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 do you see GF after being handcuffed still posing a threat? If defense could attack that notion, why didn't he do so in cross-examination? Seems important to me.
The idea of a hostile crowd influencing actions without actually attacking I'll agree with, but you have clear evidence that merely pointing out cops have pepper spray effectively controlled this "crowd." There were only 3 young men there. Chauvin and Tao made threatening motions with their spray and everybody backed off as told. This makes it hard to claim the crowd was a big factor, other than needing to keep an eye on them. Tao did that while the other 3 stayed on top of GF.
If you want to challenge this Lieutenant's credibility, show in the manual where this position is taught in the manual. That's what we've heard. Why didn't defense do that?
The statement about not posing a threat was made in cross examination and the LT looked like a fucking idiot denying that George could still kick and thrash when that is what we see on video. George continued to pose a threat to himself and everyone around him and that threat would have escalated had he been taken off the ground.
The fact that two officers had to escalate to showing spray establishes that the crowd was a threat, not the opposite. The crowd then became increasingly hostile, not more compliant, even if they did back up onto the sidewalk (an action they could undo in an instant).
The fact that EMS decided to a "scoop and go" further reinforces this continued threat to safety from the crowd.
Because the defense cant crossexamine on facts that have not yet been introduced to the jury. Thata not how court works. When the prosecution rests their case in a week or so the defense will be able to discuss this training and show their proof for it (which has already been entered into evidence if you care to look for it).
He didn't claim that.
Based on what?
It's easy to assert that until GF stopped struggling. It might even be allowed as hypothetically true for the first 4 minutes. Since GF was for all practical purposes dead when paramedics showed up, how was GF a threat for the final 4:44 when he was clearly unconscious?
If defense can show in the manual that cops are in fact trained to use this hold, then this LT is irrelevant! I think it helps the defense to raise this point closer to when they have to decide a verdict.
People experiencing overdoses can regain consciousness and become violent. It's so common that it is something to watch out for when administering Narcan. Based on Floyd's prior behavior it makes the most sense to keep him immobilized.
And they will.
"Keeping him still" is Police training for EXD. That and calling the ambulance is all they can do. If Chauvin himself can testify to that it may be the strongest part of the defense.
LT said having called the ambulance doesn't relieve the responsibility to start CPR. If others testify that's also true, this may become a key part of the prosecution.
If any medical expert can testify that the toxicology report itself would definitely result in death regardless, that would make this easy.
I went back and watch the video and he sarcastically states that "once they're cuffed the threat level goes all the way down...I mean how can they hurt you?" @17:30 https://youtu.be/S9GGZCooTUc
Under cross had to be forced to concede the point that everyone could see one video: a person in cuffs can still thrash and kick. But he was reluctant to do so and a little petulant in his responses.
Call that what you want but it made him look like a retard.
Correct! This and getting him to admit he doesn't teach sell defense but is a student were the best parts of cross.
Having the jury throw out everything he said should be a priority.