I just want to begin this by saying that whatever may have happened in George Floyds past he did not deserve to die for it. I also do not believe the officered handled the situation right. The suffering and death are tragic. With that said, police officers are now being charged with murder, and riots have been breaking out in the streets over the death of this man under the idea that this was caused because of his race. Let's explore what we know as of this point.
Was it murder?
We should keep in mind that to convict someone of murder we must prove that they were killed by the murderer beyond a reasonable doubt. There must not be any good reason to doubt that the officers were the cause of this death. Unfortunately according to local Minnesota News...
Two new exhibits introduced before the Hennepin County District Court show that Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker concluded that George Floyd’s body contained a lethal dose of fentanyl, a powerful opioid, following his death in police custody on May 25. Dr. Baker formed this conclusion after he performed an autopsy on Floyd’s body.
and they were, unable to identify any evidence that Floyd died of “asphyxiation” or “damage to his airways.”
Can you kill a person by asphyxiation without any damage to airways or evidence of asphyxiation? Perhaps you can, but is it not reasonable to think that perhaps it was the lethal dose of fentanyl that we know was in Mr. Floyds system? Again the local Minnesota News reported...
“Opioid overdose itself can induce pulmonary edema,” says the AAMC. Dr. Baker’s autopsy found that “Mr. Floyd’s lungs were 2-3x their normal weight at autopsy,” consistent with pulmonary edema.
You will also notice in the body cam video from 8:35 - 11:00 Mr Floyds breathing is already labored and he complains of not being able to breath long before he has any knee placed on his neck.
Is it not reasonable to think that Floyd (like many criminals fearing going back to prison) took the drugs in order to hide them from the officers as they approached and did not realize it was a lethal dose? Is it possible that he would not have died in this altercation if he had not taken a lethal dose of fentanyl? Is so then there is reasonable doubt and these officers should not be convicted of murder. However, were they criminally negligent?
Was it Criminal Negligence?
I think there probably is a case for criminal negligence, especially when you consider that Chauvin kept his knee on his neck after he went unresponsive. However, what many don't realize is that one of the officers on video express that they think this may be a case of "excited delirium." This is a situation in which a suspect begins to act extremely erratically and unless subdued may go into cardiac arrest. In such situations officers are told to cuff the suspect and hold them until medical help arrives. They even have a training document showing how to hold such a person.
It's going to be hard to claim criminal negligence when the officers training literally told them to restrain the suspect and show an image of a man using the knee to neck restraint (which according to their training is a non-lethal restraint).
Was it Racist?
There is literally nothing in the evidence so far that suggest this was racially motivated. Instead, it seems to have been motivated by a call to the police for counterfeiting and an uncooperative suspect. However, there is much political gain to be made by pushing racial narratives.
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