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A Question of Motive
From the first report of the George Floyd death, I was bothered by the lack of interest in Officer Chauvin’s possible motive for having his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes. With no such interest expressed, the political polemicists of BLM/Antifa had a field day ascribing it to the endemic racism of America showing itself by the merciless actions of a white cop. We now have a video of the actual arrest and, for me, it reveals a great deal.
First, we notice how strangely agitated Floyd is. He isn’t angry but terrified first of being shot which he repeats over and over again. He doesn’t seem to be actually resisting arrest but so frightened as to not be in control of his own movements. He is big and the cops have trouble moving him into the position that they need him to be. He never acts in an aggressive way to the cops but rather seems to be asking for some kind of help but he doesn’t really make much sense. A woman and a man were in the parked car with him and get out on the passenger side to the sidewalk. One of the cops is questioning the woman about Floyd and she puts her finger to the side of her head and rotates it around, the common sign one makes to imply that someone is crazy. As the cops struggle to move Floyd into their police vehicle, Floyd is just babbling fearfully and probably is exhibiting paranoid behavior (I can’t make such a clinical diagnosis). One of the things he says over and over is, “I had the COVID, I had the COVID.” I already knew this fact from one of the early news stories but it has been rarely mentioned since. Now we can see that he is telling Chauvin and the other police directly that he had been infected with the virus. Floyd continues to be trouble in a sort of passive-aggressive way. He isn’t fighting the police but he isn’t quite cooperating either. They want to get him into an ambulance but the ambulance hasn’t arrived yet. Then Chauvin and another officer quit trying to get him quiet in the back of the police cruiser and take him out and lay him flat on the ground with Chauvin holding Floyd’s head flat to the ground with his knee.
This new evidence suggests to me what I had suspected all along: Chauvin, knowing that he’s not got a dangerous criminal but a mentally ill man, wants to put him in an ambulance where he can be sedated. Chauvin must wait until the ambulance arrives. Knowing that Floyd is infected with COVID, Chauvin is fearful that Floyd, flailing about as he is, might sneeze on him or his other officers and infect them. Floyd’s fear that he can’t breathe is from the beginning because he had “the COVID.” Neither Chauvin nor the other officers are prepared to deal with the COVID threat and aren’t wearing masks. So Chauvin still waiting for the ambulance with Floyd yelling that he can’t breathe while sitting alone inside the police vehicle, let’s Floyd out and holds Floyd’s head flat to the pavement with his knee to stop Floyd from infecting him or the other officers. Floyd has been babbling so irrationally the whole time that Chauvin ignores the last complaints from Floyd. Floyd has a heart attack and dies while Chauvin is still waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
What difference does it make now? The lunatic monsters of BLM/Antifa have used the incident to accuse Western Civilization itself of racism and made that a pretext for destructive anarchy in the streets of numerous cities. We can’t rewind this. The madness happened because enough people in the media and government were willing to buy the total lie of racism. It also happened because enough people in the media and government have been fanning the fear of the COVID. Floyd terrified to the point of a nervous breakdown. Chauvin was frightened into an action that was unnecessarily cautious to protect against the virus and endangered a prisoner that was no threat.
This is a comedy of terrors. It isn’t Floyd or Chauvin who are in the wrong but our whole society that insists on spreading paranoia while it directs people away from a spiritual life that might insulate them a little from the effects of fear. BLM/Antifa are the embodiment of this madness. They are continuing to do harm to this society and everyone in it. We all need to calm the hell down and think clearly before we do any more damage. BLM/Antifa needs to stand down now and stop spreading their madness.
Regards,
Jim
Published in General
Keep in mind from the autopsy he also had enough fentanyl onboard to likely kill him anyway. In fact if it had be recognized sooner, he might have been given narcan by the cops which may have saved his life. As it is the COVID thing probably just confused the issue and kept everyone from making rational decisions. Ironically that fits perfectly with a lot of other lunacy and poor decision making that has been driven by the COVID Hysteria. I still think Chauvin acted stupidly, but If I were on the jury I couldn’t convict him of murder based on the facts that have come out since the original video. I don’t know that I could even convict him of manslaughter or any crime based on the most recent facts.
Very angry about all of the lives that were lost/destroyed because of this.
Paul,
I may have been overly accepting. Tucker Carlson just did a piece on this and Keith Ellison admits to suppressing that part of the video.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/tucker-carlson-reaction-leaked-george-floyd-footage
Regards,
Jim
Given how high he was and how irrationally he was behaving, the options available to the police were limited. Had even slightly more force been used, Floyd might have had a heart attack then and there. I don’t wonder that Keith Ellison kept this under wraps. It shows that the police did the best they could to work with a very tough case and the last portion of it just went sideways.
I guess we should get ready for the post-not-guilty-verdict riots in the Floyd case and in the Breona Taylor case.
OldB,
As usual, you are a step ahead. We need to put forward people who will be effective in countering this.
https://twitter.com/hodgetwins
Regards,
Jim
You put forward people who rely on words, logic, and knowledge all of which are just tricks to perpetuate white hegemony. People who support Antifa/BLM must do it in 280 characters and actual Antifa/BLM street warriors can only speak in word groupings that can fit on a bumper sticker. Those who “counter” the oncoming riots will need to communicate in more kinetic ways.
OldB,
We need a strategic game plan for the media.
Regards,
Jim
For conservatives to put forth a media strategy is a bit like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse having an artillery strategy–only the other side has those weapons.
Crowd control requires resources, a highly trained disciplined cadre, and good leaders. When DC was rocked by anti-war protests in the early 70s, there were undercover DC cops giving passionate speeches to crowds then marching them the wrong way down side streets, there were rapidly deployed men at key intersections letting the crowd know that they would not be moved, tear gas was liberally deployed and arrests were made only when the cops had the numbers to do it–sorta like how all the killing in battles in the ancient world only happened one the phalanx of one side broke. There was a clear strategy about what was protected ground and what wasn’t.
But the anti-war people in those were not comprised solely of mindless societal dregs like Antifa and the majority were also possessed of enough political acumen to know that destruction and violence was not a good look. I am not sure how to deal with scum like that.
OldB,
You are right about this. The strategy must not be so stealthy as you mentioned with the antiwar protests. These are psychotic idiots, not overzealous idealists. Wait for them. Engage them quickly with unexpected tactics. Water cannon & teargas sound good. Once the warning to disperse has been clearly given those that stay after the initial blast of the water cannon & tear gas are the aggressive ones. They should not be shown mercy as they don’t deserve it. They will get hurt. They will be arrested. They will be charged with something major and they will be required to post major bail.
One other thing. Your double agents are useful for one thing. Learn who is in command and arrest them for a major crime with no bail. Do this before they have their people in the streets. Cut their head off. They’ll still keep coming but they’ll be a lot less effective.
Regards,
Jim
I see one major problem with these proposals. Most–if not all–of the most violent and destructive riots are happening in cities with leadership that is fine with it (until their own houses are under attack). The political will to address these animals is absent. Unless we’re talking about a Federal response, which comes with its own baggage. Don’t underestimate these creeps being willing to sacrifice a few for “the cause” and then run with their martyrdom lies.
Many of us did not believe the George Floyd narrative from the beginning. This video seems to confirm our reasonable skepticism. Meanwhile, most of corporate and political–including the supposed Right–leadership bought it and sold the farm.
Caryn,
This is quite correct. If there isn’t a way to handle it on the ground because of this, then the local Mayor/Governor should be made to own the results. When they start eating each other that’s the best.
Minneapolis mayor blames Gov. Tim Walz for ignoring warnings about riots
Regards,
Jim
Jim, thanks for the post, and for the Tucker Carlson link above. I haven’t been following the George Floyd story very closely since early June. I did a trio of posts back at the time, during the first two weeks after his death, in which I countered the media narrative. Tucker Carlson’s segment was the first discussion that I’ve seen in the major media raising the issue that Mr. Floyd had a fentanyl level in his blood that was high enough to cause death, which I had discussed at length on June 6, almost two months ago.
The latest video is exactly what I expected from my initial look at the case. Mr. Floyd’s actions were highly erratic. He resisted the officers, especially in their attempt to get him into the cop car (this was somewhat obvious from the limited surveillance video available 2 months ago, though the view was mostly obscured — the current video shows it very clearly). We had a report, two months ago, that he said that he couldn’t breathe while he was still on the other side of the cop car — the video in the OP confirms this, and he said it repeatedly.
He also said that he wanted to lie down on the ground. In my initial posts, I recall several Ricochetti complaining about the police holding him in a prone position, and saying that they should have sat him upright. Which is what they tried to do, and he wouldn’t do it. I believe that I pointed this out at the time, but it is abundantly clear from this new bodycam video.
There are transcripts available of the bodycam audio, here.
I talked to my brother about this last week — he pointed me to the audio transcripts — and he mentioned that at one point, Mr. Floyd mentioned that he was “hooping.” This is on page 6-7 of the transcript (Lane and Keung are two of the officers):
First, notice that he lied about being on something (he had fentanyl, meth, and pot in his system). Second, he the part about the “hooping.” According to my brother, “hooping” means carrying drugs in your rectum. This is consistent with the urban dictionary (here), which says that “hooping” means “Placing an foreign item or object in your rectum in an attempt to smuggle it into a location.” Or, alternatively, “Administering psychoactive drugs via enema.”
AP, I so did not need to know that last bit. The transcript is really pathetic to read. Floyd sounds seriously agitated and confused and the police sound more than a bit overwhelmed and uncertain of how to deal with him. The crowd–I’m thinking speakers 13 and 14–really are more harm and interference than help. I certainly don’t envy the police in this interaction; it sounds like barely controlled chaos and they were outnumbered. Very sad, but nothing remotely resembling murder.
Sorry. It may be relevant as to how Mr. Floyd came to have such a high fentanyl level.
love this.
In regards to the hooping, maybe Mr. Floyd was a drug mule, smuggling the drugs in this hooping manner, and the package broke, distributing a high dose of assorted drugs.
The blood tests show drugs. Mr. Floyd either ingested the drugs deliberately, or smuggled them deliberately.
Both of those actions have risks. It is unfortunate that the Minneapolis police became involved in a death that would not have otherwise been unexpected.
The only way Mr. Floyd could be innocent is someone forced him to ingest the drugs or mule the drugs without his consent.
Very, very sad all around.
An article today from the American Spectator that sums this all rather nicely. Good for forwarding to people who haven’t heard the whole story. Who killed George Floyd?
Caryn,
He had over three times a lethal dose of fentanyl plus he had also taken methamphetamine. Chauvin’s knee was a trained approved police technique. He was doing it in the video textbook.
Chauvin, not guilty.
Regards,
Jim
I’d like to see some of these spineless corporations donate to a legal defense fund for these officers. I will financially support the first company to do this and do this openly. I don’t even care what they’re selling.
Yes, that’s what the article said. That’s why I posted it. Why are you addressing this to me?
James,
Buycott! Buycott!! Buycott!!!
Regards,
Jim
Caryn,
An affirmation. Additional information that is critical to Chauvin and the other officer’s defense.
Thank you for posting the article.
Regards,
Jim