'There hasn't been one person, one police chief...who doesn't see this exactly the same way. The police officer and those who were there that day failed George Floyd,' Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said.
The criminal complaint says Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds and “police are trained that this type of restraint with a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous.”
About half a million times a year, according to some studies, police restrain subjects they arrest by putting them face down in handcuffs. But many departments now discourage or even ban putting pressure to the back or neck in that position. Baltimore and the state of Maryland paid $1 million three years ago to settle a lawsuit brought by relatives of Tyrone West, who died after police suspected drugs during a traffic stop, laid him on the ground face down and sat on him. An independent autopsy said he suffocated.
The family's lawyer, Robert Bennett, called that tactic a “killing mechanism.”"It's really no different than strangling somebody,” he toldAs for what happened to George Floyd, Wexler said the lack of action by other police officers on the scene is especially discouraging."It's so disappointing that you have these other officers who are standing around and not intervening,” he said.
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