Was George Floyd Dying Before Police Even Got Him To The Ground?

The death of George Floyd will probably go down as one of the most well known and historic deaths in recent history. But what if a white police officer didn’t murder him after all, what if Floyd was going to die regardless?

Now I’m aware this is a very sensitive subject to delve into, questioning Floyd’s death and character has now become akin to cursing in church. But i’m not interested in what people believe happened, or the injustice it represents – all I am concerned with right now is whether this was murder, or something else.

Up until recently all we had was a couple of videos showing a White police officer with his knee to Floyds neck for around 9 minutes, at which point Floyd appears to be dead.

What we didn’t have much of was the dialect between the officers and Floyd leading up to the incident.

Now we do, and while the media isn’t interested in reporting it, because it sticks a major spanner in the racial killing narrative, we will, because if indeed George Floyd was dying prior to any physical interaction with the Police, then everything that followed in the days and weeks after his death was based on a false belief.

Drug Induced Paranoia?

Before Floyd died, before he was filmed on the floor with three officers holding him down, one with his knee on Floyds neck, before he’d even left his own vehicle, Floyd was clearly not OK.

The following has been taken from the transcript[1] from the body cam of one of the police officers at the scene:

Lane:

Okay well so here’s the thing, someone passed a fake bill in there. We come over here, he starts grabbing for the keys and all that stuff, starts getting weird, not showing us his hands. don’t know what’s going on, so you’re coming out of the car. So, just hang tight right here. Stay right here, please

George Floyd:

Ouch, ouch man!

Lane:

What, are you on something right now?

George Floyd:

No, nothing.

Kueng:

Because you acting

Lane:

a little erratic. Let’s go. Let’s go.

George Floyd:

I‘m scared, man.

Kueng:

You got foam around your mouth, too?

George Floyd:

Yes, I was just hooping earlier.

Lane:

Let’s go.

So Floyd is identified as acting ‘a little erratic’ by Thomas Lane, one of the officers on site. James Kueng another one of the four officers on site points out to Floyd  ‘You got foam around your mouth’.

With which Floyd responds with ‘Yes, I was just hooping earlier’. Hooping if you didn’t already know is when you stuff drugs up your anus.

Whether it was concealment purposes by wrapping in plastic, or for recreational use in the form of an enema, we don’t know, someone knows, but such information seems to be missing.

What we do know is Floyd did have Fentanyl in his system when he died.

I Can’t Breath

The transcript[1] also reveals that he stated he couldn’t breath before he was on the floor, in fact it was Floyd who requested to be laid down on the floor:

George Floyd:

I can‘t choke, can’t breathe Mr. Ofcer!

I, Please! Please!

Kueng:

Fine.

George Floyd:

My wrist, my wrist man. Okay, okay. I want to lay on the ground. l want to lay on the ground. I want to lay on the ground!

Floyd is then lowered to the ground and the three officers hold him there, with Chauvin restraining Floyd using his knee on Floyds neck, the rest you know.

So while nothing is conclusive, it certainly does appear that Floyd was having some kind of reaction to something.

The autopsy stated the cause of death as cardiopulmonary arrest and noted other factors which could be attributed to his death, arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease, fentanyl intoxication, and recent methamphetamine use[2]

The behaviour, the difficulty breathing and the heart attack are all typical symptoms of a Fentanyl overdose.

It would appear, George Floyd did overdose and die from a heart attack. Yes, it can be fairly argued that under better circumstances his life could have been saved. But while I do not condone the restraint method used on Floyd during his arrest, this was a standard restraint method used by officers.

If George Floyd had been sitting at home watching TV when his heart attack struck, maybe he could have received the medical attention required to keep him alive; or maybe he would never have even had a heart attack.

It is possible the confrontation with the police played a part in the onset of his heart attack. But a wise man would typically avoid crime following ‘hooping’ and being heavily under the influence of both fentanyl and methamphetamines.

Whatever happened, this was not the cold-blooded murder that it seemed if you only saw the infamous kneeling footage. To me and this is entirely observational, it seemed more like a ritual death. 

What do you think, do you think this changes anything, do these new revelations undermine all the protests that followed?

Sources:

[1] Transcript – startribune.com

[2] medpagetoday.com – Forensic Pathologist Breakdown