I still have not watched the video! And I probably never will!

But I have seen the picture! White Police Officer Chauvin’s right knee buried deep into the neck of George Floyd, 46-year-old African American father and son.

A fatal choke from which he will never recover, amplified by the sickening unholy smirk on Chauvin’s face with both hands in his pockets.

And if I have been silent, 6 days after his murder, for that is what it was, it is precisely because my mind still suffers a stifling numbness, unable to come to terms with the gruesomeness and brazenness of it all. 

All too often, these purveyors of racist brutality walk free, the law somehow paralyzed to take action.

Seeing the “The Criminal charge brought by the State of Minnesota County of Hennepin against DEREK MICHAEL CHAUVIN: …” the rudiments of how to walk away with murder are beginning to make sense.

The preliminary autopsy findings are particularly instructive.

“The Hennepin County Medical Examiner (ME) conducted Mr. Floyd’s autopsy on May 26, 2020. The full report of the ME is pending but the ME has made the following preliminary findings. The autopsy revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. Mr. Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. The combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.”

In other words, the coronary artery disease and hypertension – both long term conditions – and effects from the unproven presence of “potential intoxicants in his system”, and not his deprivation of oxygen for over 8 minutes, were what directly killed George Floyd!

How very unlikely! So, are we to believe that Floyd, who prior to this had been going about his business daily, suddenly succumbed to these long-term diseases with the fact of his self-confessed inability to breath for over 8 minutes from Police brutality having no role in his death? Really!

So, the 46-year old’s coronary arteries were gradually narrowing from deposition of plaque in the walls! No news there. Also, a 46-year-old male African American was hypertensive? Again, no news there – “More than 40 percent of non-Hispanic African-American men and women have high blood pressure. For African Americans, high blood pressure also develops earlier in life and is usually more severe according to www.heart.org.”

So, in conclusion, while coronary artery disease and hypertension may be reasonable existing comorbidities, we certainly require further and better particulars on the main direct cause of death that actually make sense under the circumstances. 

You would also notice that Chauvin has been charged with third degree murder. In other words, Chauvin only acted in a reckless manner that ended a life but had no intent or previous plan to kill.

This is distinguished from first-degree murder which requires intent and planning or second-degree murder which requires intent only.

I am no lawyer but when Chauvin continues to choke a man to his death 2 minutes and 53 seconds after Floyd appears to stop breathing, it is difficult to convince me about the absence of intent to kill. At the very least, second-degree murder ought to be Chauvin’s charge. 

While acknowledging previous efforts in the US to implement systematic changes to Police training protocols, recruitment policies, riot de-escalation strategies etc., I dare say that with black women and men and American Indian and Alaska Native women and men being “significantly more likely than white women and men to be killed by police” per the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, and for as long as black men and women continue to die for no reason other than the color of their skins, and for as long as my morbid fear of a careless death prevents me from an occasional jog on America’s streets during visits, these measures can never be viewed as enough.

To quote a lawyer in America, "Remember that they have rehearsed this scenario several times over. This is one more of the same. Nothing new. Same drill, different name."

It is time to stop these senseless racially motivated killings!

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The author is Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey. Contact him; Sodzi_tettey@hotmail.com