Fact: This is how George Floyd died
On the evening of May 25, 2020, 46-year-old George Floyd was arrested by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a store employee accused him of trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.
Floyd was handcuffed but when officers tried to get him into the car, he resisted, ending up on the ground face down in the street.
Bystanders filmed as officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s head and neck for about nine minutes. In the video, Floyd can be heard over 20 times saying he can’t breathe before his body goes limp.
Floyd was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly thereafter. The murder triggered a large wave of protests around the United States during the summer of 2020.
Chauvin was later sentenced to 22.5 years in prison and three other officers were also sentenced to prison terms.
The US Department of Justice believes that the police force in Minneapolis has systematically discriminated against ethnic minorities, violated constitutional rights and neglected the safety of people in police custody.
The report is based on an extensive two-year investigation and shows that the police used excessive force, including “unjustified lethal force”. The police have also violated the rights of people who exercised constitutionally protected freedom of expression.
Another conclusion is that both the police and the city, among other things, discriminated against blacks and people from the indigenous population.
— Many police officers performed their difficult work with professionalism, courage and respect. But the patterns and practices we observed made possible what happened to George Floyd, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference in Minneapolis.
George Floyd was killed in 2020 in connection with a police intervention that was filmed by passersby. The killing sparked a large wave of protests around the United States in the summer of 2020, and became significant in the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.