Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

They have released another body cam of the George Floyd disaster, and it is incredible, as in: I can't understand it. This was about a phony $20 bill, but counterfeit money is designed to be good enough to circulate for a while. So, the person who spent it at the place where it was recognized isn't necessarily the forger. And police know this, right? So, what reason was there to start off by being so belligerent to George Floyd? Did they really think that he was the counterfeiter? Apparently, he wasn't because they have never followed up with any evidence that he was involved with counterfeiting. And if he knowingly passed off a phony $20 bill, why would he just sit in his car? Why wouldn't he get out of there? 

So, there was no evidence that he was guilty, and his behavior wasn't consistent with his being guilty, since he didn't flee.

So, the two cops get to the car and tap  on the window. The window and all the windows were up all the way. George would say later that he was claustrophobic, but you would think that, if so, he would have lowered the window to let some air in. There were three people in the car. That's three people - all of whom had to breathe -sitting in a parked car with the windows up.

 I realize that a window may have been down on the passenger side; it's possible; but, I am not going to assume that it was. 

So, the cop taps on the window, and says, belligerently:"let's see your hands." Then, when Floyd opened the door, the cop said, "stay in the car; let me see your other hand." So, he's being treated like a violent criminal from the start. 

Then, while they're arguing about Floyd's hands, we see that the other cop has his gun drawn.

And he must have had it drawn all along. But why? Do cops draw a gun to question someone about the origin of a $20 bill? 

Reportedly, the ink was wet and running on the phony $20. That implies that George must have made it and recently. How long does it take for ink to dry? But, we don't have a picture of the bill. All we have is a picture of bills that were found crumpled in Floyd's car, and they all look fine to me. 

So, we haven't seen the bill with the ink running, and it's hard to believe that George Floyd had anything to do with such a bill. And surely if he was involved in counterfeiting, police would have gotten to the bottom of it by now. 

But, back to the video. So, they're still arguing about his hands, and the cop is using the F-word. First, he tells him to put his hands on the wheel, but then he tells him to put his hands on top of his head. But why? Hands clasping the steering wheel is more immobilizing than hands atop the head. 

Then, the officer tells him to get out of the car. Then, why did he tell him to put his hands on top of his head? People use their hands to get out of a car. Don't they? So, Floyd gets out, and the officer takes his arm as he's getting out, and then he cuffs him.

The officer who led Floyd away was a black man; a light-skinned black man, Alex Kueng. The mistreatment of George Floyd has been characterized as racially-motivated, but it can't be true of Alex Kueng, right?

But, why was this happening at all? What had Floyd done? They had no certainty nor any strong suspicion that he had done anything.  They didn't even ask him about the $20 bill. I thought that when cops place you under arrest, they tell you what you are being arrested for. "You're under arrest for DWI." What was he under arrest for? For counterfeiting? For resisting arrest? But, you can't call what he did resisting arrest. He begged them not to shoot him, but that's not resisting arrest. 

The other officer was busy talking to the two passengers, male and female. He was more civil to them than he was to Floyd. But, he didn't ask them about the counterfeit money either. He asked them why George was acting so weird and whether he was on something, and they said that he had  problems, and I presume they meant: mental problems. 

The audio fades in and out, but very clearly you can hear the officer ask George if he's on something, and George says no. They cross the street with him and get him to the police cruiser. First, they try to get him in from the sidewalk side. Then they walk around to the street side and do the same. He repeats that he is claustrophobic. Then he says: "I can't choke. I can't breathe, rather."

They left out the "rather." Then, he says repeatedly that he wants to lay down on the ground.

So, it was his idea to go to the ground. Then after that is when the horrific kneeling took place, with Chauven's knee on his neck. 

I am a screenwriter. I won a screenwriting award for the screenplay to My Stretch of Texas Ground, among many awards that the film has won. But, if someone presented this to me as a screenplay, I would say that it stinks, that it is totally implausible.  It makes no sense. The cops' behavior makes no sense; Floyd's behavior makes no sense; and the whole circumstance with the phony, wet, ink-running $20 bill makes no sense. 

We need to hear from those cops. We need to hear from Chauven to learn why he knelt on the man's neck. Why didn't he kneel on the ground and just use his hands to contain the man? He obviously wasn't going anywhere. 

The whole thing is bizarre, and I don't see how you can attribute it to racism when there was a black and an Asian officer involved. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPSwqp5fdIw