And how many police take downs of Criminals do you think would actually be shown to the public? Especially if they were done by the book. It’s not news to show good police action.

Maybe because the Cop's job is to interact with Violent perpetrators of crimes. None of the others have the job of having to arrest or restrain another human being. As yourself how you would have done your job if you would have been the one responsible for restraining and arresting George Floyd or some other violent person hopped up on drugs.

What did you do for a living before you retired? If you made a mistake in your job were you subject to criminal prosecution? Why aren't the people behind the cameras stepping up and showing us how Policing should be done?

Video from one angle does not always show what really happened. Videos can also be doctored to promote a certain viewpoint. I see nothing wring with prohibiting people from posting video of police actions online. Video shot of police doing their jobs can and should be given to the D.A.'s office if the person that shot the video believes that there was something wrong with the officer's actions.

Posting a video online only serves to give a lot of people part of the information while holding back what could be a lot of factors. All it does is to get people riled up and create a more divisive society.

Let the various government law enforcement agencies decide what is relevant and what may not be.

The problem now is that police are being tried in the court of public opinion before a court or jury can look at all of the evidence.

We just had an example of this in the case in Columbus, Ohio where the officer shot the teenage girl that was about to stab another teenage girl with a knife.

Instead of headlines that say, "Officer saves girl's life by shooting knife wielding attacker" we have immediate protests, celebrities making threatening quotes and the one that was shot being referred to as the victim as opposed to what she really was, the perpetrator.

Don't stop anyone from shooting video of anything that is out in public for people to see. But stop them from posting police actions online and give the video to the authorities.

I agree 100%, his past was a huge factor in the strong use of force, if cops can not ratchet up force when merited they will be the looser far too often. Chauvin may not have been the best but few are perfect as they are human and cops need the backing required to do their job without risk of persecution like this. Bad cops get ferreted out by internal affairs all the time and the system works for the most part. I don't believe George Floyds skin color was a significant factor other than the drastic treatment Derek Chauvin got in the press to drive this terrible over reach. If G. Floyd was white there would not even be a story so which color of skin is likely over or under represented.

We seek, we demand perfection. Unfortunately perfection does not and cannot exist.

I do not have answers only questions based in reality. "No one wants to protect bad cops." What does that mean? When I was working, while I was responsible, dedicated, etc etc etc an mistake was in dollars and cents and I could or would correct almost all of them-even if it cost me money.

A cop is far different. A mistake made in a tenth of a second can cost someone their life. They do not know what they are walking into. They are regularly offered bribes everything from a free doughnut to sex, drugs and cash.

Our athletes, etc. We know that some of them fall prey to vice. Reality, perhaps, like cops, we only know a small part of what goes on.

I do not have solutions. Like most things the only real choice is to do the best we can.

What about Chauvin's police history? Should that have been brought up
also? He shouldn't have even been employed at the time of George Floyd arrest!!!

The race card. I suggest to all that you use my simple yet difficult to actually do.
Simply in your mind reverse the skin color. If, that then reverses your view you have a problem. Sometimes we call that white guilt. I am white, I do not have white guilt.
The charge of racist is truly powerful. A big reason for that is it is impossible to prove you are not racist. Reality check. You meet someone. To claim you are not aware it is male, female, old, young, thin, fit, fat well dressed, black, white, hispanic, oriental etc etc etc. You are lying to others. More important, you are lying to yourself.

I just read some reviews of the new law and found it is still perfectly legal to video people in public, including police.

What is not legal is to publish officers' personal information with the intent to harass them or cause others to harass them. It is illegal in many states to publish anyone's personal information with the intent to harass.

People may not be aware but many police officers are harassed for just being police officers. Vandalized homes / cars, nuisance 3am phone calls, followed in stores, their kids bullied at school, etc. Its sad, but true.

I'd have preferred Oklahoma put out the same law without regard to ones employment, but maybe they were pulling a public political stunt to show support for a group being demonized by the current crop of leftists.

Ohiobuckeye
 

I agree with what most people are saying here but if George Floyd was so bad why is he walking the streets, is it because he’s done his time. I saw the video & saw he was cuffed so he couldn’t fight back but to kneel on his neck until he died was murder. Why was the officer kneeling on him for so long, I think this peticular policeman had it in for him, he said he was trained to do this but I guess in his training they forgot to tell him that the suspect has to breath now & then, he knew exactly what was going to happen. Floyd didn’t fight, he couldn’t. But in defense of the police, people are nuts if they defund the police. If I’m a good citizen & I give up my guns who’s going to the wrong side of town to tell the criminal to give their guns, some politician. Then who going to protect you when one of the wrong side of town people starts shooting your family, the police, your 357 mag. hand gun, oh yea we don’t have police protection, & we gave up our guns. These 2 things are dumb Nazi ideas! Use your common sense people. Floyd died unnecessarily & the police officer went to jail because if he didn’t I think the judge & the police man & lawyer would of probably had major destruction done to their family & property. Just my opinion!

That's one way I can see very plainly that someone has an obvious prejudice or bias. It isn't truly racism, but you don't have to be a racist to have a prejudice or bias toward or against "other."

When someone says "when I see this person, I don't see color. There are no races, we are all the same" they're lying. Either to everyone else, or to themselves. They're saying words, making sounds that they feel will prove that they're not exactly what they are: people who judge others based on how they appear.

There's no shame in having a bias. We all have them. No one is exempt. The shame is when you lie about it to prove a point that you can't prove, because the point is based on the lie.

In college, I hung out with homeless people. All colors, sizes, abilities/disabilities, backgrounds, ethnicities. And yet, when I see panhandlers here, I can feel my heart rate go up. I wonder if they'll try to reach into my open window of my car and take something. It's a bias that I'm not proud of, but I acknowledge it and accept it.

In high school, I dated a Puerto Rican, and I used to ride my bicycle in the summer to his house in a low-income neighborhood in the city to visit him. While I never felt nervous riding through that neighborhood, I DO feel nervous when I'm the only white woman an elevator of all Latino men.

Some of the homeless folks I hung out with were black. We shared a quart together on the banks of the Charles River, we played music together outside the Harvard Coop for money, we sat in Harvard Square til 3 in the morning after everything shut down, talking about life. I never felt uncomfortable with them, they welcomed me into their circle and I was blessed for it.

But you'd better believe if I saw a bunch of black guys coming toward me at night when I'm alone, I'd get nervous. I'm not proud of that. But I acknowledge and accept it.

Don't lie to yourselves, people who want to pretend that you believe we're all the same, just to prove your point. Don't lie to everyone else either. Unless you are blind and deaf, you WILL have a trigger reaction to anything you consider "other" than yourself.

Black folks have no problem recognizing this. I think their biggest issue, if you were to bring it to its absolute core, is that white folks recognize it, and will either a) deny the recognition or b) use it as an excuse to purposefully treat "other" differently.

Please point out who, on this thread who used the term "big scary black man".

Who said on this thread, "Chauvin killed him, but he had it coming".

Who even defended Derek Chauvin on this thread?

Many times on the way to a police call, if the person who is the subject of the arrest is known by name, they will run the name if they have time to see if he/she has a record. I would guess so that they know just what they might expect to deal with in the way of behavior. Many domestic calls for example are repeat calls and they may know what they might expect and know the danger level to the people involved and to law enforcement.

I would think that they do make summary judgements on the way as to where they are going is a high crime area or a low crime area. I think I would if I were a police officer.

But perhaps, just perhaps that isn't essentially racist? More just general knowledge??

And, I say again, if the procedure is allowed when a person is violently resisting arrest, than it is not a personal attempt to kill someone. He should have known. OH YES. He was a jerk. OH Yes. But did he sit there with thoughts of killing him????

The thing that stands out to me regarding race in this particular case is that the prosecutors did not charge him with hate crimes. If they thought that race had anything to do with his actions, they surely would have added additional hate crimes charges.

One of the things that I don't know was brought up was that Derek Chauvin and many other members of the Minneapolis police force used the knee on the neck technique a multitude of times and no one had ever died from it before. In fact there is video of Chauvin using it on a teenager for over 17 minutes with no adverse effects.

I don't know whether things in his background should have prevented Chauvin from being employed as a police officer. But I do know that if Floyd has simply gotten into the police car, he might be alive today.

Exactly. In spite of the misleading title of this thread, no one will be prevented from taking videos of police doing their job. What is prevented is posting on a public forum.

As I said in a previous post, if you have incriminating evidence of anything, the proper thing to do is to turn it over to authorities. The improper thing to do is to post it online.

You are wrong on every level of this thread.

What would you have done, if you had been there to arrest George Floyd for passing a counterfeit twenty dollar bill and he resisted arrest when he was told to get out of his car and didn't and when he was told to sit down and didn't and, when he was told to stop thrashing and moving and didn't?

HOW exactly would you have handled the situation if you were a police officer? I think I might have tazed him. What would you have done? Do you agree he seemed under the influence of something in the tape standing inside of the store? Did you see the tape of George Floyd resisting the four officers and at times seem to be more powerful than all of them put together??

Would you simply have let him drive away?

If you knew that someone was a person who had been arrested and incarcerated, would that change your opinion of her/him? A little, not at all?

P.S. Yankansky. I just read every one of your prior posts and there is not a thing that I disagree with you on. I would have really thought that you would agree with me on this one. Perhaps you did not understand my intent. I also sense you are a female person? Some say gender doesn't matter, but it really defines my responses in many ways. I am smaller and weaker than most men I know.

I am not defending Derek Chauvin. He seems to have had a lot of criticism before this happened and it appeared warranted.
My point was that George Floyd was resisting arrest physically and was large and looked very powerful physically.

My point really is that if George Floyd had done what he was told to do by the arresting police officer(s) he would be alive today. It never once occurred to me that race had anything to do with his death.

Here is a video of a large white man resisting arrest and who stole the police officer's car;
video of a large white man on drugs resisting arrest. - Bing video

Floyd verdict
 

Perhaps you would prefer to have George Floyd (25 arrests) as your neighbor instead of Derek Chauvin. If you say you would, you are either disingenuous or ...beyond hope.

Three other officers were on scene and did not object to how George was handled. This dude was high on illegal drugs and resisting arrest -- as has been the case in nearly every single "high-profile" case of police shooting a black male.

Since the George Floyd death, blacks have murdered over 11,000 other blacks (and over 1,000 whites)..........NAME ONE.

Did you happen to see the analysis of this situation by a retired investigator of these cases which included the FULL video with drug results for Floyd?

I believe Floyd was 85% responsible for what went down. He suffered from severe hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with meth and fentanyl intoxication and again was committing a crime. Why was he not held responsible for the trauma that he created through his choices? It is a tragedy his life was lost but how much of this was by his own hand. When do we all become responsible for our own actions?

Everyone is equal under the law. Without that protection welcome to N Korea or Jan 6

And that means that everyone needs to obey the laws regarding drug abuse, criminal activities, driving under the influence and so forth, right?

He is in jail, because he kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes and lack of oxygen killed him. So, he had drugs in his system and had a bad heart. He would have probably not died that day if he hadn’t been kneeled on.

My point is that if ANY OTHER police officer had been dealing with him instead of Chauvin, he would have been alive today. In jail, and alive.

The reason Chauvin is guilty of MURDER rather than unintentional homicide, is because he made SURE his victim was dead before taking his knee off his victim's neck. And even when he was told the victim had no pulse, he STAYED on that guy's neck for a few more minutes.

He was on the ground, face against the pavement, handcuffed behind his back, with someone kneeling on his back, someone else holding down his legs. There was no way this guy was going to get back up. Even if he twitched his final death twitch, he wasn't going anywhere and was a threat to no one at that point.

And still, Chauvin kept his knee on the guy's neck. After he was already dead and someone confirmed that he did not, in fact, have a pulse.

That's why he's in jail. Not because he killed a criminal. That happens all the time, it's the nature of the business, stuff happens and I still respect the police departments.

No. It was because he didn't have to kill him, the criminal was already in a position where he was unable to cause harm, he was then killed, and then the officer stayed on his neck to make SURE the guy was dead. That's why he's in jail and Floyd is dead.

Exactly. Those who try and basically say that Floyd deserved it, because of his previous record, are simply trying to justify murder and most reasonable people - know why they are doing it. I believe Chauvin knew he was going to be convicted and is the reason he chose the judge, instead of the jury, for his sentencing. It will be very interesting to see if the judge chooses to try and use some of that same warped/prejudicial thinking, to give Chauvin a minimal sentence - for outright murder. This saga is not over yet.

Madam. NO ONE on THIS thread said anything remotely like "Floyd deserved it because of his previous record". NO ONE. Many said he was a known felon. Many suspected he was high on drugs at the time.

It was 100% a race issue. It is a strained perception to believe otherwise. Some small % of people will NOT believe their "lying eves"! But, there are 2 major ways to prove that it smacked of racism - #1 The jury concluded that it WAS murder. #2 The US Attorney General has started a "patterns and procedures" investigation because he SUSPECTS that the Minneapolis Police Department has SYSTEMIC race problems. He would NOT be doing that if it was not LIKELY that they will find RACISM. Justice and most US citizens demand just that! What I saw was a VERY bad policeman cruelly murder a HELPLESS citizen over $20 that he may not have even known was counterfeit!

If someone is going to talk about Mr. Floyd's past (which was NOT allowed in the trial) then it is also to be talked about that Mr. Chauvin had 17 disciplinary incidents in his record - he was a ticking time bomb. And bad Police are the main takeaway from THAT trial.

Can you stand up to that kind of investigation of your life. Every cop is now open to suit by anybody that doesn't like something. And there are lots out there. The bad guys will surface.

That is pure speculation on your part that Derek Chauvin "made sure he was dead," He might have made sure he ceased to struggle.

Bad guys on drugs can have amazing strength AND cunning Orange Blossom Baby.

video of a large white man on drugs resisting arrest. - Bing video

Opinion and conjecture. You cannot say that with absolute certainty.

My answer to "what is it about Police".......The Police do have a tough job. But, some of them go into the profession for the wrong reasons - they like the POWER it gives them - they may not be an executive but they can strut around like one and have big attitude and egos. Some like to bully people - especially poor people who may not be able to afford lawyers. Police have an unwritten code of NOT testifying against each other and some water down the incident reports to protect their fellow officers. This occurred dramatically in the Floyd murder case. The Police unions have access to very strong legal services in most cases. So, the ''bad apples" can flaunt the law with impunity. That magnifies their feeling of power!

And you have yet to speak of Mr. Floyd’s culpability.

You were being very gentle and gentlemanly in your reply. And your reply went point by point and was informative. Very classy. I tried to make that same reply but was not close to the accuracy and sophistication that yours was. This forum is very LUCKY to have someone with your mind and demeanor!

I would NOT like to live in Oklahoma.

I would be extremely impressed and confident if all those determining how Mr. Floyd was treated would encourage the African American inner cities population to move to The Villages and be welcomed.

Offer financial support to them, hire them and include them in your activities. Do not increase but rather decrease the police population and help them get out of their current status.

Then I would think this wasn’t all just lip service but a true attempt to help these individuals.

That rambles together at least 2 divergent situations.

Better to have volunteers ride in squad cars with the Police. They could be college students working on a degree in law or justice or criminology.

Reading all of these posts I have not seen one that puts the blame where in mho it belongs the judicial system. An officer 's job is hard enough without having to arrest the same perpetrators over and over. How many times have you read of crimes being committed by someone with a long record. People want to try rehabilitation which in itself is a good practice but in reality in most cases it doesn't work. When does it become apparent that some people cannot be rehabilitated after one, two, ten, twenty convictions. Why does everyone blame the police? If you want to place the blame try the revolving door court system.

If those African-Americans are 55 or older and don't have kids living with them under age 19, I'd be fine with them moving next door. I'd probably be overjoyed if an Indian family moved to the neighborhood on one side of my house, and a Syrian family on the other side. I'd go out of my way to make friends with them. Maybe then I'd get a proper chicken curry once a week, and a decent falafel sandwich another day a week. and I'll make them some shrimp scampi for a third day of the week (or chicken scampi if they'd prefer halal food). Plus I like Bhangra, and could totally grok dancing to some bangin' Bhangra in the evening.

I don't offer financial support to my next door neighbor. But my tax dollars do help support the poor, and I'm fine with that.

They are absolutely welcome to join me on the archery range and for only $15/year they can be club members and use the club equipment instead of buying their own, if that's what they'd prefer.

Lady Lake already has minimal police. In fact, most TOWNS in Florida have minimal police department funding. They rely on county police departments.

This whole thread is beyond redemption. It has deteriorated into opposing camps with no wish to seriously discuss the issue which is, whether Floyd's criminal record ( which Chauvin was aware of) had any bearing on his arrest and did Chauvin exact "revenge" on Floyd. we know the answer to both from the trial. To whit, Floyd was stopped for a Federal felony crime, passing counterfeit money as per the court record. Chauvin was found guilty of using excessive force in the detainment of Floyd, leading to his death. Again as per the court record.
Everybody wants to frame this as a "race" issue. That argument is hogwash as there is no such thing as "race". That word is a made up concept out of the 1800's. There is no science that supports the idea of "race". Humans are all one species, Homo Sapiens. The correct term would be discrimination, because some of us have different degrees of melanin which causes differences in skin color, or our ethnic culture is different. Period.

So get off this false "race" thing and instead think about discrimination against your fellow humans because they might look different or grew up in different cultures. ALL of us are from Africa as genetics has proven.

I have to respectfully ask, why do you continue to chum with red herring, basically try the "hey, look over there at the shiny object" and try to compare apples with rocks? The person in that video did NOT have his hands cuffed behind his back and was not laying on his stomach, on the ground, at any point. IOW, watching attempts to justify the actions of Chauvin, with silly examples like this (nowhere near the same situation as George Floyd's murder) - is pretty frustrating.

Videos are simply documenting a situation. The only difficulty is interpreting the video. Like in sports, more than one angle is needed and full sequence to interpret what one sees on the video. Documentation, visual as well as audio is one of the best ways of getting at what happened. For everybody including the police, I’m for it.