DC Officials React To Death Of George Floyd In Minneapolis

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mayor Muriel Bowser and Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham shared their reactions Friday to the death earlier this week of a black man in police custody in Minneapolis.

A video released online shows George Floyd, 46, struggling to breathe as a Minnesota police officer pressed his knee into his neck, as three other officers watched.

Derek Chauvin was the officer who was seen with his knee on Floyd’s neck during an arrest Monday. Floyd later died after saying that he was struggling to breathe during the arrest, the video shows. The four officers were fired and, on Friday, agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension arrested Chauvin, charging him with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

“I don’t see how anybody could possibly say that that this was an appropriate use of force,” Newsham said, in a statement. “To the Minneapolis Police Chief’s credit, he immediately got involved and ensured that those four police officers were terminated. There’s nothing that can explain putting your knee on a human being’s neck for five minutes.”

Bowser responded to a question about Floyd’s death during a Friday morning press briefing about the reopening of the District following the cancelation of her stay-at-home order. She acknowledged speaking with Newsham earlier in order to gain a law enforcement perspective and discuss their expectations for MPD officers.

“We were both saddened and outraged by what we saw in Minneapolis,” she said. “For anybody who’s watching a person in police custody, three officers watching while one was begging for his life, would be outraged and saddened. But we also want to make clear that that’s not our expectation or what we would stand for in Washington, D.C.

“The chief made clear what the responsibilities of the officers are, and I want to make that clear too. What we recognize is that the community needs the police and the police needs the community to respect and trust them, so that our communities are safe. And that’s what we wake up to do each and every day.”

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, issued a statement following the protests that followed Floyd’s death.

“The murder of George Floyd by police is an unspeakable tragedy,” he said. “Sadly, police brutality against the Black community has been an ever-present circumstance since its origin to preserve the system of slavery.”

Johnson went on to describe how black families and communities across the country are unified by the incident, and that systematic racial issues are helping to fuel the uprising spreading across the country.

“As a father, I know what it’s like when my sons and daughters want to leave the house and being scared that they may never return,” he said. “As a husband, I consider my wife and the life she would be left to navigate if I was prematurely taken from her and my children as yet another unexplainable death. As a Black man, I consider how much longer I can be asked to bear the brunt of these social injustices without meeting force with force. But as a community, we must also find what is at stake. We must consider the lives we are attempting to forge for our families and communities. Additionally, we must act in our best interest to knock down the walls of injustice that will grant future generations access to higher social, economic, and political power.”

Johnson added that the NAACP wouldn’t rest until the officers are charged and convicted for Floyd’s murder.

“We must keep our focus on redressing the systemic racism against our community that led to this tragedy,” he said. “We cannot afford to do so while losing more Black sons and daughters. We must protest peacefully, demand persistently, and fight politically. But most of all, we must vote in November.”

George Floyd Death: Former Cop Derek Chauvin Charged With Murder

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