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Recap
In Part Two, we described the scene as Derek Chauvin found it when he arrived. As noted, the situation left somewhat to be desired.
Thomas Lane, the on-scene commander, had four months' experience in the Minneapolis PD. Chauvin had nineteen years; 57 times as much. If anybody could get the situation under control, it would be a senior officer like Derek Chauvin.
As the ranking officer on scene, Chauvin had the right to assume command. As a late-arriving officer, he had very little information. He could see at a glance:
The situation was at an impasse
The situation was mildly heated
The suspect was handcuffed and seated
As a training opportunity, a situation like this is perfect. It's a weird situation, and it's not moving in the right direction, but there's no danger; no urgency. Plenty of time to sort things out; to show how to sort things out in a weird situation. All Chauvin had to do was ask questions.
If Chauvin had asked Floyd, Floyd would have said:
Please Mr. Officer
I'm scared I got anxiety I got claustrophobia
I breathe too much when I'm scared
Mr. Adam knows me they know me in there
I'm not a bad guy
I got shot before
I'm not resisting I will get on the ground anything
Thank you
Chauvin did not ask questions, nor did he tell anyone what to do. He did not speak. He donned black gloves, walked up to the scene, and stood there.
Did Derek Chauvin Radiate Menace By His Very Presence?
George Floyd's voice took on a new tone:
Floyd: "I can't stand this shit man. Ain't no way. Ain't no way Mr. Officer. Don't do me like that man."
Kueng's voice became shrill and hysterical:
Kueng: "Get in the car!"
Floyd: "Can I talk to you please. Please let me talk to you!"
Kueng: "If you get in this car, we can talk!"
Floyd: "I'm claustrophobic!"
Kueng: "I'm hearing you but you're not working with me!"
Floyd: "God I'm claustrophobic man!"
Thomas Lane changed his plan. He circled around the back of the squad car towards the passenger side.
During this exchange, Lane opens the passenger-side rear door of the squad car, and disconnects both shoulder belts.
Lane (leans into vehicle behind Floyd): "Slide your butt over here I'm gonna pull you in."
Kueng: "Get in the car!"
Floyd: "Can you please put me in the front? Please!"
Kueng: "No! You're not getting in the front!"
Floyd: "I'm claustrophobic Mr. Officer!"
Kueng: "Feet in the car! Get in the car!"
Lane takes a grip on Floyd and begins to pull. The exact position of Lane's grip is not visible in the camera frame.
Floyd "OK man OK! I'm not a bad guy man. I'm not a bad guy!"
Chauvin did not explicitly assume command of the scene. The only outward signal of his mindset and intention was the gloves. Those gloves were made for manhandling people; they were plastic-fantastic, technical-tactical-theoretical cut-and-scuff-resistant, grip-enhancing, water-repelling, niobium-knuckled high-speed-low-drag latex-free law-enforcement-only machine-washable space-age combat-operator gloves. The market for law-enforcement-only gear is limited, but lucrative. Some people are sexually aroused by that kind of thing.
Chauvin did no assessment; he simply expected a physical escalation. Lane and Kueng promptly acted on that expectation, just as though Chauvin had explicitly ordered it.
Did Thomas Lane Hurt George Floyd?
Lane attempted to physically assist George Floyd into the back seat of the car. From behind, Lane took a two-handed grip on Floyd's right arm and drew Floyd towards him. At one point, Floyd's left arm was dragged along by the cuffs. Floyd squawked, "my wrists!"
The grip Lane employed was not a pain-compliance grip. Lane did not jerk Floyd's arm out from under him, or lock Floyd's shoulders or elbows. The discomfort Floyd experienced was minor, and his wrists were not injured by the cuffs at this time.
Could George Floyd Breathe?
It is something of a joke among first-responders, that anyone who says he can't breathe is not telling the truth. If you can't breathe, you can't speak; you can't say you can't breathe, so it's not true if you say it. The joke can be taken too far; if the person really is in respiratory distress, he may be speaking with his last breath. Sometimes you can dismiss "I can't breathe" with a knowing chuckle. Other times, it's true.
In any case, it's always a good sign if the person can speak; half the time or more, the real problem is anxiety and/or pain. Anxiety creates feelings of breathlessness which can lead to hyperventilation. A person in pain may brace or tense his body in such a way that breathing stops for a few seconds, which can trigger discomfort from the respiratory drive: a breathless sensation.
If there really is a problem with breathing as such, it's easy to spot. There's a checklist:
Rate: breathing too fast or too slow
Depth: not moving enough air; no chest movement
Quality: airway sounds (snoring, gurgling, stridor), lung sounds (wheezing, rales)
Effort: posturing, straining, retractions, paradoxical motion of the chest or abdomen
With or without medical training, most people will notice most of these things right away. In particular, respiratory effort attracts attention. If a person is conscious and in respiratory distress, nobody in the room can fail to notice that something is terribly wrong.
We can't assess Floyd's lung sounds from the video, but everything else looks fine. Floyd's breathing was effortless and noiseless. His speech was uninterrupted. He was able to exert his lungs in shouting and his limbs in struggling, at the same time; if he was in respiratory difficulty, that level of exertion would have told on him instantly. The officers had no real reason to doubt Floyd could breathe at this time.
The Struggle
Thomas Lane pulled George Floyd into the back seat of the squad car. Floyd shouted in terror and began to struggle. He said, "I can't choke! I can't breathe!" Floyd then got his feet onto the floor of the car, and backpedaled out the passenger door, shoving Lane along. Lane may have been overpowered; he may have been caught off-balance; he may not have been fully committed to the plan of stuffing George Floyd into the car by force. Lane found himself obliged to support Floyd's head and shoulders, to spare Floyd a backwards fall onto the pavement, as Floyd himself propelled Lane backwards into the middle of the street.
Before his feet even touched the ground, Floyd repeatedly announced his intention to lie on the ground; to surrender. "Get in the squad!" Thomas Lane replied, and shoved Floyd's upper body into the car. Chauvin joined Lane, coming in on Lane's left. Floyd's upper body was prone on the back seat with both officers' hands on his arms. The officers could not move Floyd forward. With his legs still outside the car, Floyd slithered out from under the officers.
Again, Floyd repeatedly announced his intention to go down, to get on the ground:
Floyd: "OK I'm going down, I'm going down I'm going down."
Kueng: "Get in the squad!"
Floyd: "I'm going down! I'm going down!"
Bystander 1: "You like to have a heart attack dude man get in the car!"
Floyd: "I know I can't breathe! I can't breathe!"
Bystander 1: "Get in the car!"
Floyd: "I just had covid man! I can't breathe!"
At some point, Lane either stepped aside or was bumped out of the way by Kueng. With no room for three officers within the arc of the car door, Lane stood back and fidgeted with his silver wedding ring. Chauvin and Kueng wrangled with Floyd, to no better effect than before: Floyd's legs remained outside the car, and the officers could not move Floyd forward. Floyd's resistance at this point was passive; he went limp.
Kueng: "Take a seat!"
Floyd: "I can't breathe, I can't breathe man, please listen to me!"
Kueng: "You're under arrest right now for forgery."
Lane: "Let's take him out and just...(unintelligible)."
Kueng: "Come on out!"
Floyd made no effort to get to his feet as he slid out of the car. His intention was as stated: to get to the ground, to surrender. Chauvin took hold of Floyd's shoulders; Floyd yelped twice with surprise as Chauvin toppled him. Once down on the pavement, Floyd rolled or was rolled leftwards, into a prone position nearest the rear wheel of the squad car on the passenger side.
Floyd cried out several times, bucked his hips and flailed about uselessly with his feet. Lane was quick to get Floyd's feet under control, and helped Kueng to hold Floyd's hips down by flexing Floyd's right knee and leaning on the leg. Chauvin positioned his own left knee so as to hold down Floyd's upper body.
This part of the video is difficult to watch. It's not gruesome or anything; no crimes were committed. But this part of the video is jam-packed with events; the camera and the action go all over the place, and everybody yells at once. From Chauvin's arrival to his knee on Floyd's body was less than two minutes.
Could The Officers Reasonably Have Adopted A Different Plan With Worse Results?
Probably not. When Chauvin first arrived on the scene, George Floyd was seated in the squad car with his feet on the sidewalk; one small step from being where Lane wanted him. Two minutes later, Floyd lay in the road on the wrong side of the car with three officers occupied in subduing his struggles. Any other way of spending two minutes could hardly have been worse.
Whose Plan Was This?
Nominally, it was Lane's. But Lane may have been under duress. What Chauvin seems to have expected from Lane was prompt, decisive physical escalation. Lane chose the least-forceful option: physical assistance. It this plan had worked, if Lane had assisted Floyd into the squad car and secured him, Lane would have concluded a successful on-scene command: a minor matter of individual honor.
That said, the plan was not at all likely to work, and Lane seems to have sensed this from the beginning. There's a performative, non-practical quality to Lane's conduct, as though he was performing to Chauvin's expectations rather than trying to solve the problem. Every time the plan went wrong or stopped working, Lane hesitated or even retreated; he finally got bumped out of the action, to watch helplessly as Chauvin and Kueng struggled to advance the failed plan.
Lane could see the plan was hopeless, so he called a stop to it:
Lane: "Let's take him out and just...(unintelligible)."
To preface a command with "Let's" indicates Lane's lack of confidence. And then his voice just trails off. If Thomas Lane had an idea what to do after taking Floyd out of the car, he wouldn't or couldn't articulate it. This is not the language or the voice of command.
Chauvin proceeded according to his own ideas; he placed his knee on Floyd's body. Leave aside, for now, the question of whether this constitutes excessive force or misconduct. It is a significant escalation. The decision to escalate in this way is not trivial; it is a command decision with major implications for the overall management of the scene. It is a final commitment to physical escalation as the only way forward.
Thomas Lane did not make or approve this decision. He was no longer in command, and a measure of his individual honor was forfeit as a result. Lane's plan didn't work; Chauvin took away Lane's command; and Kueng stepped right over Thomas Lane to be nearest to Chauvin. Lane must have felt some mortification; his demeanor afterwards was almost timid.
Given all this, we suspect a hostile work environment; a culture of non-communication, non-cooperation, intensified social competition, and abuse.
Where Was Chauvin's Knee?
Everyone agrees, Chauvin's knee was on top of some part or other of George Floyd's body. It may have been Floyd's shoulder, his back, his neck; accounts differ. Give Chauvin credit: at all times, his knee was exactly where he wanted it to be, and he could push and pull his weight around using his back leg. The weight, thrust and position of Chauvin's knee varied from moment to moment; as it should, in a dynamic situation.
Placing a knee on the thorax, shoulder or neck is very effective at restraining a resisting suspect. In some situations, it is the most-effective or only-effective means of restraint. Applied with due care, this method of restraint is safe. It doesn’t cause injuries requiring treatment; it often works without leaving a mark on the body at all.
In the other side of the balance, placing bodyweight on the thorax in a careless or overzealous way can cause the accidental death of a suspect. But the knee is not categorized as deadly force, nor should it be.
A knee on the body can work as pain compliance. Weight on the spine hurts; it causes “guarding“ of the adjacent muscles. The upper part of the shin is a narrow blade of bone. By bringing this to bear on a bony part of the suspect's body - the ridge of the shoulder blade or the top knob of the thoracic spine - the officer can give the suspect a painful "noogie". Chauvin was doing this kind of thing. As with bodyweight restraint, pain compliance techniques, properly applied, are safe and leave little or no mark on the body.
The medical examiner found no life-threatening injuries to Floyd's body, but the minor injuries were significant; about what you would expect if an un-helmeted rider was lucky enough to walk away from a motorcycle accident. Floyd's face suffered some nasty cuts and contusions, his left shoulder was badly bruised and scraped, and the injuries to his left wrist would have required treatment.
What Was Derek Chauvin Trying To Do?
There are two basic reasons why an officer uses force.
Everyone understands that force is justified "in defense of the person". If someone's behavior poses a physical threat to himself or others, police may use force to neutralize/incapacitate the threat. Methods include subdual and restraint, the projectile taser, and deadly force.
George Floyd could not reasonably be deemed a threat. He was handcuffed, outnumbered four-to-one, and avowedly non-violent. He never initiated a struggle, and the moment he found himself in one, his top priority (after getting out of the car) was to surrender. Even to restrain Floyd couldn't be justified as defense of the person; unrestrained, he would have lain peacefully on the ground.
If a suspect is not a threat, but is a nuisance, pain compliance techniques may be employed. Methods include the contact taser, joint locks, and pressure holds. Because these methods are expected to pose little or no risk of injury, they can be justified on minimal grounds: mere disobedience is enough, once less-forceful measures are exhausted. That said, the justification for these techniques is to gain compliance, not to inflict pain as such. Within reason, the suspect must understand what is expected of him; he must be physically capable of complying; and if he does comply, then the pain must cease.
Derek Chauvin simultaneously applied multiple pain compliance techniques to George Floyd. He never said what he wanted Floyd to do, and indeed there was not much he could have said, because George Floyd wasn't in a position to do anything. The only way a person in Floyd's position can comply is by doing nothing. That's exactly what Kueng told Floyd to do, seconds after Floyd went to the pavement.
Kueng: "Stop moving!"
Floyd stops moving.
Floyd complied with this order; there was nothing else for Floyd to comply with. But the pain continued and increased, and the techniques were applied in such a way as to cause injuries. Floyd soon started squirming again, but that was reflexive reaction to pain, not willing non-compliance.
This conduct by Chauvin falls squarely into the realm of extrajudicial punishment. Chauvin deliberately tormented and injured Floyd, for no legitimate law-enforcement or public-order purpose. He did these things, knowing that every officer on the scene had an individual, legal duty of care to Floyd. There is no benign explanation, no excuse for this; the kindest thing you can call it is felony assault.
Prior to this, Shawanda and Charles had both remonstrated with Floyd to stop resisting, to do as he was told. These people may not have sympathized with the police, but they agreed with the police that Floyd's conduct was unreasonable or unwise.
As the minutes dragged on, as Floyd struggled helplessly and cried in pain, a knot of bystanders began to form on the sidewalk. They could not see what Chauvin was trying to accomplish, and their mood towards the officers turned ugly. Chauvin did not respond to the presence of these people, by word or gesture. If he had a plan, he didn't tell anybody what it was.
Respiration For Dummies
Given that no life-threatening injuries were found, there are competing theories as to what caused the death of George Floyd. All these theories have one element in common: something went wrong with Floyd's breathing. To understand how things can go wrong, it helps to know what happens when things go right.
Breathing entails movement of the chest and diaphragm. Muscles cause the chest to expand, drawing air into the lungs. When these muscles relax, the chest springs back, pushing air out. In normal respiration, the nerve signals which drive this muscle activity originate in a part of the brain called the medulla. The medulla is the lowest part of the brain. It is so low, it's not even entirely in the cranium; it protrudes through the foramen magnum into the top part of the spine, where it merges with the spinal cord.
The medulla is home to the most primal reflexes: a kind of basic operating system for any animal with a heart and lungs. Of all parts of the brain, the medulla has the longest evolutionary history, and some of the simplest, most fail-safe functions. That said, it's still pretty sophisticated. It responds to changes in the blood gas balance, specifically the concentration of carbon dioxide. If the carbon dioxide increases e.g. through exertion, the medulla will increase the respiratory effort, breathing faster and deeper. All of this proceeds without conscious awareness or strenuous effort.
We can also control our breathing voluntarily, and sometimes this is necessary. The medulla can't exhale deeply, hold the breath, or directly recruit the muscles to breathe with maximum effort. However, the medulla can rouse the organism to mighty efforts by sending out pain signals. These signals can be extremely intense; enough to override other sources of discomfort. For instance, a person trapped underground and suffocating will think nothing of clawing his fingernails to shreds trying to dig his way to the air.
Any animal that breathes with lungs needs an airway to breathe through. The medulla is home to reflexes that guard the airway and automatically clear obstructions: gag, cough, sneeze, swallow.
Thus, one way breathing can go wrong is if something happens to the medulla, like getting clobbered with alcohol or drugs. In this connection, it must be kept in mind that the medulla is the most clobber-resistant part of the brain. Its functions are simple, robust, and most fundamental to survival. It has the deepest evolutionary history and features a privileged blood supply. If you've ever been blackout drunk and woken the next day with a hangover, then you know that the alcohol temporarily robbed you of all the conscious functions of your brain. But your medulla kept working without interruption, or you would not have woken up. At worst, your respiratory drive may have been depressed, your breathing shallower and slower than normal. If breathing becomes inadequate for this reason, it is called respiratory failure and death will promptly result.
It's not easy to clobber the medulla with alcohol. They say Attila the Hun did it. He got so drunk he became unresponsive to pain. He blacked out and vomited, and his airway reflexes weren't sufficient to clear his airway. If his respiratory drive was working at all, it couldn't send a pain signal sufficient to wake Attila up.
So much for the respiratory drive. Breathing can also go wrong if there is a physical problem with the airway, lungs, or chest.
There are countless diseases and traumas that can interfere with breathing in any number of ways. Sometimes, a person's breathing can be adequate, but the situation is still an emergency if the person is in "respiratory difficulty". All this means is, voluntary muscle activation is needed in order to breathe; the normal respiratory drive isn't enough. The effort required need not be great; if even a small conscious effort must be made for each breath, that's respiratory difficulty.
If breathing is inadequate despite any possible effort, that is called respiratory distress and death will promptly result. If breathing is not possible at all (or if the organism is not trying to breathe at all), that is called respiratory arrest.
Compared to these latter things, mere respiratory difficulty doesn't seem like much of an emergency. Indeed, a person can live for hours or even days in respiratory difficulty. But the effort of breathing is unrelenting; if the difficulty can't be resolved, sooner or later fatigue will surely lead to respiratory distress. If breathing is strenuous, the problem is urgent; that effort can't be kept up for long.
(Forward to Part Four: Theories Of The Case)