Being A Black In America Should Not Be Death Sentence - George Floyd Scandal

The video clip that chronicled a man being restrained by the knee of a Minneapolis police officer placed across his throat just moments before his death is triggering a tidal wave of reaction.

Social media posts and statements are lamenting the loss of the man identified by his attorney as George Floyd, but those reactions are also expressing anger that another black man has died at the hands of law enforcement, and frustration that incidents like the one that unfolded Monday night keep happening over and over.

is name was George Floyd. He can be seen on a video Darnella Frazier posted to Facebook, shouting “Please, please, please I can’t breathe,” as a Minneapolis police officer held him down for minutes, with his knee on Floyd’s neck. Shortly thereafter, he was dead.

The scene of the confrontation with police in the Powderhorn neighborhood, 10 minutes south of downtown, is now a home for a memorial, and also the beginning of demonstrations.

Floyd was arrested around 8 p.m. Monday for forgery, a non-violent crime that implies he tried to used forged documents at a nearby deli. Officers say he resisted arrest before Frazier started filming.

The video posted to social media shows an encounter between Minneapolis police and Floyd outside Cup Foods. In the nine-minute video, an officer can be seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck at the side of a squad car. Floyd can be heard groaning and repeatedly telling police he can’t breathe.

“He’s not even resisting arrest right now, bro,” one bystander tells the officer and his partner. “You’re f***ing stopping his breathing right now, you think that’s cool?”

After about five minutes in the video, Floyd appears to go unconscious. The bystanders ask for someone to check his pulse. The officer does not lift his knee from Floyd’s neck until medical personnel arrive a few minutes later and carry him to an ambulance. Police said he was taken to Hennepin Healthcare, where he was pronounced dead.