Originally Posted by
Vandal
There are two videos out as I type. The first is the video of the suspect being restrained with an actual knee the side/back of his neck, this is the now infamous video. The second was released by the Washington Post which shows the initial contact and arrest of the suspect. It then shows him being walked to the patrol vehicle. If you look closely, there are signs of a struggle as you can see a lot of quick movement but it is out of focus. There is no audio in video two as it is an exterior security camera. I'm curious what took place at the patrol car, it will be on the body cams with audio. Per the FOP rep, all body cams were on and recording. I'm also waiting on the autopsy results and tox screen to see what, if anything he was on. There are some persons who are incapable of de-escalating themselves once spun up and require additional control methods, narcotics and alcohol use only makes this worse. From the WAPost video, I don't think this was an excited delirium case, having personally been involved in a couple myself. Through training I've heard of stimulant use combined with physical resistance and/or panic causing heart attacks. I can't help but wonder if this is what happened. People who have been to jail and don't want to go back can get really strange as you get closer to the car and reality sets in.
I was never trained to actually put my knee on someone's neck, it was across the traps and shoulders to control the upper body, I have done it though when other methods have failed. I've had a knee in my neck like in the video for several minutes, it hurts and sucks and you can't get up if your hands are cuffed but it won't kill you unless the trachea is crushed. It does look bad and if your arrestee suddenly stops fighting and yelling you need to be concerned as you are responsible for them. Not a good time to keep leaning on the suspect. The autopsy results will be important. Use of force never looks good on video. There are still more questions than answers right now and the mayor seriously over-reacted.
To think this could have all been prevented if Floyd didn't commit a crime, then resist officers making a lawful arrest but no one seems to want to talk about that. Instead the internet famous and other self-righteous cops are calling these guys cowards, killers, etc without any answers to a lot of questions.