Minneapolis, Minn. — Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo testified that the neck restraint that Derek Chauvin used was not a policy or training that his agency endorsed. That seems odd considering there is clear evidence that it was. Part of that evidence includes the 2018 training given to officers and the the Minneapolise Police Department policy that specifically says that “a neck restraint can be used as a form of a “non-deadly option” and is defined as “compressing one or both sides of a person’s neck with an arm or leg, without applying direct pressure to the trachea or airway (front of the neck).”
Even more odd is the testimony of police Inspector Katie Blackwell, who was in charge of the department’s training program last year. She testified that officers are taught to use their arms when doing neck restraints. “I don’t know what kind of improvised position this is,” she said of Chauvin’s kneeling. “That’s not what we train.”
Let’s be absolutely clear: Arradondo and Blackwell are contradicting irrefutable evidence including documented policy and training materials. And their testimony suggests a “head in the sand” approach that seems to have taken over the courtroom since their testimony contradicts what is documented, and plain for all to see.
And if that wasn’t crazy enough, this was not the story of the day.
Under cross examination, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo was asked by Defense Attorney Eric Nelson if he was familiar with the term “camera perspective bias.”
When showed the video of a different angle, from a body camera showing the seconds prior to medical personnel arriving, he agreed that Chauvin’s knee was on the shoulder blade of George Floyd and not the neck.
