George Floyd told cops his mom just died. She’d been dead for two years. He said he’s too claustrophobic to get in the police car. He was just sitting in a car. He said he couldn’t breathe and was going to die while he was still standing.
He screamed “ow” like he was in pain when they were barely touching him. A lot of this is probably because he was high on three different drugs. But the point is that cops hear bullshit from suspects all day every day. This can make it harder to tell when they’re being serious.
And so when he was on the ground saying he was going to die, it was no different from what he was saying while he was standing, or what he was saying in the car. The cops still may have been negligent but this is all relevant context that will make a murder charge hard to prove.
And to the reflexive “THAT DOESNT MEAN HE DESERVED TO DIE” response: stop. That’s not the argument I’m making. Try to listen to the actual argument and engage with it like an adult. I’m talking about the relative culpability of the officers. That’s all.
