The week of the George Floyd death, Law Officer broke several stories including the lack of the body camera footage being released and that the neck restraint being used was approved in department policy.
The hate and the vile messages sent our way was astronomical. Rather than focusing on the facts that we were providing, we were accused of everything from “justifying” the actions of the officers to racism.
The day after the death, Mayor Jacob Frey stood in front of the press and failed to tell the world everything that we had told our audience. He failed to discuss what was on the body camera footage along with refusing to tell us that the policy and actions performed by officers was approved in policy and aligned with a 2018 white paper on excited delirium that the officers received.
We were harsh on him and saw it as a lack of leadership and a failure to tell the world what he knew.
Could the truth have mitigated what ensued after the death of George Floyd?
MINNEAPOLIS, THE HOME OF COWARDLY LEADERS
It was still awful but when a politician and police chief knew so much more that would give some context to what we all saw play out on television, it’s hard to not believe that it would have not have helped in some way.
They refused to tell you.
But we did tell you and we continued to tell you, despite multiple coordinated attacks against our authors and against our website in the form of digital attacks designed to remove everything we were saying.
Five weeks later, the information we gave you is coming to light.
According to KARE11, Thomas Lane, one of the Minneapolis police officers that was arrested, has now filed a motion to dismiss the charges he faces in the death of George Floyd and in that motion is 30 pages of MPD training materials, including information on a restraint called the “maximal restraint technique,” and a photo of an officer with his knee to a suspect’s neck similar to the hold used by former officer Derek Chauvin on Floyd.
MINNEAPOLIS, I CALL YOUR BLUFF
Something that the mainstream media has yet to tell you.
An MPD spokesperson, when asked about the training materials Wednesday, said they have been advised not to comment about the open court proceedings and could not say any more on the topic.
Well isn’t that convenient.
In his motion to dismiss, Lane’s attorney argues that Floyd continued to kick and yell as Lane held his legs, after Lane suggested using the maximal restraint technique.
“Officer Lane did not know there was a felony being committed or attempted when Chauvin was kneeling on Floyd,” Gray wrote in the court filing. “If in fact a felony was committed or attempted. The training material supports that neck restraint was something taught to officers (Exhibit 7). Lane is a trained police officer who, although new to the job, knew that officers are allowed to use reasonable force when needed. Id.3 Based on Floyd’s actions up to this point, the officers had no idea what he would do next – hurt himself, hurt the officers, flee, or anything else, but he was not cooperating.”
There are many more answers that the leaders aren’t telling you and that the media isn’t asking. For instance, where is the body camera footage?
When was the last time the media and the activists didn’t demand it?
It’s all but forgotten.
While no one seems to care about the one piece of evidence that would tell the complete story about this police encounter, the footage from Officer Lane’s and Officer Kueng’s body cameras was also filed in today’s motion, but the state court website tracking the cases did not list those items as exhibits.
The motion said what we have been saying all along. The court should make the body camera video public so the world can see exactly what happened.
Without explanation, the court did not make the recordings publicly available Wednesday.
BODY CAMERA TRANSCRIPTS OF GEORGE FLOYD CUSTODIAL DEATH REVEAL NEW DETAILS
There will be a place where that and so many more answers will come and just like we found out today with 30 pages of training materials supporting what we told you five weeks ago, it will be in the court proceedings.
At the end of all of this, one thing will be crystal clear.
This may be the failure of one or more bad cops but the true failure will be the politicians and police leaders that Minneapolis entrusted to keep them safe.
And despite the media’s horrific lack of morals and courage, their lies and omissions will be found out.
Today was just the beginning.
Law Officer
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