By Aaron Miller-
A Minneapolis police chief has told the trial of Derek Chauvin that the former veteran police officer violated departmental policy in pinning his knee on George Floyd’s neck and keeping him down after he stopped resisting.
Medaria Arradondo gave evidence to the murder trial , as the focus turned to the accused’s training on day six of the trial.
Chauvin, 45, faces three charges of second and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, following the death of unarmed George Floyd last year.
He is accused of putting his knee on the 46-year-old man’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, outside a shop, where Mr Floyd had allegedly tried to use a fake $20 note to pay for a pack of cigarettes. Chauvin defiantly ignored the pleas of bystanders to ease up on Mr Floyd, who had been pleading for compassion.
Mr Arradondo said Chauvin’s actions were “in no way, shape or form” part of the department’s policy or training and “certainly [were] not part of our ethics or our values”. His testimony came after the doctor who pronounced him dead said Mr Floyd died due to lack of oxygen.
Dr Bradford Langenfeld, a senior resident on duty that night at Hennepin County Medical Center, told the jury Mr Floyd’s heart had stopped by the time he arrived at the hospital.
The doctor added added that, based on the information he had, it was “more likely than the other possibilities” that Mr Floyd’s heart stopped because of asphyxia, or insufficient oxygen.
The defense argues that Chauvin did what he was trained to do and that Mr Floyd’s use of illegal drugs and his underlying health conditions caused his death.
However, the prosecution say it was Chauvin who caused Mr Floyd’s death.
Before he was pinned to the ground, a handcuffed and frantic Mr Floyd struggled with police who were trying to put him in a squad car, saying he was claustrophobic.
Chauvin continued to kneel on his neck, whole another officer knelt on his back, and a third holding his feet – until the ambulance arrived, even after he became unresponsive, according to testimony and video footage.
One of the officers present had twice asked whether they should roll Mr Floyd on his side to aid his breathing, and later said calmly that he thought Mr Floyd was passing out. Another checked Mr Floyd’s wrist for a pulse and said he couldn’t find one.
The officers also rebuffed offers of help from an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter who wanted to administer aid or tell officers how to do it, the court heard last week.
Dr.Langedfield added that “any amount of time” a patient spends in cardiac arrest without immediate CPR decreases the chance of a good outcome. He said there is an approximately 10-15% decrease in survival for every minute that CPR is not administered.
Mr Nelson questioned Mr Langenfeld about whether some drugs can cause hypoxia, or insufficient oxygen.
The doctor acknowledged that fentanyl and methamphetamine, both of which were found in Mr Floyd’s body, can do so.
Under cross-examination, Mr Langenfeld said Mr Floyd’s carbon dioxide levels were more than twice as high as levels in a healthy person, and he agreed that that could be attributed to a respiratory problem, but could also be attributed to the high levels were also consistent with cardiac arrest.
Chauvin’s death sparked one of the largest demonstrations by Black Lives Matters Movement (BLM), worldwide, protesting against police brutality against African Americans.
Several unarmed Afro Americans have died in the hands of police, with multiple officers escaping justice.
Unarmed white people have also died in the hands of the brutal American police force, though analysts say a higher percentage of the relatively small percentage of black people in the U.S have suffered unjustified killings.
The reality is that the American police force are potentially brutal against both black and white inhabitants of the United States, but there are officers who project their racist tendencies against minority groups, conveniently hiding under the badge of their uniform.
The George Floyd trial is poised to be a landmark case that highlights the extreme side of racism, and calls for justice to uphold the law.