References
Primary:
Secondary:
The Fall Of Minneapolis (A Crowdfunded Documentary)
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George Floyd
The history and character of George Floyd have been much written about. Here's a digest:
George Floyd had a criminal history. He was caught trespassing (probably with intent to steal) a time or two. He did time for possession of contraband and felony burglary. Finally, aged around 32, Floyd's criminal career peaked when he was the point man in an armed home invasion.
It has been said Floyd once stole automobiles, and on another occasion beat several men senseless. In the perpetration of the above-mentioned home invasion, it is said that Floyd menaced a pregnant woman by aiming his handgun at her belly. Public legal records do not corroborate these claims.
But he did participate in that home invasion, as the man with the gun. Also, as the man with the car; which the victim saw as Floyd drove away. Floyd was picked up within a few days.
Floyd served five years for that offense. Those who knew Floyd said he came out of prison reformed. Floyd himself seems to have thought so. He adopted Christianity, and apart from illicit drug use, never did re-offend in the remaining eight years he had to live.
As a career criminal, George Floyd was equivalent to one who receives his GED at age 32, and never actually gets a job. He never physically hurt anyone or pulled off even a mid-level heist. He never joined a gang, though he must have had opportunities. This isn't the resume of a violent criminal, a psychopath, a recidivist. Floyd's criminality was more in the nature of degeneracy than depravity. His only real asset was his oversized body; his higher prospects were dim and difficult, whereas a dissolute life was easy and available. He fell into it, and paid the price for having nothing better to do with his time.
It is fair to refer to George Floyd as a convicted felon. He was.
Illicit Drug Use
On the day he died, George Floyd made recreational use of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid said to be fifty times stronger than the purest natural heroin. A recently-released documentary, The Fall of Minneapolis, features never-before-seen surveillance video of Floyd at the counter of Cup Foods in Minneapolis, where he passed the counterfeit bill that led to the fateful call to the police. The clerk described Floyd as being very drunk and not in control of himself.
Indeed, Floyd is visibly sloppy in the video. His posture is unsteady, his movements lurching and uncertain. This is typical of opioid intoxication, which can interfere with motor nerve signals. The result is asthenia, "weakness", an observable deficit in muscle activation and coordination.
That's some pretty shameful public conduct. Floyd was partying in his girlfriend's car, across the street. The other occupants of Floyd's car were an ex-girlfriend and a man dressed as a drug dealer. At minimum, this raises the question of whether George Floyd was in the habit of driving while impaired. It's not worse than Ted Kennedy, but it's bad.
Some have referred to George Floyd as a junkie. Other people referred to as junkies include:
People whose health and substance have been consumed by drugs
People who commit daily crimes to support their habits
People who have burned all their friends and relations ("all my friends are junkies")
People who slave and/or whore for their dealers
Zombies who defecate on the sidewalk and litter the place with disease-infected needles
George Floyd was none of these. He was an addict, it is true, and the wages of that sin are as providence decrees. But people who knew him genuinely liked him. Both the ex-girlfriend and the man who was dressed as a drug dealer had positive things to say about Floyd at the time of his arrest. Junkies don't have friends like that.
Floyd probably wasn't a binge user. A binge user acquires a stash and consumes it all in one continuous blowout. He then endures a period of withdrawal before the cycle repeats. Alternating periods of intoxication and withdrawal cause tolerance to vary widely, so the binge user, especially if he is inexperienced, runs the risk of overdose.
George Floyd was able to maintain steady employment and at least a semblance of an orderly lifestyle. He was likely a "bumper", a user who, rather than chasing the high, runs away from the withdrawal: small doses at regular intervals, just enough to take the edge off. Because a user of this kind avoids withdrawal, his tolerance tends to ratchet up indefinitely, which can only end in unpleasantness.
Kids, don't try fentanyl. That shit takes on a life of its own. (You might want to stay away from alcohol, while you're at it.)
The Setting
It was a clear day in May in a mixed-race neighborhood in Minneapolis. The sidewalks were clean, the building fronts attractive and free of graffiti. The streets bustled with traffic, mostly late-model SUVs and pickups suitable for winter driving. Nobody, black or white, seemed bothered by the presence of the police. The markers of a safe, prosperous, orderly, thriving society were everywhere to be seen.
Cup Foods was a proper middle-class market with fresh produce, organic milk, a deli and a seating area with a picture window. The proprietor seems also to have had side hustles in electronic money transfers and repaired/refurbished smartphones. So it was something like a bodega, but more upscale.
Officer Kueng was first in the door. Thomas Lane paused on the street corner and had a look around. He didn't yet know what or whom he was looking for, but he did see Floyd's car. This was good police work. The call was not urgent. There was considerable traffic on street, sidewalk and bike lane. With so many moving parts in sight and a suspect reported on scene, it was wise of Lane to have a good look around. He saw nothing to arouse his suspicion or concern.
Lane donned a blue paper covid mask as he entered the store. Among his fellow officers, the occupants of the store, and the occupants of Floyd's car, Lane was the only person to wear a mask.
A store employee pointed out Floyd's car to the officers. Once on the sidewalk, the Cup Foods employee made as though to accompany or even lead the officers to Floyd's car; Lane told the employee to stand down, the officers would handle it. Observing Floyd's car from the opposite sidewalk, Lane remarked, "They're moving around a lot." The driver of a large, flashy pickup truck obliged the officers by stopping momentarily so they could cross the street. Officer Lane approached the driver side of Floyd's car; Kueng moved around to the sidewalk and approached the passenger side. With his left hand, Officer Lane held his flashlight as a baton, and rapped twice on the driver side window.
Floyd was visible in the driver seat, hunched over to his right, his face and hands out of sight.
Consciousness of Guilt
A key concept in law enforcement, whether it be in patrol or detective work, or in prosecution of criminals, is consciousness of guilt. Most people who knowingly commit a crime, also engage in conduct which shows they know what they did was wrong. Why did you revisit the crime scene and say you didn't? Why did you set your car on fire? Why did you delete the financial records? Destruction of evidence, any provable attempt to deceive the authorities, is but one category of the countless manifestations of consciousness of guilt.
At the street level, consciousness of guilt may be revealed by a gesture. Some people, when they see a police officer, appear startled. Their eyes go wide, or they do a double-take, or they hunch suddenly as if to hide. Police call this "the look", and it is often a good reason for further attention. Why did you detain this person, out of all the people present? He gave me the look.
The concept of consciousness of guilt gives some insight into the conduct of both Thomas Lane and George Floyd.
What Not To Do
When Thomas Lane rapped his flashlight against the window, Floyd didn't respond for about one second. Then Floyd suddenly turned around and saw Lane. Then Floyd startled; he bounded upwards in his seat and threw his hands in the air. His first words were "Oh! Oh!".
Once he recovered his composure, Floyd's first move was to open the door and get out of the car. Kids, do not do this. It is exactly what a person would do, if he intended to fight the officer. Faced with this situation, a police officer has no choice but to put himself on a fighting posture. At best, this will cause the officer unnecessary stress.
What Floyd should have done, once he regained his composure, was roll down the window, stick his hands out, and say hello to the officer. If George Floyd had only done that to begin with, he probably would never have been arrested. This is all kind of a joke; comedian Chris Rock made a popular video about how, if you are caught driving while black, you can usually avoid getting your ass kicked by the police, if you just follow a few simple rules: stop immediately; stay in your vehicle; shut the fuck up; turn that shit off; and don't ride with a crazy bitch. I would add: show your hands. Some tragic events could be avoided by wider public understanding of these concepts, and not only black people would benefit.
George Floyd did not immediately show his hands, despite several commands to that effect by Officer Lane. All Lane had to go on, in those first few frantic seconds, were these:
Floyd startled: consciousness of guilt?
Floyd tried to get out of the car: posturing for an attack?
Floyd wouldn't show his right hand: a weapon?
Floyd was a big, rangy man. With or without a weapon, he could be a physical threat.
Seeing all this, Lane stowed his flashlight, drew his sidearm, and covered Floyd's head at close range. The situation had escalated to a deadly-force threat in just seventeen seconds. Despite this, Floyd continued to be distracted by something to his right (possibly Officer Kueng), and his right hand remained out of Lane's sight (or at least out of the camera's sight) for several agonizing moments.
Three times, Floyd told Lane, "I got shot."
Lane covered Floyd for about forty seconds, before Lane was satisfied that Floyd was not in fact a deadly threat. By the time Lane stowed his sidearm, both men were shaken. Each would act it out in his own way.
Floyd was not terrified of Lane's weapon, when it was pointed at his head. But once the threat went away, Floyd suffered something like a sugar crash. Fear and mortification seemed to wash over him. He grimaced and moaned. He also continued to be distracted. He would obey Lane's commands, but then promptly forget them. Lane had to tell Floyd twice, to put his hands on top of his head.
Several times, Lane ordered Floyd to the effect of, "Step out of the car and face away." Each time, Floyd said he would, but then he would collapse crying, make no move to comply, and beg Lane not to shoot him. Lane didn't pay much attention to these requests. He had no intention of shooting Floyd; Floyd was talking nonsense.
Lane settled on a plan of physical assistance. He ordered Floyd to put his hands on top of his head. Floyd complied, interlacing his fingers. Lane took a firm grip on Floyd's interlaced fingers. Lane observed that Floyd could feel Lane's control of both his hands, and that Floyd did not resist.
Lane released this grip, and gripped Floyd's left wrist. Lane extended Floyd's left arm, turned the palm down, and locked the elbow with his other hand. Again, Lane observed that Floyd could feel the elbow lock, and Floyd did not resist. Soon, Floyd flexed his bicep, essentially a polite request to release the elbow lock. Lane did release Floyd's elbow, but kept a grip on Floyd's wrist and upper arm.
Lane then physically assisted Floyd from the vehicle. By tugging gently on Floyd's wrist, and steering Floyd's shoulder, Lane effectively communicated the direction in which he wanted Floyd's body to move. Floyd's feet came out of the car.
The next moments of the video are dark and muffled, because Lane's bodycam was pressed against Floyd's body in a sudden scuffle. The transcript reads as follows:
Floyd: "I didn't know, Mr. Officer. I didn't know. I didn't know. Please!"
Female Voice (loud): "Stop resistin'. What the FUCK?"
Lane: "Get your fuckin hands behind your back. Put your fuckin hands behind your back right now! Stop movin!"
Floyd: (unintelligible)
Lane: "Put your hands behind your back then! Face the door!"
Floyd: "I'm not gonna do nothin"!"
Floyd's hands are seen behind his back with the wrists close together; it appears Lane has caught both Floyd's thumbs in his right hand, much as he caught the fingers before. Kueng joins the action, coming in on Lane's left.
Lane: (to Kueng) "Get his other arm."
Kueng takes Floyd's left arm. Lane controls Floyd's right arm two-on-one; places the arm in a chicken-wing hold; secures Floyd's right wrist with his left hand; deploys the cuffs with his right.
Floyd: (sobbing loudly) "I'm sorry Mr. Officer I'll get on my knees, whatever!"
Lane: "Stop resisting man!"
Floyd: "I'm not!"
Lane: "Yes you are."
Following this exchange, Lane handcuffed George Floyd, two minutes ten seconds after Lane first rapped his flashlight on Floyd's driver side window.
Here let us pause a moment and take stock.
George Floyd
Up to this point, George Floyd's behavior was weird and counterproductive. What was up with him?
We know George Floyd was on Fentanyl. We can see him lurching about in the surveillance video, and the toxicology report confirms the presence of a stiff dose of the drug in Floyd's system. In the Lane video, Floyd seemed confused, which is also consistent with Fentanyl intoxication. Specifically, Floyd seemed to have trouble paying attention. When he should have paid attention to Lane, he kept looking and gesturing towards Kueng. When he should have followed Lane's commands, he got distracted.
When Lane ordered Floyd to stay in the car, Floyd repeatedly moved to get out, putting his foot out or pushing the door open. When Lane ordered Floyd to "Step out and face away," Floyd broke down and begged Lane not to shoot him. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that these two opposite states were before and after Floyd’s clinical anxiety kicked in.
Normal people have at least some experience of anxiety. If you are riding through turbulence in a jetliner, and the pilot announces that landing will be delayed due to bad weather, you are likely to experience at least a little anxiety. You may then try to reason yourself out of it, and you may succeed. This is how anxiety is supposed to work: it forces the mind to focus on risks, on fears, on things that might go wrong, on ways to avert disaster. Sitting in the jetliner, there's not much your rational mind can do about it, so you may discard your anxiety. But in other contexts, a little anxiety may save your life, may alert you to some evil before that evil befalls. Anxiety is adaptive; it is a product of evolution.
Anxiety is the fear of something that is not yet real, not yet present, not yet really a threat. Thus, there is an element of imagination in anxiety; the anxious one projects himself into an imaginary future, a future he would rather avoid. The limbic system bolsters the imagined experience with hormones, that is to say, with negative emotions such as fear, grief, shame, etc. Nobody likes to experience anxiety, but it's all well and good so long as it serves its adaptive purpose and doesn't interfere with other things.
Sometimes the imagination gets overheated. Sometimes the limbic system does more than its share. In these cases, the experience of anxiety may have no adaptive value, or even negative value. The sufferer may experience fears that are objectively unreasonable or out of proportion. When anxiety interferes with a person's quality of life, and it can't be reasoned with, we call it acute or clinical anxiety. People who rate high on the personality component called neuroticism, sometimes get acute anxiety. Acute anxiety is also an element of psychological disorders such as OCD and PTSD. When acute anxiety is associated with a specific sensory trigger, such as the sight of a moth or a snake, we call it a phobia. Some deeply-evolved phobias are acquired in the biological development of the organism; others are learned later and are psychological in nature.
Acute anxiety is surprisingly common. In terms of 911 calls, heart attacks are rare compared to anxiety. And from the point of view of a first responder, anxiety calls are surprisingly challenging. Obviously, the physical threat of anxiety as such is nothing compared to, say, a heart attack. In heart disease patients, the effect of intense anxiety on the heart and blood vessels may cause complications, but this is coincidental. The main medical complication of anxiety is hyperventilation, which is unpleasant but rarely dangerous.
What makes anxiety so tough for a first responder to deal with, is that it doesn't answer to reason. A medic, for instance, has an ethical obligation, a formal duty to treat each patient with compassion and respect, however obnoxious, disgusting or pathetic the patient may be. It is humanly difficult to treat an anxiety case with compassion and respect. Anxiety patients are freaked out for no reason. They don't get better when you point this out; in fact they tend to become upset that you are not listening to them. You have to remind them ten times a minute to control their breathing. Their sense of panic begins to rub off on you, which is incredibly annoying when you know for a fact that nothing is wrong.
And you can't say, Fer chrissakes, lady, can you just fricken chill for a second? It doesn't work. She can't, she truly can't. And you can get in trouble for talking like that.
George Floyd's anxiety wasn't so bad; Floyd could chill. But it did touch his imagination, and he had a phobic trigger that he carried with him: George Floyd had been shot. Not that day, of course, but someone, sometime before, shot George Floyd; Floyd thus acquired a phobia of being shot, and he had the scar to prove it. He kept talking about it. When Lane ordered Floyd to step out and face away, you can guess to what a dark place Floyd's imagination took him. It was a place thoroughly divorced from Lane's understanding of the situation; Lane had no intention of shooting Floyd.
So Lane mostly ignored what Floyd said about shooting or being shot or whatever. It is normal to filter out useless information, especially when under stress. This is the plight of the anxiety case: his fear is real; his fear may be consequential; but his fear makes no sense whatsoever to anybody other than himself. Acute anxiety is not only terrible to experience; it tends to shut the sufferer off from human understanding and sympathy.
Did George Floyd Resist Arrest?
George Floyd's most alarming tendency, just after Thomas Lane made contact with him, was this repeated move to get out of the car. This was Floyd's first impulse on seeing Lane, and each time Floyd became distracted, he would then repeat the motion, as though noticing Lane for the first time. He did this at least four times.
Then Floyd became afraid, and couldn't get out of the car when ordered to do so. This went on for a little while.
Then Lane resorted to a more tactile mode of communication, and it worked. Lane was able to physically assist Floyd from the vehicle, without a fuss. But the moment Floyd's feet touched the ground, Floyd turned to face Lane. You can't see him do it, but that's what he must have done. It's also likely Lane reached for Floyd's right wrist (he already had a grip on the left wrist), and Floyd jerked his wrist away. The reason you can't see Floyd do these things is because Lane, anticipating an attack, instantly body-checked Floyd into the car door. The first words Floyd spoke were "I didn't know, Mr. Officer!"
Floyd probably didn't expect to be handcuffed. He should have known, because what else can "step out and face away" mean? But Floyd was scatterbrained, and we already saw how his anxiety interfered with his interpretation of that command. When he finally exited the vehicle, he had calmed down somewhat from his moment of terror, and he may have simply felt that all was forgiven. Lane never did specifically inform Floyd that he was under arrest, or that Lane intended to handcuff him, and when Floyd did get out of the car, it wasn't in response to a verbal command.
Floyd put up a brief flurry of inconsequential resistance. There is nothing terribly exceptional about this. Arrestees, who otherwise give no trouble, often squirm at the moment of being handcuffed. Handcuffs focus the attention in a unique way, and this can result in balkiness, hesitation, psychological denial. Some arrestees don't mind going to jail, but try to talk their way out of being handcuffed: "I'm not going to give any trouble, you don't have to do that". When Floyd offered to get on his knees, he may have been trying to bargain his way out of being handcuffed.
What did George Floyd think was going to happen, once he got out of the car and faced Lane? What was he trying to do?
Lane's safest assumption was that Floyd intended to attack him and/or flee. Lane acted on this assumption twice. And here it must be said just how much of a physical threat George Floyd could have been. Floyd was a high-school football and basketball player with dreams of the Big Leagues; he was trained to hit a man, to tackle him, to throw him to the ground. Floyd retained an athletic bent throughout his life. At 46, Floyd was an endorphin junkie who worked out hard every day. He powerlifted, did bodyweight strength exercises, and was a skilled middle-distance runner.
He was also a big man, with the shoulders of a prize oarsman. In a physical confrontation with Lane, Floyd would have enjoyed decisive advantages in height, weight, reach, speed, strength, hand size, and cardio. Floyd had at least two chances to put forth all his might in a surprise attack. Had he done so, it is doubtful Lane could have held him.
With the benefit of hindsight, there was no aggression, no real force of intention, behind the conduct which caused Thomas Lane such concern. At the worst moment, Lane was able to hold Floyd in the car by pushing back with one hand. When Floyd scuffled with Lane, it was only a few seconds before Lane, by himself, gained control of both Floyd's hands. If Officer Kueng had not been available to assist, it is likely Lane could have handcuffed Floyd without assistance.
They say, it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. Physically, Floyd was a larger man than Thomas Lane. But in terms of capacity for aggression, Lane towered over Floyd by orders of magnitude. This is not because Lane was exceptionally aggressive. It is because Floyd, for whatever reason, had no capacity for aggression whatsoever. He looked scary, acted weird and squirmed around, but he would not, could not, did not fight.
What was he trying to do?
Maybe he just wanted to give Thomas Lane a hug, ask what was on his mind, help him feel better, maybe lead him in a prayer. Floyd was a hugger; it was his go-to move in times of stress and sorrow. Now, to think you could just walk up to a police officer who is pointing a gun at you, and make everything better by giving him a hug, entails a very optimistic view of the world. It might be a sign of opioid euphoria.
Thomas Lane
Thomas Lane received some unfair press, for his conduct in this first part of the encounter. "Officers approached the car with guns drawn." "George Floyd sobbed and pleaded for his life as gun-wielding cop hurled obscenities." Of course that's not exactly what happened.
The most pernicious claim is that George Floyd's evident fear was strictly rational: that he reasonably expected, as a black man in America, he would be victimized by the police. This of course plays into the more general claim that black persons are targeted by law enforcement more than whites, strictly on account of race. But Floyd's fear was not strictly rational, and in the video, no other black person reacted to the police the way Floyd did.
Later in this review, the conduct of Thomas Lane will be harshly criticized. But Lane deserves credit for the things he did right, and consideration for factors beyond his control.
Thomas Lane is not a coward. In the terrible moments when Lane held his gun on Floyd, Lane managed to keep his finger off the trigger; a cowardly spirit would have shot George Floyd dead on the spot. Also, Thomas Lane was not afraid to encounter Floyd. He didn't like it, but he didn't shirk when the moment came. Floyd was a high-school footballer; Lane probably played hockey.
Thomas Lane never tried to hurt George Floyd, even a little. Had he been so inclined, Thomas Lane had at least three chances to injure Floyd, not counting the opportunity to shoot him. Lane took Floyd by the interlaced fingers, then in an elbow lock, then finally in a chicken-wing hold in the heat of the action. George Floyd cried some of the time, but he never cried in actual pain from anything Thomas Lane did.
Thomas Lane was a rookie; he only had four months on the job. George Floyd, a big, dangerous-looking, confused anxiety case, posed a conceptual challenge to Lane's limited experience.
For all the difficulties Floyd posed, Lane was quick to correctly assess that Floyd was not a threat.
Lane's most successful approach was to simply put his hands on Floyd and feel him out. This achieved something of a rapport between the two men. Lane was assured that Floyd would not resist; Floyd was assured that Lane wouldn't hurt him. Both men relaxed; things seemed to be moving in the right direction.
And then Floyd turned to face Lane, touching off a sudden scuffle. It's possible Lane took this personally; he may have felt he'd trusted Floyd, only to have that trust betrayed. However that may be, it's clear from subsequent events that Lane lost his psychological balance for a while.
Handcuffs
Two minutes and ten seconds after he met Thomas Lane, George Floyd was in handcuffs. The application of handcuffs marks a critical juncture in the process of making an arrest; a before-and-after moment.
If the suspect posed a physical threat before, he's not much of a physical threat after being handcuffed. He can't strike with his hands or elbows; he can't shove, grab or grapple; he can't crawl on the ground, climb over a fence, run at a normal pace, or effectively wield a weapon.
In ethical terms, a handcuffed person is considered vulnerable, at-risk. He can't protect his genitals or his face. He can't wave his arms for balance, or use his hands to steady himself. He is prone to injury or even death if he is handled carelessly. This sense of vulnerability, of helplessness, is demoralizing and humiliating. It takes the fight out of a man. No other gadget ever defeated so many criminals as the handcuffs.
With power comes responsibility. An officer who takes a suspect into custody, takes on a custodian's legal duty of care to his charge. It is up to the officer, within reason, to prevent a suspect in his custody from coming to harm, and the application of handcuffs brings that duty into full force.
Now obviously, if a handcuffed suspect somehow poses a physical threat, the duty of care is not the foremost consideration. If an arrestee goes into convulsions or makes a determined effort at self-harm, it might not be easy to keep him safe. But it's rare for a handcuffed, outnumbered person to pose a serious threat to himself or others. If a handcuffed suspect sustains an injury requiring treatment, the burden should rightly be on the officer to explain how that happened, because it’s hard for it to be the suspect’s fault.
What a handcuffed person can do, is be a nuisance. He can resist passively or disobey lawful orders. In these situations, officers may resort to physical assistance or pain compliance techniques, to move things along. These categories of techniques aren't expected to cause injury; most don't even leave a mark on the body, so they don't violate the duty of care.
Good officers understand the practical, ethical, and psychological ramifications of handcuffs. If a struggle ends in handcuffs, it is important to de-escalate, not least by taking a deep breath and making a conscious effort to calm down. Some officers make it a point to extend some small kindness or consideration to a newly-handcuffed suspect, for instance by offering a drink of water or by asking if the suspect is comfortable. It doesn't matter whether the suspect "deserves" such niceties; the object is to keep him calm and cooperative, and to reassure the suspect he will not be mistreated in his time of helplessness.
(Forward to Part Two: Shawanda and Morries)