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• THE VIDEO NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG, 44 MINNEAPOLIS On the evening of May 25th, I remember being tagged in a Facebook post by a woman named Ashley Quinones, whose husband, Brian, had been killed by the Richfield police last year. She talked about how the Minneapolis police had crushed someone’s throat, or killed them somehow with a throattype injury. After I read the post, I started looking online to see if there had been any news stories, any news coverage around what happened—there was nothing. I then reached out to the chief of police to ask him if Minneapolis police had been involved in killing someone and he said he hadn’t been aware of anything like that. From his understanding, someone had died in police custody due to some kind of a medical issue. So I went on Facebook and said I’d talked to the chief: this is what he is saying has happened, according to what officers told him, and he has turned the case over to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. After that, another fellow activist went to the scene and started interviewing witnesses. And witnesses told him that the police caused George Floyd to die by, you know, having one cop have his knee on his neck, and then not listening to the bystanders telling them to stop, and then not listening to the man in question telling them that he couldn’t breathe. When I heard those accounts, I reached back out to the chief to say, “The witnesses are saying something different happened. Can you try to find some video of what happened so that you will know what happened?” Then, at that point, I went on social media and I let people know that a man had died in police custody. Within minutes of that, I was tagged in another Facebook post. This time it was a bystander video. And from my review of the bystander video, it was very clear that police had intentionally killed George Floyd. 21
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CHRISTOPHER “MAD DOG” THOMAS, 35 CHICAGO I was in my living room with my son. And it came through on my phone on my Facebook feed. And so I just clicked the link, and then I paused it. And the reason why I paused it, before even I watched the whole thing, is I wanted my son to see it. So it was only one of my sons that time but I wanted to watch it with him. You know what I’m saying? So he can have an understanding of how systems operate and move. Police are there to serve and protect us, but what are they serving and protecting? They’re not serving and protecting the people they’re supposed to serve. So like, if you’re a human being, a Black human being, it’s okay for them to take you out. A police officer’s an executioner, he has all the power and the right to take a life at any moment. And in this country, Black lives, right, are at this point—to me, have always been—disposable or used as some form of currency or capital. And so I wanted to make sure that my son had an opportunity to see what it looks like. Like, this is what it looks like in live action, and this is happening right now. This happened in the last 24 hours. He’s eight. He was a little frustrated with it. You know, like he felt like the people around them was telling them that he couldn’t breathe and the police officer just disregarded that. Right? Like, he didn’t care. Now you have full power, he’s in handcuffs. There’s not really too much he can do and you couldn’t let him stand up or get off his back, right? So that’s what my son was mostly frustrated with. And he noticed when he wasn’t responsive. He said, “Daddy, he’s gone. He’s gone out.” Like, right now he’s gone. ALSA BRUNO, 30 SAN FRANCISCO I intentionally did not. I’ve yet to watch it because I mean, one, I’m not confused about what’s gonna happen. I’ve seen too many lynchings. And I don’t feel like I need to watch this man take his last breath to know that his breath is important. 22

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THE VIDEO

NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG, 44

MINNEAPOLIS

On the evening of May 25th, I remember being tagged in a Facebook post by a woman named Ashley Quinones, whose husband, Brian, had been killed by the Richfield police last year. She talked about how the Minneapolis police had crushed someone’s throat, or killed them somehow with a throattype injury. After I read the post, I started looking online to see if there had been any news stories, any news coverage around what happened—there was nothing. I then reached out to the chief of police to ask him if Minneapolis police had been involved in killing someone and he said he hadn’t been aware of anything like that. From his understanding, someone had died in police custody due to some kind of a medical issue. So I went on Facebook and said I’d talked to the chief: this is what he is saying has happened, according to what officers told him, and he has turned the case over to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. After that, another fellow activist went to the scene and started interviewing witnesses. And witnesses told him that the police caused George Floyd to die by, you know, having one cop have his knee on his neck, and then not listening to the bystanders telling them to stop, and then not listening to the man in question telling them that he couldn’t breathe. When I heard those accounts, I reached back out to the chief to say, “The witnesses are saying something different happened. Can you try to find some video of what happened so that you will know what happened?” Then, at that point, I went on social media and I let people know that a man had died in police custody. Within minutes of that, I was tagged in another Facebook post. This time it was a bystander video. And from my review of the bystander video, it was very clear that police had intentionally killed George Floyd.

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