On Wednesday (June 24), Minneapolis Chief Medaria Arradondo spoke out about the unfortunate death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died at the hands of police brutality.
In his statement, Arradondo explained that what happened to Floyd was “murder.” Last month, viral footage captured ex-officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee against the former’s neck for more than eight minutes as three other cops – Thomas Lane, Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao – stood by.
“Mr. George Floyd’s tragic death was not due to a lack of training — the training was there. Chauvin knew what he was doing,” Arradondo said in a statement. “The officers knew what was happening — one intentionally caused it and the others failed to prevent it. This was murder — it wasn’t a lack of training.”
The Minneapolis Chief’s statement was in response to questions about training records. A few days before Arradondo’s statement, news broke that former cop Kueng became the second person involved in Floyd’s case to be released on bond. According to Hennepin County Jail online records, he posted a bail of $750,000 after being charged with aiding and abetting.
At the moment, Chauvin, who was charged with second-degree manslaughter, remains behind bars with a bail of $1.25 million. Earlier this month, during a Black Lives Matter rally, Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender revealed her plans to dissolve the state’s police department.
“Our commitment is to do what is necessary to keep every single member of our community safe and to tell the truth that the Minneapolis Police are not doing that,” Bender said to the crowd amid global protests calling for racial justice. “Our commitment is to end our city’s toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department, to end policing as we know it, and to recreate systems of public safety that actually keep us safe.”
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