Most of the liberal media had made up their minds about what happened to George Floyd based on a 15-second video clip. But eventually, there’s going to be a trial, and trials come with witnesses.
What the witnesses had to say at the time of Floyd’s death, it turns out, paints a really different picture from what the media have been pushing for more than two months.
Floyd was apprehended by police in Minneapolis on May 25 after an employee at a convenience store called 911, alleging that Floyd had paid for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. When asked to return the cigarettes, the employee said that Floyd refused.
“He was also drunk,” the caller says, adding a few seconds later, “He’s sitting on his car cause he is awfully drunk and he’s not in control of himself.”
The operator attempts to confirm the story with the employee, asking, “So, this guy gave a counterfeit bill, has your cigarettes, and he’s under the influence of something?”
He replies, “Something like that, yes. He is not acting right.”
The owner of the convenience store later told officer Alexander Kueng the same thing.
“We went outside to talk to them,” he said. “They were just really high off stuff, and they said get out of my face or something, and that’s when we called you guys.”
Officers Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with killing Floyd, and Tou Thao, who was also charged in relation to the incident, also asked at separate points if Floyd was high. (While being apprehended, Floyd had denied he was under the influence of anything, though the state’s autopsy found methamphetamine and fentanyl in his system.)
During the portion of Floyd’s arrest when multiple officers attempted to seat him in a police car, a witness is heard saying to Floyd, “You can’t win, bro. You can’t win. Go on in.”
Floyd, who aggressively resisted being placed in the car, replied, “I’m not trying to win! I’ll get on the ground, anything.” He had been saying that he was claustrophobic and couldn’t breathe and said, “I’m scared as f—, man.”
Later, the same witness recounted the scene to Kueng.
“I tried. I told him he can’t win,” the witness said. “Go on, get in the car, I kept telling him.”
Kueng replies, “Yeah, I appreciate it.”
The witness continues, “I tried. I told him he can’t win. ‘Go on, get in the car,’ I kept telling him. ‘You can’t win, bro, get in the car.’ I said, ‘I know you can’t win.’”
The state prosecutor does not dispute that Floyd resisted arrest at multiple points during the entire incident. The complaint against Chavuin concedes that Floyd resisted when he was first approached, that he “stiffened up, fell to the ground” when he was walked to the police car, and that he “did not voluntarily get in the car and struggled with the officers by intentionally falling down.”
Based on statements to police, audio transcripts, and video recordings available to the public, this much is clear: Multiple people present for Floyd’s encounter with police believed he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and at least one person believed that Floyd was in some sense trying to “win” in his struggle with the police.
This may not justify what happened, but these details were lost in most of the reporting on Floyd’s death, during which time the liberal media tried to treat the incident as part of a long-running racial conflict between police and black people. But these details will matter at the trial.
