As I have consistently warned people in the case of trials involving police killing someone, proving criminal intent is near impossible. A lot of people thought the George Floyd tape would be enough to get a murder conviction. Of course when the trials happen, evidence not generally available to the public is shown the jury who is tasked with making a finding that is beyond reasonable doubt. Often that evidence contradicts the popular narrative. We may have such an example in the recent release of
transcript of the attempted arrest of George Floyd
Transcripts show that Lane approached the car and called on Floyd at least five times to show his hands, drawing his gun when he didn’t. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Floyd responded, according to a transcript of Lane’s body camera. “I didn’t do nothing. . . . What did I do though? What did we do, Mr. Officer?”
Asked five times? *Before* drawing his gun? OK. So what was Floyd doing during those requests? Personally, when I'm pulled over by police, I have my hands on the steering wheel. I don't need to be told more than once to have my hands visible.
As Lane asked him to step out of the car, Floyd apologized several times and repeatedly asked the officer not to shoot him.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. God dang man. Man, I got shot. I got shot the same way, Mr. Officer, before,” Floyd told Lane, the transcripts show. “Mr. Officer, please don’t shoot me. Please man.”
So Floyd has had run ins with the police before. Hence he knows the "show the hands" drill. Again, why did it take the gun to get compliance? Secondly, why did he go straight to "don't shoot me"? I would think that if he had been shot by police before, he would be more likely to engage in behavior that doesn't get a police officer tense? No?
“I’m not going to shoot you,” Lane replied.
The transcripts show that Floyd continued to ask officers not to shoot him as he stepped from his vehicle, and suggest that he struggled with officers as they tried to handcuff him. “Stop resisting Floyd!” Shawanda Renee Hill, a witness inside the car, called out, according to the transcript of the footage from Lane’s camera.
"I'm not going to shoot you". Well there goes criminal intent. Mind you, the prosecutors office had this information a long time ago, they charged officer Lane knowing full well there was no criminal intent. This is clearly malicious prosecution.
Secondly, I find it interesting that Floyd's lady friend even felt it would be proper for Floyd to cooperate. Clearly
she didn't see a life threatening situation.
As Kueng walked Floyd across the street, Lane asked Hill about Floyd’s behavior. “Why’s he getting all squirrelly and not showing us his hands and just being all weird like that?” he asked, according to the transcript.
“I have no clue, because he’s been shot before,” Hill said.
Lane asked whether Floyd was “drunk” or “on something.”
“No, he got a thing going on, I’m telling you, about the police,” Hill replied. “He have problems all the time when they come, especially when that man put that gun like that.”
Given that we know that Floyd had Fentanyl and Meth in his system. If this woman gets on the stand the question will be: 'Are you lying now or were you lying then"?
According to the transcript of footage from Kueng’s body camera, the officer sat Floyd down on a sidewalk and explained that he was being detained for suspicion of passing fake U.S. currency. Floyd said he understood.
So Floyd knows he's getting arrested. Knows he's headed to the precinct.
Lane asked Floyd whether he was on drugs while Kueng pointed out the “foam” around his mouth. But Floyd insisted he was on “nothing” and had been playing basketball earlier.
“You acting real erratic,” Kueng said.
“I’m scared man,” Floyd replied.
Umm you don't foam at the mouth while playing basketball. Now you can get get 'salt lips" from gatorade and other "replacement" sodium drinks, but you don't foam at the mouth.
According to the transcripts, the officers tried placing Floyd in the squad car, but he resisted, repeatedly telling them he was “claustrophobic” and had “anxiety.” He begged to be released from his handcuffs, promising he wouldn’t hurt anyone. “Y’all, I’m going to die in here,” he told them. “I just had COVID man, don’t want to go back to that.”
Claustrophobics get "anxious" when they cannot see a way out of a confined space. If he was claustrophobic about being in a vehicle then he can't drive. So this is his excuse. But notice how this goes from "I understand" to struggling. Secondly, since we know he's had run ins with the police before, he knows that they do not have a choice in cuffing suspects in a car. You can promise whatever you want, but they're not doing it.
By then, Chauvin and Thao had arrived as Kueng and Lane were struggling to get Floyd in the car. It’s unclear whether they were attempting to assist, but at one point, an unknown officer sought to intervene, according to the transcripts. “Man, you’re going to die of a heart attack,” one of the officers told Floyd. “Just get in the car.”
For this "unknown officer" to make such a statement, Floyd must have been really putting up a fight.
Floyd began to bleed from the mouth, after bumping his head inside the vehicle, and Lane called emergency medical help to the scene. Floyd began to complain that he couldn’t breathe. “I just had COVID, man,” Floyd said. “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. Please one of you listen to me.”
Oh wait, I thought that the story was that he said he couldn't breath
due to the neck compression. Now we see he's saying he can't breath prior to being restrained on the ground. Also, that he potentially had a lingering symptom of Wuhan virus makes an argument that he died due to reasons other than the neck restraint a lot stronger.
Chauvin asked whether Floyd was going to jail, and the officers pulled him from the car. “Get him down on the ground,” Chauvin said.
The transcripts show Floyd continued to complain that he couldn’t breathe and called out for his mother. The officers restrained him on the ground — Lane at his feet, Kueng at his back and Chauvin at his head. “You’re under arrest guy,” Chauvin told him.
And this is where the video we have all seen starts. Look at how much we didn't know about.
“All right, all right. Oh my god. I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this,” Floyd said. “Mama, I love you . . . Tell my kids I love them. I’m dead.”
“You’re doing a lot of talking, man,” Chauvin replied.
So since Floyd has been making "can't breath" claims prior to even being put on the ground, we can see a "reasonable doubt" argument that Chauvin reasonably believed Floyd was being melodramatic rather than actually in distress. Now we can say that the foam at the mouth and bleeding from the mouth could contradict that. I would find such an argument valid, not sure if I would say it defeats reasonable doubt. The jury will definitely have a job contemplating that.
As the officers held Floyd to the ground, Chauvin asked the other officers whether Floyd was “high.” Kueng told him they’d found “a pipe on him.” Floyd again told the officers he couldn’t breathe. “You’re doing fine. You’re talking fine,” Kueng said, as Lane told him to take a “deep breath” and Chauvin told him to “relax.”
“My neck hurts,” Floyd said.
“Uh huh,” Chauvin replied. “You’re doing a lot of talking, a lot of yelling.”
“They going to kill me,” Floyd said. “They’re going to kill me man.”
“Takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to say that,” Chauvin said.
Again, in the moment this conversation can reasonably been seen as being callous towards Floyd. However; when taken with the entirety of the transcript, it can also be reasonably argued that Chauvin doesn't show, well SPEAK, anything of malice to Floyd.
The transcripts show Lane asked Chauvin several times whether Floyd should be moved.
“No, leave him,” Chauvin told him. “Staying put where we got him.”
Lane told Chauvin he was worried about “excited delirium,” citing a term used by medical examiners to describe the sudden in-custody death of people who may be under the influence of drugs or in an agitated state.
This part right here is going to earn Lane an acquittal. He did "intervene" verbally. He showed concern for Floyd's health and apparent deteriorating situation. No way Lane gets convicted of anything by a fair jury.
As for Chauvin, I think Lanes commentary could be used by a jury to show that he showed disregard. After all, a fellow officer was telling him of a concern he observed. Chauvin chose to ignore that observation by a fellow professional. That could definitely be seen as negligence.
