Five years ago this month, George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer named Derek Chauvin. It was filmed in its entirety. For 9 minutes and 29 seconds Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck with his full weight and was aided by three of his fellow officers. If you’ve watched the infamous video, or any news during 2020 you’ll never forget the scene. The video at the top is one of the witnesses who testified at Chauvin’s trial, Charles McMillian.
Charles was the first person I spoke to when I landed in Minnesota, randomly running into him when I was photographing a volunteer clean up of a business that been affected by the protests the night before.
“I saw the police officer handcuffed Mr. Floyd and take him over to the squad car. And Mr. Floyd was on the ground. I kept telling the officer, “Brother, get your foot off his neck because he’s stopped breathing. He’s going to die. And the officer refused to get his foot off Mr. Floyd‘s neck.”
“This is the consequence everyone’s got to pay, including me watching a man die. … And I hear Mr. Floyd saying, “Mom, they’re killing me in the street.’”
Fast forward to March of this year - Ben Shapiro penned an open letter calling for Trump to pardon the former Minneapolis police officer who put his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes.
Make no mistake—the Derek Chauvin conviction represents the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics. The country cannot turn the page on that dark, divisive, and racist era without righting this terrible wrong.
Shapiro also created an entire pay-walled production with a website, “evidence” and a five part video series along with a petition. It didn’t quite work. Soon after, Trump was asked about a pardon, and he said that he “has not heard about that.”
Now that we’ve gotten within days of the 5 year anniversary of Floyd’s killing the usual suspects are working hard to smear Floyd and try to clear the name of a convicted, documented murderer.
A person I continued to be shocked to call Congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene posted this thought on May 14th.
The mention of Floyd having drugs in his system is the favorite fall back excuse for people who are incapable of reading a coroners report, or even the press release from the office. That release clearly read: Cause of death: Cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.
The facts don’t matter caucus of the Republican Party has also forgotten that even if President Trump issued a pardon of Chauvin he still must serve out the rest of his state-level sentence. In an interview with Al Sharpton earlier this month Minnesota AG Keith Ellison said of a potential pardon, “It doesn’t change his prison sentence. He still owes Minnesota 22 1/2 years… he’s not getting out.” Under the current sentence he will be released in 2037.
Ellison explained that, “I think they’re pushing it because they want to agitate and outrage people.”
Text of the interview with Charles McMillian:
I was going down Chicago Avenue, South, going South on to get to the corner South of 38 to make a left, but I got ready to make the gap.
I see a black man and the police having a little confrontation so I decide that I wanted to pull over and see what was going on. And as I pulled over, I see the, all of them at the door. All these cops, Mr. Floyd, and they was talking after that, I've watched the police officer handcuff Mr. Floyd and takes him over to his squad car.
And Mr. Floyd was on the ground. I kept telling that the officer, bro. Get your foot off his neck because he's stopped breathing. He's now he's going to die and the officer refused to get his foot off and Mr. Floyds neck and in the mean time that's what happened why Mr. Floyd died. Had all the kids had listened to me, for that one minute we wouldn't have all these problems going on and our state right now in Minnesota.
"Everybody got pay and including me, watch a man die and watching me right now, waking up to the first thing I hear is Mr. Floyd is saying "Mom, they killing me in the street," and I lost my mom two years ago. Devastated and it hurts."
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