The imperfect man
Twenty dollars. That was the value placed on George Floyd’s life by the four police officers who were involved in the death of an imperfect man. If you add up all his transgressions over his lifetime and decided to list them one after the other, the list would never justify what was done to him that day. You see, George Floyd’s life—more or less—was not unlike the imperfect lives we all have lived, having grown up as he did, son of a single mom in the projects of Houston’s Third Ward. The difference between George Floyd’s imperfect life and most of ours was the systemic racism that pervaded his neighborhood. Police were both omnipresent and of little help at all for young black men growing up:
Police were operating on a belief that the more arrests they made, the safer the community would be, McClelland recalled. They believed that locking up young offenders for a long time and releasing them as older adults would push them to age out of crime.
“But we didn’t understand — and I don’t know if people in Houston Police management, at that time, understood — the long term consequences of that type of philosophy,” he said.
--Former Houston police chief Charles McClelland Jr.
Derek Chauvin seems to have shared this philosophy. Most peace officers know much better than the rest of us that many of the men and women they deal with are dealing with a host of issues that impact their choice to commit criminal acts. Poverty, mental illnesses, domestic problems, and drug use are all contributing factors to many crimes.
George Floyd’s “co-morbidity” in this affair was his being a black man. If you read the entire article cited above, guilt or innocence was hardly relevant on the streets of the Third Ward. Young black men were hunted down by police---for their own good. In retrospect, Chauvin’s reaction upon entering that scene is that of a hunter, not a peace officer. Floyd had already been approached and handcuffed by the first responding officers, Lane and Keung, before Chauvin and Tou Thao arrived on the scene. Chauvin took over. At the time of their arrival on the scene, Floyd was lucid and in handcuffs. Floyd was resisting being placed in the back of a police cruiser, alerting the officers that he was claustrophobic. Perhaps his mind was going back to his time as a young man in Houston, especially since Officer Lane had pulled out his gun as he encountered Floyd behind the wheel of his car. At that time Lane ordered Floyd to show his hands and to get out of his car. Floyd complied. Before Chauvin arrived, the charging documents state the following facts surrounding the interaction:
“Mr. Floyd walked with Lane to the sidewalk and sat on the ground at Lane’s direction. When Mr. Floyd sat down he said “thank you man” and was calm. In a conversation that lasted just under two minutes, Lane asked Mr. Floyd for his name and identification. Lane asked Mr. Floyd if he was “on anything” and noted there was foam at the edges of his mouth. Lane explained that he was arresting Mr. Floyd for passing counterfeit currency.”
Whether true or not, his resistance was not to being stopped and questioned by police, it was to the prospects of being caged in the back of a police car. At this point Floyd was only a suspect, but his history with police told him that this ride would likely turn out bad. The fact that he had a record, albeit one that went back to 2007 for a crime he had paid his debt for, only furthers the argument that he knew what he was in for at the end of that ride in the cruiser. His resistance, in fact, argues against the defense team’s assertions that Floyd was incapacitated by drug use.
There is something else. Floyd surely was aware of the more recent history of police abuse and the number of deaths of particularly black men at the hands of police. He wasn’t a wide-eyed teen nor was he a threat to law enforcement officers he had just “thanked” since he was in the control of Lane and Kueng by the time Chauvin approached him. No. Chauvin must have seen Floyd as an opportunity to freely exercise dominance and exact pain. His blatant overuse of force simply meant he didn’t care whether Floyd lived or died—a classic disregard for human life. He could accomplish his ends on the street in full view of the public with what he felt would be impunity. In the end, with that 9+ minute torture-hold that promised to protract his victim’s pain, he murdered him just as certainly as those who lynched black men in the past. Hearing the man beg for his life only served to satisfy Chauvin that he had exacted the last ounce of a man’s dignity as Floyd begged for his deceased mother using his final breaths.
The “mob”
Chauvin’s defense falls apart under even the slightest scrutiny because his actions, and those of the others around him, were videotaped. The “threatening crowd” his lawyers argue distracting their client was composed of a group of about 15 bystanders, several women, a child holding his parent’s hand in fear, and a few men hurling epithets from the sidewalk. One of those speaking to the police was a member of the Minneapolis Fire Department who was trained in life support who was offering to help revive an obviously restrained and unconscious Floyd. The most obvious threat to the police officers who stood between them and the murder they were observing before their eyes were cellphones recording every move and every word. The worst that this crowd could be charged with is caring. The epithets they hurled expressed their outrage at what they were witnessing.
What is left is the verdict of the jury sitting in the courtroom. While the defense has yet to put on its case, the outline of their defense is evident. They will rely on a jury accepting the actions of the officers as being within the existing laws based upon the perception of George Floyd being large, strong, and out of control. The clerk who first reported Floyd to the police for suspected passing of a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill noted that he thought that Floyd acted as if he was “intoxicated.”
the attempt to gaslight George Floyd’s death
On May 29, the country was told that the autopsy of George Floyd “revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxiation,” and that “potential intoxicants” and preexisting cardiovascular disease “likely contributed to his death.” This requires clarification. Importantly, these commonly quoted phrases did not come from a physician, but were taken from a charging document that utilized politicized interpretations of medical information. As doctors, we wish to highlight for the public that this framing of the circumstances surrounding Floyd’s death was at best, a misinterpretation, and at worst, a deliberate obfuscation.
--Scientific American, June 6, 2020
After three autopsies, the initial report was disputed by the county medical examiner (who issued the May 29 preliminary report). An autopsy arranged by the Floyd family and conducted by Dr. Allecia Wilson of the University of Michigan and Dr. Michael Baden determined that the initial report was, in fact wrong:
“The autopsy shows that Mr. Floyd had no underlying medical problem that caused or contributed to his death,” Baden said, according to the New York Times. “This is confirmed by information provided to Dr. Wilson and myself by the family.”
--by Pema Levy, Mother Jones, June 1, 2020
The initial report which immediately cast blame on the victim was provided by the same ME who released the first incorrect autopsy. As a trained pathologist it is not overly suspect to question the early attempt to vindicate the police. The follow-up corrected report states clearly the cause and manner of death:
Cause of death: Cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual,restraint, and neck compression
Manner of death: Homicide
--Official ME Press Release Report, Hennepin County Medical Examiner
The defense is choosing to rely on the unofficial earlier report which opens for them the tiniest crack of doubt giving an opportunity for juror nullification based upon the conflicting official autopsy reports. Whether the ME offered his preliminary report knowing its potential impact on the trial or was simply trying to protect the police from responsibility is now moot considering the resulting “confusion” it has created. The Scientific American article’s authors state quite clearly the impact of the ME’s decision to gaslight the public and prepare the way for an exoneration of police if there were a trial:
As physicians, we will not be complicit in the ongoing manipulation of medical expertise to erase government-sanctioned violence. Though we are relieved that two independent examinations invalidated the preliminary findings in the charging document and the headlines that deceitfully undermined Chauvin’s culpability in Floyd’s murder, our initial incense is not replaced by celebration.
For three days, Black Americans sat—and still sit—with the all-too-familiar pangs of being told that the truth is not true. Of fearing that the law would believe a physician’s report over the reality they saw with their own eyes, and have lived with their own lives. It's a miscarriage of justice that deepens the cut; not only can Black people be killed with impunity; a physician’s autopsy report can be twisted to replace the truth.
— By Ann Crawford-Roberts, Sonya Shadravan, Jennifer Tsai, Nicolás E. Barceló, Allie Gips, Michael Mensah, Nichole Roxas, Alina Kung, Anna Darby, Naya Misa, Isabella Morton, Alice Shen
The evidence brought out in trial so far has been damning, but the worst is yet to come. As the defense digs in to try to clear their client it is likely that they will try to put the ghost of the dead man on trial. Precluded by the court from using his prior arrest record for their defense, they will undoubtedly try to convict him for the crime he was unable to defend himself against. His death has left him an innocent man in that case. The defense will attempt to bury his reputation as well. It is well to note at this time that both men locked in the encounter at Cup’s Variety Store in Minneapolis that day have pasts.
By all accounts, George Floyd was a petty criminal whose record began with minor drug offenses in Texas which has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country:
African Americans are incarcerated at 5 times the rate of Whites in Texas (3,734 per 100,000, compared to 694 per 100,000 Whites). There are more African American men of all ages in prison in Texas (66,300) than in the higher education system (40,800) 8 A national report published by JPI in August 2003 showed that nearly twice as many African Americans men in their earlier 30s have prison records (22%) than Bachelors degrees (12%)….
According to national data, Whites use drugs at similar rates to African Americans, and what disparity in use exists does not explain the level of overrepresentation seen in the prison system. (emphasis mine)
--JUSTICE POLICY INSTITUTE POLICY BRIEF: RACE AND IMPRISONMENT IN TEXAS
Derek Chauvin’s record is also of note here. In his 19-year career, he had a reputation for an over-aggressive approach to policing. His record includes 18 complaints, 16 of which went undisciplined. In both cases the two men who met that day on a Minneapolis street were in many ways the same—both were imperfect men.
Just-world hypothesis
Without specific information that suggests that Chauvin either recognized and knew Floyd or that he was aware of his past record, very little is left to the imagination as to the motivation the police officers at that scene had for the tactics they used on their prey. It is too easy to simply assert they were all racists. Racism does not fully explain the coordinated effort by four officers to ignore what they would have to recognize as a situation fraught with danger for them. Too many witnesses, too many videos would suggest personal peril even racist cops would want to avoid. The KKK didn’t wear masks as a fashion statement. So what else could embolden trained police officers to violate their oath to serve and protect?
Some suggest that it is more likely that these officers, or at least some of them, were operating under the effects of the “just world hypothesis.” Basically, this is a psychological condition under which there is a cognitive bias underpinning the officers’ actions. The just-world hypothesis is the belief that, in most cases, the social environment is fair, and people generally get what they deserve. Taken to its ultimate conclusion, the officers who aided Chauvin as he tortured and then snuffed out the life of George Floyd simply got what he deserved. The “just-world” view is a fallacy that is often employed by casual observers who see victims as inviting their fate. Women often suffer under this hypothesis. In cases of rape often it is suggested that a woman invites the illicit behavior of her perpetrator because of the clothes she wears.
This diverts responsibility from the criminal to his or her victim. As the three other officers aid and abet Chauvin as he presses the life out of George Floyd, instead of reacting according to their training and forcing Chauvin to stop, they allow him to inflict further punishment. One actually leans in and kneels on Floyd’s back as if to show his own approval of Chauvin’s nine-minute torture and murder. To them, at that moment, they decided that George Floyd’s life was worth less than the twenty dollars he was alleged to have stolen in the purchase of a lousy pack of cigarettes using a suspect counterfeit bill.
The coming defense strategy of blaming the victim, pointing out his past history of criminal activity, drug use, while focusing on the trace amounts of fentanyl and meth found in Floyd’s system is, at this point, a ploy to garner one or two jurors. A mistrial is their best hope for Chauvin.
Compare the police reaction in taking known murderers Dylann Roof and Peter Manfredonia into custody. Or the mistrial and acquittals of white men in courts that supported murderous racists for more than a century, Then ask yourself why would George Floyd resist placing himself, handcuffed and with a prior record, in the seat of that police car?
Perhaps he was taught to believe that some lives are worth more than others. His last words, “I can’t breathe!” were answered by officer Chauvin by pressing his kneee more deliberately into Floyd’s neck finally cutting off his oxygen--- for the crime of possibly passing on a twenty-dollar counterfeit bill.
Yes, the two men who met that day on a Minneapolis street were in many ways the same—both were imperfect men. Yet, I am sure that for one, George Floyd’s murderer, the value of one human life in America just went up.