28, took the stand last week to say they deferred to the authority of Derek Chauvin, the most senior officer at the scene.
Yeah, how'd the "I vas chust folloving orders" defense work at Nurnberg?

“I found out I was terminated the next day in a Subway parking lot,” Lane said, referring to the chain of sandwich stores. “I read a news article. That’s how I found out I got fired.”
Yeah, you and FBI Director Comey. MAGA!
 

spaminator

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Minneapolis police officers lacked 'human decency' in Floyd arrest, prosecutor says
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jonathan Allen
Publishing date:Feb 22, 2022 • 14 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Three former Minneapolis officers, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, sit with their lawyers during their trial as they are charged with violating George Floyd's civil rights during his 2020 arrest, in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., January 24, 2022 in this courtroom sketch.
Three former Minneapolis officers, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, sit with their lawyers during their trial as they are charged with violating George Floyd's civil rights during his 2020 arrest, in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., January 24, 2022 in this courtroom sketch. PHOTO BY CEDRIC HOHNSTADT /VIA REUTERS
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ST. PAUL — A federal prosecutor told a jury in closing arguments on Tuesday that three former Minneapolis police officers ignored their training and basic human decency by failing to intervene when their colleague knelt on George Floyd’s neck during a deadly arrest.

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Tou Thao, 36; J. Alexander Kueng, 28; and Thomas Lane, 38, have all pleaded not guilty to charges they willfully denied Floyd’s right to receive medical aid in police custody during the May 2020 arrest even as they had what a prosecutor called “front-row seats” to Floyd’s murder beside a police car parked in a Minneapolis intersection.

Their lawyers in defence summations said prosecutors had failed to prove the three men acted with deliberate indifference, arguing that the defendants were oblivious at the time to Floyd’s urgent medical needs.

Thao and Kueng are also charged with willfully breaching the handcuffed 46-year-old Black man’s rights by not intervening in their colleague Derek Chauvin’s use of excessive force. Chauvin, who is white, was captured on widely seen cellphone video kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as horrified onlookers begged the officers to check Floyd’s pulse.

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Chauvin, 45, was sentenced to 22-1/2 years in prison after being convicted of Floyd’s murder at a separate state trial last year. The federal trial in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul hinges on when an officer has a duty to intervene in a colleague’s misconduct.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Manda Sertich said Thao was captured on video choosing to argue with and mock the people on the sidewalk begging him to help Floyd rather than trying to get Chauvin off Floyd’s neck. Kueng, she said, could be seen smiling at a shared joke with Chauvin as Floyd died beneath them, and picking gravel out of the police car’s tire. Lane could be heard worrying that they should turn Floyd on his side but did not get up from pinning down Floyd’s legs.

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She said the defendants did not do what “human decency and common sense required them to do: to stop the slow-motion killing unfolding right in front of them.”

DEFERRING TO CHAUVIN

All three defendants have testified in their own defence, saying they deferred to Chauvin’s 19 years of experience as the most senior officer on the scene.

Lane and Kueng, who pinned down Floyd’s buttocks and legs as Thao stood nearby keeping onlookers on the sidewalk, have emphasized that they were rookies only a few days out of training. Sertich argued that even the rookies could and should have asked Chauvin to get off Floyd or to check his neck for a pulse.

“They want you to accept that it is too much to ask of them to say those things even though it was not too much for those regular people who were walking by,” Sertich said. “They made the choice not to upset their colleague rather than do their duty, even though that choice resulted in the death of a human.”

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The men said they did not grasp that Floyd was dying beneath Chauvin’s knee, and assumed that he knew what he was doing.

In his summation to the jury, Kueng’s lawyer Thomas Plunkett argued that Kueng should be acquitted because of his “inadequate training, his lack of experience, his perceived subordinate role to Mr. Chauvin and the other officers and his confidence in his senior officers.”

Thao’s lawyer Robert Paule argued that Thao knew from his training that if police find someone’s heart has stopped beating they must immediately begin performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if safe.

“If Mr. Thao is standing there and the other three officers are monitoring and dealing with Mr. Floyd, and if he doesn’t see them rolling Mr. Floyd over or doing CPR, the logical assumption from their training is that Mr. Floyd must still have a pulse,” he said.

Kueng can be heard in body-worn camera videos telling his colleagues twice that he cannot find a pulse. He told the jury he did not take from this that Floyd’s heart had stopped, but decided instead that the handcuffs were preventing him from checking the pulse successfully.

All three men face years in prison if convicted, and are also due to stand trial in a Minnesota court in June on state charges of aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder.
 

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Three Minneapolis ex-cops guilty of violating George Floyd's rights
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Jonathan Allen
Publishing date:Feb 24, 2022 • 6 hours ago • 4 minute read • Join the conversation
Former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng in a combination of booking photographs from the Minnesota Department of Corrections and Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis, Minn.
Former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng in a combination of booking photographs from the Minnesota Department of Corrections and Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis, Minn. PHOTO BY MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE / HANDOUT /REUTERS / FILES
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ST. PAUL — Three former Minneapolis police officers were found guilty by a federal jury on Thursday of depriving George Floyd of his civil rights by failing to give aid to the handcuffed Black man pinned beneath a colleague’s knee.

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The jury also found that the conduct of officers Tou Thao, 36; J. Alexander Kueng, 28; and Thomas Lane, 38, during the arrest on May 25, 2020, caused Floyd’s death, a finding that can affect the severity of their sentence.

It is a rare instance of police officers being held criminally responsible for a colleague’s excessive force. All three men were convicted of denying Floyd’s constitutional right to medical care while in police custody.

Thao and Kueng were also convicted on a charge of denying Floyd’s right to not face excessive force by failing to stop their colleague Derek Chauvin from kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. Chauvin was convicted last year in a state court of Floyd’s murder.

Thao, Kueng and Lane will remain free on bail pending their sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled. Prosecutors have not yet said what sentence they will request, but the men may face years in prison.

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“This is just accountability,” Philonise Floyd told reporters after the verdict was read. “It could never be justice because I can never get my brother back.”

The verdict marked a second victory this week for prosecutors in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, coming just two days after a jury in Georgia found three white men guilty of federal hate crimes in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a young Black man who was gunned down while running through a mostly white neighborhood.

“That’s historic for our country, because oftentimes officers kill Black and brown men and women, and we get little to no consequences,” said Brandon Williams, George Floyd’s nephew. “A lot of times we don’t even get charges, let alone convictions.”

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Federal prosecutors argued in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul that the men knew from their training and from “basic human decency” that they had a duty to help Floyd as he begged for his life before falling limp beneath Chauvin’s knee.

Floyd’s killing sparked protests in cities around the world against police brutality and racism.

It also led lawmakers to propose such measures as restricting chokeholds, banning “no-knock warrants,” and legislating to curtail the U.S. Supreme Court doctrine known “qualified immunity” that limits lawsuits over police use of excessive force.

Those proposals were included in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed in the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives last year. Philonise Floyd on Thursday again urged lawmakers to pass the measure that has stalled in the Senate, where Democrats are unlikely to get the necessary Republican votes.

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Chauvin, who is white, was sentenced to 22-1/2 years in prison last year after a state murder trial. Although race was not part of the state or federal charges, Chauvin’s conviction was seen as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans. In December, Chauvin pleaded guilty to the federal charge of violating Floyd’s rights.

Under Chauvin’s plea agreement, federal prosecutors will seek a 25-year sentence, concurrent with his state prison sentence. His three former colleagues are also due to stand trial in Minneapolis in June on state charges of aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder.

Widely seen cellphone video Thao stood steps away from Floyd, rebuffing the demands by horrified onlookers that Chauvin get off Floyd’s neck. Kueng and Lane were to Chauvin’s right, pinning down Floyd’s buttocks and legs.

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All three testified in their own defense. Each acknowledged they knew they had a duty of care to people in their custody. But they and their lawyers told jurors they did not realize at the time that Floyd was in dire need of medical aid or that Chauvin’s use of force was excessive.

Prosecutors repeatedly played videos showing Floyd’s distress was plain to bystanders, including children and an off-duty firefighter, who shouted that Floyd was passing out and begging the police to check his pulse.

The three defendants all described deferring to the authority of Chauvin, the most senior officer at the scene with 19 years at the Minneapolis Police Department.

Kueng and Lane, who first handcuffed Floyd on suspicion of using a fake $20 bill in a nearby store, also noted they were rookies only a few days out of training, which lasted more than a year. Thao had been on the force for eight years.

Medical experts have testified that Floyd almost certainly would have survived the arrest if he had been rolled onto his side once the officers restrained him, as the officers acknowledged they had been taught to do.
 

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Racial justice activists awarded $14M in lawsuit against Denver cops
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Mar 25, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
Police officers use tear gas next to the Colorado State Capitol as protests against the death of George Floyd continue for a third night on May 30, 2020 in Denver.
Police officers use tear gas next to the Colorado State Capitol as protests against the death of George Floyd continue for a third night on May 30, 2020 in Denver. PHOTO BY MICHAEL CIAGLO /Getty Images
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DENVER — A federal court jury on Friday awarded $14 million to a dozen activists who sued Denver police, claiming excessive force was used against peaceful protesters during racial injustice demonstrations following the death of George Floyd in 2020.

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The verdict, delivered after about three hours of jury deliberations, capped a three-week trial in U.S. District Court in Denver.

The lawsuit, filed in June 2020, led a federal judge to issue a temporary injunction barring police in Denver from using tear gas, plastic bullets, flash-bang grenades and other “less-than-lethal” force unless approved by a senior officer in response to specific acts of violence.

The death of Floyd, an unarmed Black man, during his arrest in Minneapolis by a white officer kneeling on his neck for nine minutes, ignited protests against police brutality and racial injustice in the summer of 2020 in cities across the country, including Denver.

While the lawsuit brought by Denver activists acknowledged that some protesters engaged in lawless behavior, it said the vast majority were peaceful and accused police of engaging in heavy-handed riot-control tactics without issuing clear warnings and orders to disperse.