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George Floyd Was Murdered Under the Color of Law
To Take Down The Racism Embedded in that System, We Must First Know the System
George Floyd earlier this week was killed by group of four Minneapolis cops, one of whom kneeled on Floyd’s neck, on his Jugular vein, for nearly 10 minutes as he laid on his stomach, handcuffed, resulting in his death.
As black-and-white a case for murder as Floyd’s death seems to present, the ultimate outcome of justice here will rest on what laws exist governing the actions of police — regardless of whether those laws are just. Minnesota’s law on the use of deadly force by a peace officer, then, will be one of the key frames affecting whether or not the police officers who used deadly force on George Floyd will face justice.
In the case of a similar slaying by police that I covered in eastern Washington for The Daily Beast a few years back, a case that drew national attention at the time, the state’s law on police use of deadly force was a huge factor in the justice the involved police officers ultimately faced.
As Antonio Zambrano Montes raced across a busy street in downtown Pasco, Washington, in the late afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 10, three local police officers unleashed a volley of gunshots at his back.
