The video is hard to watch: A Minneapolis police officer stands with his knee shoved into an African American man’s neck for at least five minutes, while bystanders plead with the officer and his partner to release the motionless man and check his pulse. We, the virtual onlookers, literally watch the man, identified as 46-year-old George Floyd, start to die as he lies beneath the officer’s leg.

It is an inexcusable tragedy made even worse by the fact that it was entirely preventable. The officer, identified as Derek Chauvin, could have released Floyd and detained him in his vehicle. Chauvin’s partner, Tou Thao, could have intervened instead of allowing Chauvin to continue suffocating Floyd. Instead, Thao blocked bystanders from stepping in to help Floyd while Chauvin stood with his hands in his pockets and his knee in Floyd’s neck.