George Floyd

Derek Chauvin And The Myth Of The Impartial Juror

April 7, 2021 Sonali Chakravarti, Black Agenda Report. Educate! George Floyd, Jury, Legal System, Police violence

Did you, or someone close to you, participate in any of the demonstrations or marches against police brutality that took place in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death?. . . If you participated, did you carry a sign? What did it say? These questions were part of the questionnaire given to those summoned to serve as jurors in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd. Provided that judges and attorneys are willing to take these questions up, they could hold the key for beginning more nuanced conversations about race and the criminal legal system. As is well known, the jury selection process is one of the most consequential and contentious phases of the criminal trial.

Why Are Cops Testifying Against Derek Chauvin?

April 5, 2021 Scott Cooper, Left Voice. Educate! George Floyd, Legal System, Minneapolis, Police violence

You could join liberals in celebrating the members of the Minneapolis police force who have testified for the prosecution in the Derek Chauvin murder trial in the past two days, or you could see right through it to what they’re really up to. On Thursday, a retired Minneapolis police officer who was a shift supervisor when Chauvin murdered George Floyd and received a call about the arrest from a concerned 911 dispatcher, became the first cop to desert Chauvin on the stand. Sgt. David Ploeger said that once Floyd was no longer offering any resistance, the cops “could’ve ended the restraint.” And he also revealed to jurors that Chauvin did not immediately admit to him that he’d put his knee on Floyd’s neck.

Chauvin’s Lawyers Are Falsely Implying That Drugs Killed George Floyd

March 31, 2021 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. Educate! George Floyd, Legal System, murder by police, Police violence

Drugs have long been used to justify racist police-perpetrated violence, and the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the alleged murder of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner last May is, thus far, no different. In his opening statement in a Minneapolis courtroom on Monday, Chauvin’s defense attorney Eric J. Nelson spoke at length about Floyd’s health problems and drug use in a clear attempt to cast doubt on the prosecution’s central argument: Floyd was killed because Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd pleaded for mercy and gasped, “I can’t breathe.” The prosecution saw this coming from miles away. Attempts by Chauvin’s defense to blame the victim began shortly after Floyd was handcuffed and killed in police custody — an alleged murder that was captured on video before sparking mass protests against racist police violence in Minneapolis and across the nation.

Black Lives Matter And Blue Lives Matter At Center Of Jury Questionnaire

March 14, 2021 Georgia Fort, Unicorn Riot. Educate! George Floyd, Legal System, Minneapolis, Police violence

Minneapolis, MN – The trial for the cop charged with George Floyd’s murder is gearing up to be the biggest trial of the decade. For Minnesota, it’s the first fully televised criminal trial ever; the state typically doesn’t allow cameras in court. As jury selection ensues live on television and social media, we’re all getting an instant look at random survey results of the general public’s views on social issues, something that was intentionally designed by the prosecution and defense. The jury questionnaire, broken up into six parts, includes a total of 69 questions. Two of them have provided a center basis for the questioning: “How favorable or unfavorable are you about Black Lives Matter” and “How favorable or unfavorable are you about Blue Lives Matter.”

Minneapolis Promised Change After George Floyd

March 12, 2021 Akin Olla, The Guardian. Educate! Free Speech and Assembly, George Floyd, Minneapolis, Police violence

The George Floyd uprising that began in Minneapolis introduced the demand of defunding the police to the general public, empowered Black-led anti-police violence movements across the planet, generated policy changes in cities across the US, and most importantly built new organizations which have the capacity to fight for systemic change for the long haul. The uprising brought a lot of reforms and positive developments to its birth city, too, including a move to actually defund the Minneapolis police department and redistribute funds to services with a larger potential for eradicating both crime and poverty. Now, however, the Minneapolis and Minnesota governments are in the process of undoing that progress and moving in the opposite direction.

Hundreds Protest On The Eve Of Derek Chauvin’s Trial

March 9, 2021 Adolfo Flores, Buzzfeed. Resist! George Floyd, Minneapolis, murder by police, Police violence

A day before jury selection in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer accused of killing George Floyd, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis calling for justice and police reform. Hundreds of people marched Sunday from Hennepin County Government Center through downtown Minneapolis, at one point stopping at an intersection to read the names of more than 400 people killed by police in the state of Minnesota. Organizers for the event, "I Can't Breathe" Silent March for Justice, asked people to wear black and bring flowers and signs. Civil rights attorney and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, who read the names of those killed by police, asked a group of volunteers to carry a white coffin that a member of the community had made to remind everyone that George Floyd was "lynched" on May 25 of last year.

First Trial For The Police Murder Of George Floyd Opens

March 9, 2021 Trévon Austin, WSWS. Educate! George Floyd, Legal System, Minneapolis, murdered by police, Police

The opening of the trial of Derek Chauvin, one of the four former Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officers charged in the death of 46-year-old George Floyd, was delayed for at least a day Monday after Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill postponed jury selection as an appellate court reviews the possible reinstatement of a lesser third-degree murder charge dropped last fall. Currently, Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter for his actions last May. Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes while he was handcuffed and pinned to the pavement by two other officers. Legal experts suggest a third-degree murder charge would be easier for the prosecution to prove. Minnesota law defines third-degree murder as “without intent to effect the death of any person, causing the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life.”

The George Floyd Act Wouldn’t Have Saved George Floyd’s Life

March 5, 2021 Derecka Purnell, The Guardian. Educate! Congress, George Floyd, Police violence

On Wednesday night, the House of Representatives voted to pass the George Floyd Act, named after the Black man killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin last summer. Among many reforms, the act seeks to ban racial profiling, overhaul qualified immunity for police, and ban the use of chokeholds. While these seem like good measures, they are woefully insufficient to stop police violence. These reforms could not have even saved George Floyd’s life. To be clear, Floyd did not die from a chokehold. A police officer put his knee to Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. A medical examiner’s autopsy reported “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression”. Floyd also had blunt force trauma to his head, face and shoulders. Banning chokeholds is important, as we should reduce the number of tactics that the police can employ to be dangerous.

Killer Cops: Police Killed Over 1,000 Americans In 2020

December 30, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! George Floyd, Police violence, Rebellion2020, State Violence

American law enforcement officers have killed well over 1,000 people in 2020. Between January 1 and December 15 of this year, the Mapping Police Violence project has recorded 1,066 people nationwide killed at the hands of the police, an average of around three killings per day. Despite the fact that 2020 has brought with it a pandemic forcing Americans to stay off the streets (and, presumably, out of trouble) as much as possible, there have only been 17 days recorded this year where the police did not kill someone. The project also compiled statistics on the racial backgrounds of the victims. Black people are three times more likely than white people to be slain by police, and more likely to be unarmed when it does happen.

Connecting Beyond The Height Of Emergency

September 3, 2020 By Anoa Changa, Prism. Strategize! Anti-Racism, Community Safety, George Floyd, Rebellion2020

Three months ago, protests in Minneapolis gave way to a national uprising. Ushering in a new focus on racial justice, the uprisings have challenged the way people relate to one another and how some talk about community safety. Coupled with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, the uprisings have forced people to rethink how to protect their communities through strengthening their bonds with one another. Mutual aid groups and block-level community defense are two ways people shifted beyond traditional American individualism. A climate organizer with TakeAction Minnesota, Magdalena Kaluza said that in the midst of the uprising, neighbors began meeting and planning with each other. For Kaluza and many others, the focus was on protecting people first and foremost.

Minneapolis: Anti-Racism Uprising Infiltrated By Extreme Right

August 15, 2020 Andre Vltchek, Popular Resistance. Educate! George Floyd, Minneapolis, Rebellion2020, Right wing extremism

The city of Minneapolis is where it all began. It is where the last drop fell on the surface of a proverbial overflowing lake, causing the dam to burst, consequently starting to destroy the foundations of the empire. A death of just one single man can, under certain dreadful circumstances, put into motion the entire avalanche of events. It can smash the whole regime into pieces. It can fully rewrite history, and even change the identity of a nation. It can… although it not always does. George Floyd’s death became a spark. The city of Minneapolis is where the murder occurred, and where the ethnic minorities rose in rage.

Why Did The Bureau Of Prisons Impose A National Lockdown?

July 8, 2020 By Natalia Schuurman, AFGJ.org. Resist! COVID-19, George Floyd, Prisons, Rebellion2020

Following the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25, a nationwide uprising of unprecedented proportions has swept the U.S. in thousands of cities and towns, large and small, across all 50 states. This surge of mass resistance around issues of racial injustice, occurring against the backdrop of a major public health crisis and increasingly deteriorating economic conditions, has laid bare the failure of our capitalist system to protect working class communities of color. In addition to facing a much higher possibility of being endangered by an encounter with law enforcement, these communities are also coping with disproportionately high rates of unemployment and COVID-19 contagion.

Protest And Power

July 4, 2020 Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report. Strategize! Capitalism, George Floyd, Police violence, Rebellion2020

The last thing the Black Misleadership Class wants is a Black power-seeking movement. Wedded as they are to a token “place” in the capitalist spoils system, these misleaders have shown remarkable loyalty to their bosses in the Democratic Party and, until recently, to the police that kills their constituents at will. Despite decades of Black grassroots warnings against the growing militarization of the U.S. police, in 2014 the Congressional Black Caucus voted 32 to 8 to continue the infamous Pentagon 1033 program that funneled billions of dollars in weapons and gear to local police departments. (A program that increased 24-fold under the First Black President, Barack Obama.) The “Black Lives Matter” movement was born only months later but had virtually no effect on the Black Caucus’s slavish politics. The Black Misleadership Class was impervious to pressures from within the Black community and responsive only to its handlers in the Democratic Party.

Protesters Blockade Central Prison In North Carolina

June 22, 2020 Calvin Deutschbein, Workers.org. Resist! George Floyd, Prisons, Rebellion2020, White Supremacy

June 13 marked the beginning of the third week of protests in Raleigh, N.C., the state capital and home of the murderous Raleigh Police Department and more than 70 other law enforcement agencies. Different days have drawn different groups with varying goals, but not a day has gone by without hundreds of people turning out on the streets to support Black Liberation and oppose the police. Protests have focused on contesting city sites glorifying white supremacy. From the moment protests began at 5 p.m. on May 30, hundreds of people immediately besieged the Wake County Detention Center. Others gathered around Confederate monuments in the state capital, the Raleigh Municipal Building, which holds the offices of the mayor and city council, and the governor’s mansion. They also went to many sites of police killings around the city.

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