By Ray Sanchez, CNN
Updated 3:56 PM ET, Sat May 30, 2020
(CNN)The Minneapolis police officer is seen in the video pressing his knee on the back of the handcuffed 46-year-old man. “Please, I can’t breathe,” George Floyd says.
After about six minutes on Monday evening, Floyd lay motionless, his eyes shut, his head against the pavement. He was declared dead at a hospital shortly afterward.
The city awoke Friday to find a police precinct set ablaze and parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul in ruins after days of protests, looting and vandalism stemming from the death of the unarmed black man.
Hours later, prosecutors announced the fired officer seen holding down Floyd — Derek Chauvin — had been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
It’s not the first time the long strained relationship between Minneapolis police and the community it is sworn to serve led to demonstrations.
Invoking the names of victims of fatal police encounters, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the smoldering ashes on the streets represented “decades and generations of pain, of anguish unheard.”
“So many other friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers senselessly died on our streets,” he said. “Their voices went unheard and now generations of pain is manifesting itself in front of the world.”
Since 1999, Minneapolis has paid nearly $5 million in settlements stemming from 22 police misconduct incidents, according to APM Reports, an investigative and documentary division of American Public Media. Law enforcement officers were involved in 29 civilian deaths, according to APM Reports.
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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/30/us/minnesota-police-actions-public-anger-trnd/index.html