Most local police forces in America are badly paid and badly trained. They are nowhere near the quality of our much criticised police force.

I doubt putting your knee on someone's neck is in any police training manual. Still you pay peanuts....

One more point

Nobody REALLY knows what goes on in edited clips of incidents like this, so we can never judge as we weren't there. Investigations do take place afterwards and bad cops are jailed.

We're less than six months away from the US election and it's about this time that CNN, MSNBC et al start to get footage of black men being shot at by police to get the black base riled up to vote Democrat. I really noticed it when I moved to the US in 2016. You'll start to see much more of this in the lead-up till November...

Funny how it's been pretty quiet since the last election till very recently...

Funny how they never show footage of whites getting the same treatment? Twice as many whites get shot and killed by cops each year (2017, 2018).

Edited by Penge Eagle (27 May 2020 1.40pm)

He was recorded for ten minutes, cuffed, not moving, saying he couldn't breathe and gradually dying on film. This wasn't some 30 second edited clip. How he was restrained and what it led to are clear to see, both to bystanders stating it in the video and to those who watch it back now [Link]

Acknowledging the reality of someone being treated like an animal is more important than how to turn the page on it because of how it might be perceived politically. As for bad cops being jailed, that's a coin toss, Daniel Shavers killer cop was acquitted for instance. A jury system is the best we have, but some undoubtedly get extreme benefit of the doubt applied and knowing that may well feed into their own, and others, behaviour.

Edited by BlueJay (27 May 2020 2.45pm)

I don't perceive placing your knee on someones neck for ten minutes while they are cuffed, no threat, and telling you that they are dying, to be heat of the moment behaviour. Scenarios of why he may have acted this way towards an unarmed man are somewhat undermined by what he can actually be seen to be doing and the fact that they were fired. Hopefully if it goes to court, the full details of the matter can all be ascertained and laid out, and a just verdict delivered.

Edited by BlueJay (27 May 2020 3.15pm)

Most likely not, but if you were treated this way on film I'd be outraged at that too. Politicisation is from all sides and obscures what can be seen and understood with the naked eye. Basic compassion is all that needs to be engaged to know there is something very wrong with what happened here.

To add context, the guy was even in handcuffs for several minutes before he was pinned to the ground and was clearly cooperating at that time. It's reasonable to say that all conceivable versions of what happened next don't involve him doing anything that warrants his death.

CCTV of the lead up [Link]

Edited by BlueJay (27 May 2020 5.15pm)

the truth is the American old bill are constantly jumpy because every suspect is probably armed puts the fear of god into them it's the gun living culture that dont help many people carry a sandwich in foil and get shot over there just in case it's a gun. This is obviously different circumstances and was avoidable.