by Mark Schwendau
In the summer of 2020, four Minneapolis Police officers were seen all over the national news arresting George Floyd, a convicted felon with a lengthy record, for attempting to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. The smaller law enforcement officers were seen standing over the huge Floyd with one holding him face down while kneeling on the side of his neck to restrain him after resisting arrest. Floyd complained about not being able to breathe and soon thereafter lost consciousness. He would later pass away.
The four officers involved were brought up on criminal charges. They were J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and Derek Chauvin, the officer seen restraining Floyd.
Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty to second- degree manslaughter and received 3 1/2 years in prison for his role in the incident.
Thomas Lane pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and received 3 years in prison for his role in the incident.
Tou Thao (who mostly had his back to the arrest as he kept bystanders back from the scene) refused a plea deal of the prosecution and got 57 months this October.
Derek Chauvin who made the actual arrest of Floyd received 22 years in prison.
The presumption of innocence seemingly went out the window in the mainstream media and that helped ignite riots all over major metropolitan areas of the United States. Protests in at least 140 cities in some 22 states were held and some of those protests turned into riots taking the lives of some 20+ people. Additionally, many more people were assaulted physically and/or sexually. The property damage of these riots is estimated between 1 and 2 billion dollars nationally. The incident gave rise to the national “Defund the Police” movement and made the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization known in every household.
But now, allegations are coming out that a county medical examiner originally deemed George Floyd’s death a homicide to protect a false “narrative”, the narrative that police officers murdered Floyd. This came out due to newly released testimony from a former prosecutor’s lawsuit over workplace sex disputes.
The original testimony of Hennepin County Medical Examiner (CME) Andrew Baker initially found no “injury” to Floyd’s neck that would cause “asphyxia or strangulation,” according to a former female prosecutor now pursuing civil charges for her workplace sex dispute.
This information came out after a civil sex discrimination complaint filed by former Hennepin County prosecutor, Amy Sweasy, one of the office’s top prosecutors, against County Attorney Mike Freeman.
According to her testimony CME Baker asked Sweasy, “What happens when the actual evidence doesn’t match up with the public narrative that everyone’s already decided on?” Baker then was alleged to say, “This is the kind of case that ends careers.”
What happened next was after his initial autopsy report, which sparked outrage, Baker pivoted and said Floyd was choked to death to support the narrative.
This bombshell development matters for many reasons:
Floyd’s supposed death at the hands of law enforcement was used to justify mass protests/riots.
It gave false legitimacy to the idea of defunding the police or shifting money from law enforcement to social programs.
It gave false legitimacy to the expansion of Federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
It allowed the left-wing organization Black Lives Matter to collect millions of dollars in donations.
It cost the City of Minneapolis some $21 in settlements over the incident.
This new testimony and development offers, once again, how truthful facts matter and were widely ignored to shore up a false narrative.
Another former prosecutor testified there was “extreme premium pressure” to file charges because “the city was burning down.” Chauvin’s trial is said to have involved a BLM activist on the jury and a judge whose career focus has been on “racial justice” and “equity.” If true, Chauvin was railroaded in a kangaroo court.
In the days leading up to Amy Sweasy and Senior Assistant County Attorney Patrick Lofton withdrawing from the case, Sweasy described tense meetings and phone calls.
Now, hundreds of pages of sworn testimony of Hennepin County attorneys and other county employees related to this case have been made public.
According to a transcript from Sweasy’s Aug. 21 deposition, “He (Freeman) was screaming at us. He asked whether we had worked out deals in state court with the other three officers. Of course, we had not. He screamed, ‘What the f*ck have they been doing all day?’ to Andy LeFevour (Former Chief Deputy County Attorney) about Patrick and me.”
There is now some speculation that the cases of these four former police officers may now be appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
Copyright © 2023 by Mark S. Schwendau
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Mark S. Schwendau is a retired technology professor who has always had a sideline in news-editorial writing where his byline has been, “Bringing little known news to people who simply want to know the truth.” His website is www.IDrawIWrite.Tech.