As protests in Minnesota continue and tempers flair, Colin Kaepernick started a legal defense initiative to give legal representation to all protestors who may be charged during the rebellion.
“In fighting for liberation there’s always retaliation,” he wrote on Twitter. “We must protect our Freedom Fighters. We Started a legal defense initiative to give legal representation to Freedom Fighters in Minneapolis paid for by @yourrightscamp.”
Kaepernick’s nonprofit Know Your Rights Camp will fund the initiative.
Just a day before announcing his legal support, Kaepernick condemned the murder of George Floyd tweeting: “When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction.”
When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction.
The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance.
We have the right to fight back!
Rest in Power George Floyd
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) May 28, 2020
Since the initial protests, other cities have joined in to resist the continued terrorism against the Black community. Cities like Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Oakland and Dallas have also joined the uprising.
On the day of Malcolm X’s birthday, Kaepernick retweeted this video:
Whenever I tell an uncompromising truth about the toxicity of whiteness–I think of Malcolm X. I think about how he loved us enough to be honest. There was such beauty in his harshness, and so much care for his people in his directness.
I love Malcolm X.pic.twitter.com/IsHnXiLmFj
— L E F T, PhD ⚫️ (@LeftSentThis) May 19, 2020
The City of Minneapolis released the autopsy which concluded that George Floyd’s death was due to underlying health conditions, not strangulation. This finding has sparked outrage among Americans as we all witnessed his violent death.
The statement released to CNN reads: “The autopsy revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation.”
The report also points to heart disease, hypertension, and most fraudulently “potential intoxicants” as the cause of his death. Thousands reacted online, calling this autopsy report a way to use Floyd as the cause of his own murder.
Pre-existing conditions are killing black folks with COVID-19 now the Minneapolis Police are using it to justify murder!
Don’t even try it!
March Lamont Hill, author and host of BET News and “Black Coffee,” posted to Instagram in response to the autopsy report: “This is what they do. They kill you in plain sight. Then they demonize. They produce “evidence” that you didn’t die from the thing we saw kill you. This is bullshit. Resist.”
According to the arrest warrant: “The defendant had his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was non-responsive. Police are trained that this type of restraint with a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous.”
USA Today spoke to Andrew Scott a former police chief of Boca Raton, Florida with over 30 years of experience. Scott says there is national case law and protocol when it comes to the use of force. Three things are taken into consideration:
- The severity of the crime
- Is the subject an immediate threat?
- Is the subject fleeing or resisting arrest?
Unfortunately, Minneapolis law does allow the use of neck restraints. USA Today reports that their policy allows: “compressing one or both sides of a person’s neck with an arm or leg without applying direct pressure to the trachea or airway.”
The pressure can be “light to moderate pressure” to control the subject “with the intention of rendering the person unconscious by applying adequate pressure.” The latter act is authorized only to protect officers who they believe is “actively aggressive” and cannot be controlled by the milder methods.
Scott said he’s shocked that type of use of force is allowed.
“I have never seen an agency in writing promote that type of force in such a critical area that is so susceptible to damage or death,” Scott told USA Today, “and I’ve traveled the country and seen many use of force policies.”
Ben Crump and S. Lee Merritt, attorneys for Floyd’s family, announced that they would have an independent autopsy instead of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office.
Others online react to the autopsy
so this autopsy is a fucking lie.
we’re supposed to believe George Floyd died not from strangulation but “underlying health conditions” and “potential intoxicants”? funny that he was alive and well with these conditions & intoxicants until a cop stood on his neck for 10 minutes pic.twitter.com/xJVpbkGBCH
— Ajit Singh (@ajitxsingh) May 29, 2020
As a doctor who watched the horrifying video, I can safely say that Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report that heart disease, hypertension, and most outrageously “potential intoxicants” caused George Floyd’s death is so profoundly, and respectfully, quite bullshit.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) May 29, 2020
I don’t understand the release of this statement, saying it doesn’t support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia, but leaves in “any potential intoxicants”…
The entire country is watching and they’ve either done a tox and found nothing, or admitting to not being thorough.
— Conrad Goodwin (@ConradGoodwin) May 29, 2020
If an autopsy proves that George Floyd had pre-existing heart or lung problems, that, in no way, excuses this cop of murder. WE SAW THE MURDER ON VIDEO!
— glennresists (@glennresists3) May 29, 2020
Former officer Derek Chauvin has been apprehended after days of being free and has now been charged with third-degree murder. The other officers present during the arrest have not been charged as of Saturday morning.