COVID 19 - The Coronavirus: George Floyd

What happened: George Floyd died while being arrested by four police officers in Minneapolis.

I watched parts of the video. I wished it never happened and it was depressing to watch, but I'm glad it was recorded.

I didn't watch the entire death, but I did watch Officer Chavin kneel on his neck.

I heard with my own ears, "I can't move."

I heard "..get up, and get in the car..."

George said, "I will," but the knee never left. I heard another command to get in the car, but the knee never moved.

I wrestled. I coach wrestling. I trained BJJ. I don't claim to be the best at any of those things, but they did give me first-hand experience of feeling pressure or my neck.

Spoiler alert: It's unpleasant.

Your carotid arteries are on the sides of your neck. A move that pressures them prevents bloodflow to the brain. There's a huge sense of pressure that builds in your head and consciousness can be lost in seconds.

In training, chokes that target the arteries are considered 'safer' than those that target the airways. There's a window of time from when someone 'goes to sleep' from a blood choke that if the hold is removed they reboot without lasting effect.

Officer Chavin's knee didn't press down on both arteries, but it was there for minutes not seconds.

It wasn't removed when George Floyd stopped moving, either.

A high-school wrestling match with double overtime is 8 minutes and 30 seconds. It feels like a small lifetime on the mat.

I did not count the seconds myself, but an article I read said "I used the times noted in the coroner’s report: five minutes and 53 seconds of kneeling before officers declared that Floyd was unresponsive, followed by two minutes and 53 seconds of continued pressure. That totals just less than nine minutes."

George Floyd was murdered.

I have been in adrenaline moments. They make seconds feel like minutes.

I have restrained a student with two other adults to break up a fight. I've restrained students solo. The students were never handcuffed and the restraints felt like they lasted forever, but usually lasted under a minute to get control of the situation.

To hold position with a knee on the neck for that long to someone who was on the ground, handcuffed, and begging that they couldn't breathe and saying they would comply is murder.

I'm no lawyer, but I feel murder charges are appropriate.

My heart goes out to the 17 year old girl on the scene who recorded George die, but I'm glad she was there. There is an abundance of video that cannot be ignored.

I read the initial call for police was because George used a counterfeit $20 to pay for cigarettes.

The officers said that George was resisting arrest, so I watched 5 minutes of footage from a store camera before George was put into the police cruiser. One officer led him away from his car with his hands cuffed behind his back. If he was resisting, I didn't see it. There was a small pouch George dropped while he against the street wall, but he moved when he was told to move and the biggest question moment I had was when he was pushed into the cop car and seemed to fall out the other.

I saw nothing that justified being murdered in the streets.

Was it okay that the store owner reported a counterfeit $20? Sure.

Is a counterfeit $20 a good reason to pull someone out of their car and handcuff them? I don't think so.

But what if he had some sort of drugs on him? Drug possession is not a death sentence much less an instant death sentence.

What if he was high? I don't care if he was drunk or high. Four officers don't need to abuse someone handcuffed.

What if it was a heart attack and not the police? I saw this theory posted on some YouTube comments. Two coroner's reports have been released with some conflicting information. I don't think someone kneeling on your neck would help someone having a heart attack.

Whatever qualifiers a naysayer comes up with: George Floyd died.

Was it racial? I think so.

It may be hard to prove in some people's eyes, but the responses to each step escalated far faster than they should have and led to tragic results.

Even if it wasn't, it's still murder by those who are supposed to serve and protect.

Police are human. They make mistakes.

However, I think it's fair to hold them to a higher standard, because of the authority they are given.

The actions of the officers in question came at a time when the nation was already stressed to the brink. They provided a spark and a conflagration has followed.

I saw video of a man turn a bow and arrow on a crowd of protesters. The crowd reacted and flipped his car. It exploded.

If I hadn't seen the video myself I would have doubted the story.

Protests have kicked off around the nation. There are looters and criminals who try to use the protests for their own advantage. There are touching stories of police who had sided with protesters and there are stories of police who have attacked protesters. There are stories of police being attacked and the president has threatened to use military troops on US soil.

These are challenging times.

My prayer is that God uses these times to refine us through the challenges to have hearts that love and to redress wrongs that have long gone unsolved.