By Nathan’ Jolly’ Green
George Floyd was no innocent when it came to crime; he was from an early age, becoming a career criminal.
Unable to find work in Texas as an ex-prison convict, he moved to Minneapolis in 2014 for a fresh start after release from prison in Houston, having served time for aggravated robbery with a firearm [deadly weapon].
On the day of George Floyd’s death, Floyd was arrested by police officer Derek Chauvin, at whose forcible detention he met his death. An end that most decent people would declare unlawful and a disgrace, regardless of what we now know about Floyd’s past, and perhaps latest alleged behaviour.
Following a complaint from a store clerk, Floyd was approached and spoken to by two police officers outside the store while sitting behind the wheel of his car. Floyd was then pulled from the vehicle and handcuffed by the two police officers.
https://www.fox9.com/video/688157
The police officer Derek Chauvin had knelt on his neck, after trying to get him into the back of a police car, which Floyd refused to enter. Floyd was arrested for allegedly paying for cigarettes with a fake $20 bill.
Some newspaper stories state that “None of the officers could have been aware of Floyd’s more than a decade-old criminal history at the time of the arrest.
But George Floyd and officer Derek Chauvin had worked at the same club, the El Nuevo night club in Minneapolis. Derek Chauvin as a security officer, and Floyd as a bouncer.
There is a distinct possibility that George Floyd and officer Derek Chauvin were acquainted, and the officer may have even known Floyd’s criminal background and that he was dealing with a man capable of violence.
The owner of El Nuevo Rodeo confirmed it was likely Derek Chauvin had “crossed paths” with George Floyd during their time working at the club.
It turns out that Floyd, a former bouncer at Minneapolis bar El Nuevo Rodeo, was a long-time co-worker of Officer Chauvin — who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes until he died.
Local politician Andrea Jenkins, who sits on Minneapolis’ City Council told NBC affiliate WRAL-TV “He knew George,”. “They were co-workers.” Jenkins went on to say to MSNBC that Chauvin and Floyd both worked at the same bar for years as well.
Chauvin and the three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest have been dismissed from the force, a spokesperson for the Minneapolis Police Department confirmed. The case has now been turned over to Minnesota Attorney General, Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s governor, announced over the weekend. Chauvin has been transferred to a maximum-security facility.
The Floyd family believed that 46-year-old Lloyd had left behind his past in Houston after being released from prison stemming from a 2007 robbery, in which he plead guilty to entering a woman’s home, pointing a gun at her stomach and searching the house for drugs and money.
The financial cost of demonstrations, peaceful but angry, is acceptable whatever they should be. But the cost of billions of dollars in the looting and burning of property and vehicles is not. Neither is the violence, the murders, setting police 0fficers on fire, looting, arson, and destruction, unacceptable under any circumstances, and cannot be excused.
It was not only George Floyd who had a violent background, Police officer Chauvin, who joined the force in 2001, had been involved in several other violent incidents.
But perhaps most police officers in Minneapolis are subject to being involved in the inherent violence in the communities in which they work.
In 2006, according to a database by Minneapolis’ Communities United Against Police Brutality, Chauvin was involved in the fatal shooting of a man who stabbed two people before reportedly turning a gun on police.
In 2008, Chauvin shot a man who allegedly reached for an officer’s gun during a domestic-violence call. (The man survived the shot.)
In 2011, he was one of five officers placed on a standard three-day leave after the non-fatal shooting of a Native American man. The officers returned to work after the force determined that they had acted “appropriately.” (Another officer, not Chauvin, fired the shot.)
Communities United Against Police Brutality also faulted Chauvin indirectly for the deaths of three people that Chauvin and another officer were chasing after a crime in 2005, were struck by a car.
Minneapolis’ Office of Police Conduct complaint database shows seven complaints against him, although all are listed as “closed,” “non-public,” and resulting in “no discipline.”
The city’s Civilian Review Authority, which lists complaints before September 2012, reveals five more complaints, which are also closed and resulted in no discipline.
A prisoner at a Minnesota prison sued Chauvin and seven other officers for “alleged violations of his federal constitutional rights” in 2006, although the case was dismissed.
Since the death of George Floyd, a GoFundMe for Floyd’s family has raised more than $7 million.
Black Lives Matter, so do all lives, some politicians in the Caribbean have treated the citizens as if the only lives that matter is their own, and those of their family. People have been processed, metaphorically speaking, as if they had a knee on their neck and the whole country is choking to death. With black police beating black people, worse than any white policeman behaves in America. The politicians allow it to happen and condone it by saying nothing.
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Here is my opinion: George Floyd was a lifetime violent criminal and that is all that he was – that is a fact. He didn’t die from having his neck pressed, he died from having too much drugs in his system and his heart stopped (that is scientific fact supported by the autopsy report). It is amazing how druggies can blame the police for when they die from getting high on illegal narcotics.
People trying to look at the George Floyd situation as some kind of notable event for global humanity are just talking to themselves. The super-majority of normal people sitting at home watching this nonsense on TV think George Floyd was a criminal (which he was) and that he died from something other than ‘police brutality’. In fact, the guy died from too much heroin in his system, that is the honest truth.
This whole thing is a big joke!
So he didn’t die from overdose when in the store, he didn’t die from overdose when he was sitting in his car but he died from drug overdose when the cop was kneeling on his neck.. the comment above makes no sense and his family had a second autopsy done which concluded that he was strangled so obviously the autopsy done by the state was trying blame his death on other reasons to help the cops but they did kill him. I’m not saying he’s a saint but no one deserves to die like that and I’m fed up with all these racist cops and white people who think that they are superior to us because they are not and enough is enough now I’m tired of this bullshit.
Your opinion doesn’t matter. It was confirmed by a licensed medical examiner the cause of death. Drugs didn’t kill him. Regarding his criminal history. It is of his past, everyone faces life altering situations depending on the circumstances they are facing. Unfortunately, if you were not born and raised in the US, you cannot relate. Many carribean people still have this slave mentality and its sickening. The mans criminal history did not merit death. A counterfeit bill does not give a cop the right kill people especially someone who is fully detained. The focus around the protests stems from that grisly recording of the his death but far more intricate and involved. There is a long history of oppression of African Americans that carribean people will never understand. So don’t be so quick to judge. He did not deserve that death despite his past history.
Hmmm some human beings are the worse. So because he made mistakes in his past he deserve to die by a police kneeling in his neck? You are a horrible person. I hope you are perfect and have never sinned. You judgemental p.mf.
Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! “Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions” ― Frantz Fanon!
“Oh Gad!” Joanne Hillhouse! ANR Why Oh Why! “…There are too many idiots in this world. And having said it, I have the burden of proving it.” ― Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks!
Last month, with “Rona” and “Covid” exacting a heavy toll of death and destruction on the health, well being and economic lives of People of African Descent, we condemned China for the video beating of black people on the streets of Guangzhou, and this month we must condemn the United States for the wanton murders of black people, the latest one on video being the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota! Clearly the racists of the world have continued the war on us! Since the 10th Century to this the International Decade for People of African Descent, 2015 – 2024, the Arabs, Europeans and the Chinese have learned and mistaken our sense of dignity, grace, and humanity for weakness! Time for us to consider that deliberate and assertive resistance might be better than dying at the hands of evil murderers!
The murderer Derek Chauvin understood that he was killing George Floyd on television because he appeared to enjoy his arrogant knee on the neck of a black man! This injustice cannot be allowed to stand!
Let us declare “solidarity with Black Lives Matter and other organizations seeking justice for African people. We are ready to work in concert with any and all vanguard movements that seek justice and freedom. We are prepared to regularly point out the toxic nature of the systemic racism that exists in the United States and any other nation that wantonly murders black people. Solidarity with young Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida; Eric Garner in New York; Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Breonna Taylor in Kentucky; Tony MacDade in Florida; and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, and hundreds of other non-video-taped black men and women murdered on the streets of America. We will not
rest until all black people are free! Unity is our Aim; Victory is our Destiny!” – Dr. Ama Mazama, Per-aat
Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, Sesh! Afrocentricity International!
You need to do some fact checking before you spew out inaccuracies the way you are doing. That is not what the optopsy report says.
Autopsy*
Its so sad that they are so many narrow minded and insensitive people around. What does Floyd’s death have to do with the unscrupulous way in which he may have lived? Why is reference still made to the fallacious and concocted autopsy report given by the police’s pathologist? Its so obvious that the report was just an umbrella to shelter the convicted cops.!! My fellow dear Antiguans, we may not have systemic racism here, but what we irrefutably have is systemic xenophobia! Why anything non Antiguan is contemptuously scorned? Antiguans need to resurrect their consciousness from this hateful and selfish tradition of not caring for those on the outside….especially your fellow Caribbean brothers and sisters. Black people need a serious awakening and unification world wide. Until then, we will and can never claim our rightful places in this world! Wise up people
Wow, this ‘opinion’ piece a contemptuous piece of garbage. Whats worse is your pathetic attempt at blaming politicians in Antigua for this. I want the two minutes of my life it took me to read this drivel back.
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