FATAL FACE OF COP BRUTALITY
MINNEAPOLIS: Four police officers involved in the arrest of a black man who died in custody were fired yesterday, hours after a video showed one kneeling on the cuffed man’s neck after he pleaded that he could not breathe and stopped moving.
Mayor Jacob Frey announced the firings on Twitter, saying: “This is the right call.” The man’s death Monday night was under investigation by the FBI and state law enforcement authorities. It immediately drew comparisons to the case of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died in 2014 in New York after he was placed in a chokehold by police and pleaded for his life, saying he could not breathe.
In a post on Facebook, Frey apologised to the black community for the officer’s treatment of the man, later identified as security worker George Floyd.
Police said the 46-yearold man matched the description of a suspect in a forgery case at a store, and that he resisted arrest.
The video starts with the shirtless man on the ground and the unidentified officer kneeling on his neck, ignoring his pleas. “Please, please, please, I can’t breathe,” says Floyd, whose face is against the pavement.
As bystanders yell, an officer says, “He’s talking, so he’s breathing.” But Floyd stops talking and slowly becomes motionless under the officer’s restraint.