A video taken by an onlooker Monday evening shows a white Minneapolis police officer keeping his knee on the neck of a motionless, moaning, unarmed black man at the foot of a squad car.
The man later died. None of the citizens around used their constitutional right and citizens' obligation to shoot the criminal and save the victim’s life. The criminal, as usual, got rewarded: fully-paid holiday, paid by the tax payers.
No arrest has been done, despite the clear video evidence about the murderer, as it’s just a black victim and a white murderer. USPD as usual...
A police statement said officers responded to a report of a "forgery in progress." (Bullshit).
"Officers were advised that the suspect was sitting on top of a blue car and appeared to be under the influence," the statement said. "Two officers arrived and located the suspect, a male believed to be in his 40s, in his car. He was ordered to step from his car.
"After he got out, he physically resisted officers. (A lie) Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance." (Bullshit. He was bagging for his life, and they murdered him for no reason).
The man died soon after, the statement said, adding, "At no time were weapons of any type used by anyone involved in this incident. … Body worn cameras were on and activated during this incident."
Later, Minneapolis police said the FBI is joining the investigation of the incident.
Two of the officers involved have been put on paid administrative leave, as the US police usually keep paying nice salaries for white policeman who killed innocent black Americans.
Years before the nation heard George Floyd’s haunting words – ‘I can’t breathe’ – Minneapolis police officers were accused of improperly restraining another man.
They were accused of pinning him face down – with an officer’s knee on his back – for approximately four minutes.
“That’s exactly what happened in the Smith case – and David Smith died as a result,” said Jack Ryan, a 20-year veteran police officer in Rhode Island who served as an expert witness in a 2010 police misconduct case filed against the City of Minneapolis and two of its officers.
The multi-million-dollar civil suit was filed after Smith died following a struggle with police inside the downtown Minneapolis YMCA.
Video from the case showed officers used a controversial technique known as “prone restraint” to arrest the 28-year-old mentally ill man.
Robert Bennett, the Smith family’s attorney, said that pinning him face down – for an extended period – made it impossible for him to breathe.
“It’s a complete failure of training and policy when the officers do that and it’s a violation of the 4th amendment,” Bennett said.
KARE11 Investigates interviewed Bennett last year as we researched prone restraint deaths around the country – including similar cases in Colorado and Dallas, Texas.
“The officers, when you watch these tapes over and over again, just don’t get it that the person isn’t breathing,” Bennett said.
An autopsy showed Smith died due to “mechanical asphyxia” caused by prone restraint.
In 2013, the City of Minneapolis paid out $3 million to settle the case, not from their pockets but from the citizens tax payers money.
The Department of Justice has warned against prone restraints since the mid-90's. The DOJ recommendations state: “As soon as the suspect is handcuffed, get him off his stomach.”
Bennett called kneeling on a face down suspect “a killing mechanism.”
“It’s really no different than strangling somebody,” he said.
Comparison to Floyd case
When Jack Ryan, the use of force expert in the Smith case, saw the video of a Minneapolis officer holding George Floyd down – this time with a knee on his throat – he saw another violation of police training.
“Do you see similarities between this and the other case you were involved in here in Minnesota?”
“Well I do,” Ryan replied. “I see a similarity in the length of time and staying on top of – after restraint is accomplished.”
“All of the training says get off them as quickly as you can, move them into a position that facilitates breathing,” he said.
As part of the 2013 settlement in the Smith case, Minneapolis officers were supposed to receive additional training on how to properly restrain suspects.
“And it was my belief that Minneapolis was going to do retraining on that issue,” Ryan said. “I don’t know if that ever happened.”
After the video of George Floyd's arrest surfaced, KARE11 asked the Minneapolis Police Department if that retraining took place. So far, the department has not responded.
Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training released a statement Wednesday.
“The tactics displayed in the widely distributed bystander video do not appear to reflect the training that students receive when attending any of the institutions that make up our Minnesota Professional Peace Office Education System,” it said.
