️ Warning: distressing images.
His name was George Floyd. He was an unarmed 46-year-old black man.
His name was George Floyd. He was an unarmed 46-year-old black man.
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00:00I can't breathe all of a sudden.
00:03Shut up.
00:04It will kill me.
00:06It will kill me, man.
00:11Bro, it's your feet on his neck, man. You get off him.
00:13His nose is bleeding. Like, come on now.
00:15That's wrong.
00:24I ain't saying a word, I ain't having that thing.
00:26Bro, before you get in here, you're dead, bro.
00:30You're dead, bro.
00:44Mr. Floyd should have not died.
00:47He should still be alive today.
00:51And we urge you all to stand up and fight with us.
00:54This is not a black people issue, this is a human issue.
00:57And if you are a human being, you should be outraged.
00:59About what happened yesterday.
01:01I think this is an incident that is a part of a pattern in this country.
01:08The police have a pattern of killing black men.
01:11You know, there was a study that was done that shows that
01:14one in 1,000 black men in this country will die at the hands of the police.
01:18And I think, so, you know, you can't separate this from the larger Black Lives Matter movement.
01:23This is another incident of a black man being targeted for low-level offense.
01:28What they're calling forgery.
01:30And because of that low-level offense, he was murdered by the police.
01:59We know that there are inherent dangers in the profession of policing,
02:04but the vast majority of the work we do does never require the use of force.
02:09So again, my deepest condolences to him and his family members.
02:28In most states, it is considered acceptable to use lethal force
02:40when another officer can consider it reasonable.
02:43Not when it's necessary.
02:45Another thing I really want to highlight is that regardless of statutes,
02:49like the deep-seated racism that exists in our policing institutions,
02:53that is so, so embedded in this country.
02:57Makes it really difficult for officers to be held accountable.
03:02And I think, you know, it obviously played a role.
03:06Race obviously plays a role in all these incidents.
03:09And so, regardless of statutes, while we really need to push for better standards,
03:15we also really need to be addressing the deep-seated racism that led officers
03:19to engage in this type of horrific behavior.
03:26What I think is so, so upsetting about Mr. Floyd's death, and I mean,
03:49we see thousands of Black people die at the hands of police every year,
03:52but it is almost exactly six years after Eric Garner's death.
03:56Eric Garner died almost six years ago in July.
03:59Six years ago in July.
04:01And we're so close to that anniversary.
04:04And, you know, it's almost, it's eerily similar, the cases.
04:10The same exact phrase, I can't breathe.
04:13And no one listening to them.
04:15Not the cops that were standing by watching it happen.
04:18Not the cop that was engaging in the activity.
04:21Nobody listened to Eric Garner or to George Floyd.
04:25I think they are similar, you know?
04:27Chokeholds, we know, are really unsafe.
04:32That kind of practice is incredibly unsafe, which is why, you know,
04:37chokeholds have been banned in many large police departments across the country.
04:42But unfortunately, it was used in the circumstance,
04:44it was used in the circumstance of Eric Garner.
04:47And again, I think looping it back to,
04:49these were Black men who were targeted for such low-level offenses.
04:53You know, again, they should not have been arrested for these offenses.
04:56They should not have died for these offenses.
04:59And would this have happened in those circumstances if the person was white?
05:05And I just don't, I don't know.
05:07And I don't think it would have happened.
05:19I'm glad that all four officers involved were fired.
05:23But there's so much further we have to go.
05:25And so I think charging them is a step.
05:28But I want to encourage people to think, you know, this is,
05:31Mr. Floyd's death is a part of the larger picture.
05:35It is a part of a pattern and practice in this country of targeting,
05:40harassing, and killing Black and brown people.
05:43And so we really need to interrogate the entire system
05:47and think about what other measures need to be put in place,
05:50what other bold and drastic things need to take place
05:54in order to limit this in the future.