Thursday, 16 July 2020_The family of George Floyd, an African American recently killed by a white police officer, has sued the Minnesota police.
”This complaint shows what we have said all along, that Mr Floyd died because the weight of the entire Minneapolis Police Department was on his neck,” said Ben Crump, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit. “The city of Minneapolis has a history of policies, procedures and deliberate indifference that violates the rights of arrestees, particularly black men, and highlights the need for officer training and discipline.”
The 46-year-old unarmed black man died after a white police officer kept knelt on his neck and pinned him to the ground for nine minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25.
“This is an unprecedented case, and with this lawsuit we seek to set a precedent that makes it financially prohibitive for police to wrongfully kill marginalized people – especially black people – in the future,” read the lawsuit.
Derek Chauvin, the police officer who was videotaped pressing his knee to Floyd's neck, is mentioned in the lawsuit along with three other officers.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a court in Minneapolis allowed some media to view body-camera footage from two of the officers involved in Floyd’s death.
“I’m not that kind of guy,” Floyd says as he struggles against the officers. “I just had Covid, man, I don’t want to go back to that.” An onlooker pleads with Floyd to stop struggling, saying: “You can’t win!” Floyd replies: “I don’t want to win!”
The tragic death triggered massive protests across the United States for the nations battle to end racial injustice and police brutality.
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