Most senior Officer in Minnedishu PD says that it is lethal force to put your knee on someone's neck. They have never been trained to do this with someone handcuffed behind their back while in the prone position.
He further states that simply being handcuffed with your hands behind your back makes it hard to breathe, and being in the prone position would make it even harder to breathe. For this reason once someone is handcuffed with their hands behind their back you get their chest off the ground. (GF's chest was on the ground the whole time) He said you usually get them on their side or sitting.
This came before the break at 10:45 local time, probably after 10:15.
He further states that of the 5 levels of force, once you have someone handcuffed behind their back you immediately drop to the lowest level of force and threat, the perp can't really hurt you, while they can still kick you can get out of the way.
Cross-examination should be interesting!
He also establishes that the Officer who handcuffs a perp immediately becomes responsible for their well being. I point out that if Chauvin didn't handcuff GF, this adds a wrinkle to the case.
How dare this guy throw his coworker under the bus like that. And isn’t that position in the police training manual? He tried to get Floyd in the car sitting up but he didn’t want to go. He was not only protecting himself but protecting everyone around watching. They thought he may have been on PCP, which makes people extremely erratic. Just cause he was “knocked out” doesn’t mean he couldn’t suddenly get up and run. And he still had a pulse.
We've been told all that time this position is in their manual, yes. If it is, the last 35 years of publications can't be changed for political theater and this guy's credibility is shot.