George Floyd died on 25 May 2020. The police officer put him on the ground with his knee. The video was viral on Facebook straight away.
We have different thoughts of what happened on 25 May. Let’s see the opinion of one police officer:
I’m a former police officer, and so have had plenty of training in physical restraint of individuals being arrested.
There are no police academy training officers to kneel on someone’s neck to subdue them, That’s how you kill a person.
There is extensive training on how to avoid seriously injuring a person while restraining them, and I guarantee you every one of these officers was trained to never strike a person in the neck or choke them.
The officer who killed him is very clearly liable for manslaughter at the very least, and I think the other officers who stood by having some accountability as well because they knew damn well that was not how you handle a person and should have stepped up.
Here’s my question:
Given that this officer was actively killing a man, through the illegal use of force: what would have happened had a non-police officer stopped him? Granted, then the outcome wouldn’t have killed the man and thus there would have been no death to show that the use of force was obviously excessive.
But that’s the part that really makes me angry: anyone who would have tried to stop this would have been arrested on the spot for assaulting an officer, even though the officer was literally murdering another human being
And lawyer answer:
Lawyer here.
While the literal text of most justification/necessity defenses would apply to use force in that situation, most likely the Good Samaritan would be charged with obstruction or interference with public duties. They would then have to convince a jury that there was no other reasonable recourse short of physical force. That’s a tall order and I’d be really nervous about my client.
In a worst-case scenario, our hypothetical Samaritan gets tased or shot or killed for their troubles.
My thoughts? Record and verbally demand the officer stop is probably the wisest course.
Cop Chauvin has been created. Trinity County deputy posted popular pornographic meme sitting on Floyd. We blocked the other half of the picture…
Protests are getting worst and worst. People are destroying everything in honor of George Floyd, that’s not a good thing for America.
And here are the best Floyd Memes or Looting Memes so far…
