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Derek Chauvin is in the dock and faces up to 40 years in prison. The hearing began three days ago with the projection of the famous video “I can’t breathe.”
“Nine-two-nine”: this is how US prosecutor Jerry Blackwell, in court, addressed the jurors, opened on Monday, March 29, 2021, the trial of police officer Derek Chauvin, of Minneapolis. Chauvin, who has since been fired from the police, is accused of killing, by using excessive force, African American George Floyd, 46, on May 25, 2020. “929 are, ladies and gentlemen, the three more important figures in this case ”, he repeated.
The prosecutor is referring to the length of the video (9 minutes and 29 seconds) showing Chauvin, who is white, pinning George Floyd to the floor of a Minneapolis street. Floyd is face down, lying on the ground, with his face pressed to the asphalt and the policeman’s knees forcefully press his neck and back. In the video, made by a spectator of the scene, Floyd is heard saying the famous phrase “I can’t breathe” (“I can’t breathe”) and repeat it 27 times.
Floyd can still be heard calling his mother, who has passed away, several times and asking “tell my children that I love them.” And yet: “My stomach hurts! My neck hurts! Everything hurts! Stop! I can’t breathe!” In the video you can also hear the disturbed and angry voices of several people who gathered there and begged Derek Chauvin to stop him.
But the now-ex-cop, who was awaiting trial on probation after posting a million-dollar bond, did not stop. And George Floyd died right there, suffocated and trampled on by the police.
Prospect of 40 years in prison
Chauvin now faces three major charges: murder in the second degree, murder in the third degree, and murder. If convicted of the most serious charge, he faces up to 40 years in prison.
Three other Minneapolis municipal security officers, also already dismissed, also participated in the scene of violence and death, albeit passively, controlling the perimeter and removing bystanders, ensuring that no one approached the scene. At no time will they have prevented Chauvin from continuing his violent actions. They will be tested together later, but later this year.
It is recalled, however, that George Floyd’s family has already received $ 27 million in damages, the highest in the United States for the death of a black man, and has withdrawn the complaint against Minneapolis County.
Floyd bought tobacco with a false note
Derek Chauvin’s trial began when prosecutors showed the famous video to the court. Other images were also shown, including a short video before that scene, showing George Floyd walking into a Cup Foods convenience store in South Minneapolis to buy tobacco.
The clerk who treated him was heard in court on Wednesday. Christopher Martin, 19, said he remembered Floyd well because “he was a great man” and that they had had a long talk about sports. He also said that Floyd’s speech was rude. “It looked like he was high,” he said. And then he confirmed that Floyd bought tobacco with a $ 20 bill, which he thought was a fake bill, but accepted it anyway, sold him the packet of cigarettes and gave him change. He then called the police, who then arrested George Floyd, who in the meantime was already inside the car parked nearby.
Floyd was high
George Floyd’s official autopsy showed that he had used opioids, which are tranquilizers, and methamphetamine, which is a stimulant, before he died.
Chauvin’s defense attorneys maintain that the police use of force “was reasonable” because Floyd was high on drugs. And that “drugs contributed to Floyd’s death.”
The prosecution acknowledges the use of the two drugs, but stressed that this use did not justify, at all, that the police officer Derek Chauvin abused force and continued to press his knees on Floyd’s neck and body, since the man lying on the floor he said repeatedly that he could not breathe. He noted that drug use was not the cause of death. And he stressed: “It is not George Floyd who is here on trial, it is Derek Chauvin.”
“Have you ever seen someone get killed in front of you?”
According to the report of the newspaper “The Guardian”, which accompanies the trial, on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, Genevieve Hansen, a Minneapolis firefighter who was on leave, was heard passing by and staying to see the scene. . violence. The four policemen are said to have prevented Floyd from providing medical assistance, despite his repeated requests.
Chauvin’s defense of the police tried to characterize the firefighter as part of an “enraged mob that threatened police officers several times.”
When asked, firefighter Genevieve acknowledged that she did not show her identification card that proves that she has medical skills, but stressed that she “begged” several times “to Chauvin, and to the other policemen, to let her help Floyd because he would It seemed that “he was suffocating me and I was going to die, as happened otherwise.”
Genevieve says she wasn’t really mad until she realized that Floyd was already dead “and there was no point trying to argue with the police because they had just killed a person.”
When police officer Chauvin’s defense urged the fire department to agree that she and others in the crowd were “acting and yelling in anger,” Genevieve was silent for a second, gulped, and then said, “I don’t know if Have you ever seen someone dead in front of you, but it is a very disturbing scene, as you imagine ”.
Distressed Witnesses in Court
The court sessions have been harrowing, reports “The Guardian” newspaper. In these first three days, several witnesses to the African American’s arrest, assault and death scene wept and said they felt guilty for not being able to help and save Floyd. And they explained that his anger was not a threat to the police, but a demand for action to help Floyd as he pleaded for life.
The jury was shown several other videos recorded by witnesses in which loud and angry voices can be heard, but none of these videos show any threat to the safety of the four policemen.
The prosecution is trying to elaborate the thesis of a group of policemen, led by Chauvin, who were appallingly indifferent to George Floyd’s suffering and the danger he was in for a very long and agonizing period of time.
The trial continues.
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