The violent death of George Floyd by police hand in Minneapolis (USA) shocks. For minutes, a police officer pressed his knee on the neck of the 46-year-old man. Not only in the USA, in many other countries and also in Germany people show their sympathy. However, Germany is also showing an extreme side: the protests are "against racism and police violence". Undifferentiated, the police officers are accused of violence and structural racism here as well. Who benefits?
Racist police violence in the U.S
The U.S. citizen George Floyd was killed on 25. May 2020 accused by store security of paying for a pack of cigarettes with a fake $20 bill. Floyd denied this and refused to hand over the purchased cigarettes. Employees called the police. They assessed Floyd as drunk and described their impression to arriving police. A total of four police officers dealt with the facts of the case. George Floyd initially did not want to get out of his passenger car, but eventually cooperated. Before the patrol car, Floyd panicked, stating that he was claustrophobic and could not sit in the patrol car. Here he reported breathing problems for the first time. When he was put in the back seat, there was a scuffle between him and a police officer. Another then pulled him out of the patrol car, three policemen fixed him on the ground, one by kneeling on his neck. Passers-by started filming this scene and heard Floyd's pained words "I can't breathe", moreover they saw that he was bleeding from his nose. They asked the policeman to let go of the man. In total, this sat unchanged on the neck of the man for eight minutes and 46 seconds. During this, George Floyd had lost consciousness, also police could no longer feel a pulse even while he was being restrained.
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