Our Reporter
MINNEAPOLIS — Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who was seen on video kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died in custody after pleading that he could not breathe, was arrested on Friday and charged with murder.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, after the office gathered enough evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Protests sparked by the killing for the third day running yesterday with a mob setting a police station in Minneapolis ablaze.
President Donald Trump slammed Mayor Jacob Frey of not doing enough to handle the mayhem while former President Barack Obama said the killing of Floyd “shouldn’t be normal in 2020 America.”
Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said state investigators arrested Derek Chauvin, who was one of four officers fired this week, but he did not provide details.
News of the arrest came moments after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged the “abject failure” of the response to this week’s protests and called for swift justice for officers involved. Walz said the state would take over the response to the protests and that it’s time to show respect and dignity to those who are suffering.
“Minneapolis and St. Paul are on fire. The fire is still smoldering in our streets. The ashes are symbolic of decades and generations of pain, of anguish unheard,” Walz said, adding. “Now generations of pain is manifesting itself in front of the world — and the world is watching.”
The governor cited a call he received from a state senator who described her district “on fire, no police, no firefighters, no social control, constituents locked in houses wondering what they were going to do. That is an abject failure that cannot happen.”
His comments came the morning after protesters torched a Minneapolis police station that officers abandoned during a third night of violence. Livestream video showed protesters entering the building, where intentionally set fires activated smoke alarms and sprinklers. President Donald Trump threatened action, tweeting “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” which prompted a warning from Twitter for “glorifying violence.”
The governor faced tough questions after National Guard leader Maj. Gen. Jon Jensen blamed a lack of clarity about the Guard’s mission for a slow response. Walz said the state was in a supporting role and that it was up to city leaders to run the situation. Walz said it became apparent as the 3rd Precinct was lost that the state had to step in, which happened at 12:05 a.m. Requests from the cities for resources “never came,” he said.
“You will not see that tonight, there will be no lack of leadership,” Walz said.
Nearly every building in the shopping district around the abandoned police station had been vandalized, burned or looted yesterday.
Trump slams Minneapolis mayor,’thugs’ over violent George Floyd protests
Trump, in a tweet yesterday, threatened to “get the job done right” to control the violent Minneapolis protests if the city’s mayor failed to “get his act together.”
“I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership,” the US president said.
“Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.”
Trump’s threat came as rioters in the city took over a police precinct and set it ablaze in protest of George Floyd’s death.
Frey responded to Trump at an early-morning press yesterday, saying that type of finger point was weak.
“Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your actions. Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis,” Frey said.
“Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis. We are strong as hell. Is this a difficult time period? Yes. But you better be damn sure that we’re gonna get through this.”
Obama furious over Floyd’s killing : ‘This shouldn’t be ‘normal’ in 2020 America’
Trump’s immediate predecessor,Barack Obama, deplored the killing of George Floyd in police custody and declared this “shouldn’t be ‘normal’ in 2020 America.”
“It can’t be ‘normal.’ If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must be better,” Obama said in a statement, as protests continued across the country.
Obama asked for a thorough investigation of Floyd’s death “and that justice is ultimately done.”
He added: “But it falls on all of us, regardless of our race or station — including the majority of men and women in law enforcement who take pride in doing their tough job the right way, every day — to work together to create a ‘new normal’ in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts.,”
Obama shared parts of the conversations he has had with friends in the days since footage emerged of Mr Floyd dying face down in the street under the knee of a police officer.
A middle-aged African American businessman told the former president how the incident hurt him and how he cried and broke down when he saw the video.
“The ‘knee on the neck’ is a metaphor for how the system so cavalierly holds black folks down, ignoring the cries for help. People don’t care. Truly tragic,” the man wrote.
Another of Mr Obama’s friends used 12-year-old Keedron Bryant’s powerful performance of a song to express the frustrations he was feeling.
The gospel singer, who competed on NBC’s talent competition Little Big Shots, posted a video of himself singing a song with the refrain “I just want to live”.
