[Townhall] An incredible documentary by Alpha News, titled “The Fall of Minneapolis,” was released last year, revealing what really happened in the death of George Floyd. Reporter Liz Collins, who produced the film and also wrote a bestselling book about it, interviewed key people involved, including police officers. Collins was fired afterwards from her longtime job at WCCO-TV, a CBS affiliate in Minneapolis/St. Paul, which she believes was due to her fair coverage of police incidents (she is married to the former president of the Minneapolis Police Officers Federation).
The documentary obtained bodycam footage from the officers who responded: Derek Chauvin, Alex Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao. The mainstream media downplayed the fact that one of the officers was black and another was Asian. Kueng, who is black, arrested Floyd and spent more time with him than Chauvin, who arrived on the scene later. All four were sentenced to prison, with Chauvin receiving 22.5 years.
Floyd can be seen in the bodycam footage repeatedly disregarding the officers’ commands. Lane told him to get out of his car eight times. Floyd lied to the officers, said he wasn’t on any substances, and said he got shot the last time he was arrested, which wasn’t true. After he was placed in handcuffs, he continued resisting. He never stopped talking back to the officers and refused to get into the patrol vehicle. The officers tried to push him in. He can be seen kicking Lane.
Floyd forced his way out of the vehicle and ended up lying on the ground. Chauvin used the Maximal Restraint Technique (MRT) on him, which was approved by the Minneapolis Police Department. As Floyd continued to yell, Lane called for an ambulance. A firefighter who happened to be at the scene, off duty, testified during the trial against Chauvin that the medical team took a long time to respond, considering it was located only two blocks away. Bodycam footage revealed there was a miscommunication between the fire department and Emergency Medical Services.
One expert, after reviewing the bodycam footage, stated that she could see the paramedics failed to properly attach the oxygen to Floyd, “that’s a big mistake.” However, officials claimed that the paramedics did everything correctly.
The chief of the Minneapolis Police Department testified during the trial that Chauvin’s knee appeared to be on Floyd’s shoulder blade, not his neck. However, he claimed MRT wasn’t a trained technique. Chauvin’s mother showed Collins his training manuals, which included that technique. Other officers told Collins they were all trained on MRT. A black officer told Collins, almost in tears, that Chauvin was one of the top two or three recruits he ever trained.
However, Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill refused to allow evidence of MRT training to the jury. Cahill also refused to allow evidence of the miscommunication and Floyd’s drug arrests. Floyd had a lengthy criminal history, which included aggravated robbery with a firearm. The judge asked the jurors about their opinions of Black Lives Matter, and they had favorable responses.
Collins interviewed an officer who had arrested Floyd in a previous incident, who relayed that Floyd’s behavior was exactly the same, involving resistance to the officers.
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