Twenty Dollars and Change by Clarence Lusane

Author:Clarence Lusane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: City Lights Publishers

While most attention initially focused on Chauvin after the murder, the other officers on site ignored Floyd’s cries as well. At one point, the exchange went like this:

Thao: “Relax.”

Floyd: “I can’t breathe.”

Kueng: “You’re fine. You’re talking fine.”

Lane: “Deep breath.”591

Floyd clearly was not fine. He seemed to feel his death was imminent. At another point in the transcript, Floyd states, “Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I’m dead.”592

By the time an ambulance arrived on the scene, Floyd was dead or dying. In their initial official report, the police officers did not disclose that Chauvin pinned Floyd’s neck with his knee, nor that they did not engage in any de-escalation tactics. They claimed that Floyd “physically resisted officers” and appeared to be “suffering medical distress.”593 Two autopsies, one by the local medical examiner and another commissioned by the family, found that he died of homicide, with the former stating he suffered “subdual, restraint, and neck compression” by arresting officers.594

Although multiple police cams and bystanders’ videos would also show what had really occurred, a seventeen-year-old high school student would be the first to tell the nation what happened. Darnella Frazier was on her way to Cup Foods with her nine-year-old cousin to buy snacks when she saw Floyd grasping for breath under Chauvin’s knee. She whipped out her cell phone and used its built in-camera to document the police.

Frazier quickly posted her video to Facebook, adding the caption: “They killed him right in front of cup foods over south on 38th and Chicago!! No type of sympathy “#POLICEBRUTALITY.”595 When the Minneapolis Police Department issued a false statement about Floyd’s death called “Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction,” Frazier responded at 3:10 a.m., saying “Medical incident??? Watch outtt they killed him and the proof is clearlyyyy there!!”596

Darnella Frazier’s video of Floyd’s killing immediately went viral. As it did, she received massive public support and even scholarship offers, but also death threats and abuse on social media. Public outrage over the video also had immediate impact on the Minneapolis Police Department: the false account of Floyd’s death was deleted from the police website and all four officers were quickly dismissed from the force.597 Chauvin was charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. The other three officers were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Chauvin had a long history of complaints—at least seventeen—filed against him for abusive behavior during his nearly two decades with the department.598 It was later discovered that both Chauvin and Floyd had worked as part-time security guards at El Nuevo Rodeo nightclub, stoking speculation the two had history with each other. As noted, the officers involved were a mix of races: Chauvin and Lane are white, Thao is Hmong American, and Kueng is African American.599 It was the two white officers, however, whose refusal to de-escalate led to Floyd’s death.

When the world witnessed Frazier’s video of Chauvin slowly killing Floyd, many saw a lynching, and responded with their conscience. Protest erupted in the United States and around the world.

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