The tragedy gripping the nation outside of COVID-19, and causing major protests and unrest on the streets of America were caused by 4 Minneapolis police officers on May 25. Responding to a 911 call by a deli employee accusing George Floyd, a 46-year old black man of purchasing cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Seventeen minutes after the first squad car arrived at the scene, Mr. Floyd was unconscious and pinned beneath three police officers for over 8 minutes. Sometime after the 6th minute, Mr. Floyd showed no signs of life.
New York Times report by Evan Hill, Ainara Tiefenthäler, Christiaan Triebert, Drew Jordan, Haley Willis & Robin Stein
The two different autopsy reports of George Floyd state different reasons of what he passed away from; but both do rule the death a homicide. This isn’t surprising to anyone who watched the gruesome video showing the arrest of Gorge Floyd which ultimately lead to his death. Hennepin County Medical Examiner said Floyd died of “cardiopulmonary arrest.” While the independent autopsy stated that Floyd died of “mechanical asphyxiation.” Either way, the reason that Floyd died that day was due to the actions by the arresting police officers.
CBS News report by Erin Donaghue
Over the last week, major protest over George Floyd’s murder rippled through many major cities all across America. While during the day for the most part the protests are peaceful, at night they change into riots with violence and looting rarely seen in recent history. Due to this civil unrest, President Trump is calling on Governors to get tough and put an end to the violence. Furthermore he is threatening to deploy the military to enforce order inside the Unites States by invoking the Insurrection Act, an archaic law from 1807 allowing a president to deploy the US military to suppress civil disorder.
CNN report by Barbara Starr. Ryan Browne & Nicole Gaouette
