In October of 2020, defense attorneys for Derek Chauvin obtain bodycam video from a May 6th, 2019 arrest of George Floyd. The video was made public, but very little attention was given to it by the media. The prosecution tried to block it from being shown in court, but after a month of deliberation, the judge ruled it was admissible. Today the defense played the video in court, and the media can no longer ignore it.
Part of Chauvin’s defense is to present a counter-narrative that Floyd faked medical distress for so long that none of the officers took him seriously when he was actually in medical distress. By this time, the officers had already been struggling with Floyd for about ten minutes. At one point, they get Floyd into a police cruiser, but he screams, “I can’t breath” and demands to be let out. He then tells the officers, “I ate too many pills,” and asks to lay down.
The bodycam video from the 2019 arrest shows Floyd engaged in behaviors that are undeniably similar to what we see in the 2020 fatal arrest of George Floyd. He fights with officers and screams that he is in medical distress the entire time. Eric Nelson, a defense attorney, told the court that this is was Floyd’s “modus operandi” when dealing with police.
After the 2019 arrest, officers found half-chewed pills in Floyd’s vehicle that tested positive for fentanyl and methamphetamine. He also tested positive for these drugs. Following Floyd’s death, he once again tested positive for high levels of both drugs.
The trial of Derek Chauvin has already revealed that the most fundamental claim made by the media was false. Chauvin did not have his knee of Floyd’s neck. It was on his shoulder blade. The prosecution had some significant hiccups. One of their witnesses pleaded the fifth and refused to testify in the trial. One reason for this was that the defense would have asked the witness if he was selling Floyd the drugs in his system. Other witnesses for the prosecution conceded, during cross-examination, that Floyd might have died of a drug overdose.
