(WCCO) People across the country are demanding answers after a black man died shortly after he was video taped gasping for breath with a police officer's knee on his neck, strangling out the words, "I can't breathe."
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter didn't mince words when he called into the Chad Hartman show on WCCO to discuss the incident that left George Floyd dead.
"Any human being has to be disgusted," Carter said. "I'm just heartbroken to see George Floyd, a man who in the video was helpless, he was handcuffed, just having the full weight of this officer on the back of his neck over the course of a 10-minute video. It's just heartbreaking and hard to watch."
Hartman pointed out it wasn't just one officer making a bad decision in a split second. It was an officer deciding minute after minute to keep holding on. Video shows his knee was in place for seven minutes. And he wasn't alone. Other officers were at the scene while it played out.
The official police statement after the fact said, "After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance."
Witnesses to the video, including the mayor, see something else.
"You see this officer with his hand casually in his pocket, his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck and you see these officers around. If it was just one officer and a split second thing, you may be able to say it was a split second decision, bad apple, a rogue officer or something like that. But when you see a handful of officers standing around, standing guard while he does that, it speaks to an accepted and normalized of abuse that goes far beyond the city of Minneapolis."
He called it the ugly underbelly of police culture, something that won't stop until someone forces it to stop.
"How vile, how reprehensible, how blatant does it have to get before officers are held accountable for their actions?" the mayor asked. "I can only pray that we have a justice system, that we have a legal system that's capable of holding these officers accountable for squeezing the life out of George Floyd and if we don't it will just continue to pile on."
The city took swift action, with Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announcing that four officers involved are now "former employees" with the department. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey tweeted, "Four responding MPD officers involved in the death of George Floyd have been terminated. This is the right call."
What happens next? No one is quite sure, but an FBI investigation is underway.
And a protest is planned Tuesday night at the scene, organized by a number of local activist groups, including the Minneapolis NAACP, Communities Against Police Brutality, and Black Lives Matter Twin Cities. Earlier in the day, people drove by and honked their horns in solidarity.
People are protesting outside the Minneapolis police precinct on Lake street over the killing of George Floyd, while cars are driving by honking in solidarity.@WCCO pic.twitter.com/x0QTiSFidP
— Sam Jones (@PhotojournSam) May 26, 2020Bubba Bryant responded to the show of support, tweeting, "As they should be. That officer was so wrong. That man didn’t need to die. God bless his family and I hope justice is served to the officer."
