The chief of Minneapolis police spoke directly to the brother of George Floyd on Sunday night, dramatically cutting into a TV interview to say “all four officers” involved in Floyd’s death were “complicit”, though only one has been charged with murder.
The death of Floyd, 46 at the hands of four officers last week has triggered social unrest across the US. One officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes.
Philonise Floyd was interviewed by CNN on Sunday night.
“They’re at home right now sleeping in their bed, relaxing,” he said of three of the officers fired from the department but not yet charged. “[Chauvin’s] in jail, he’s only one. The other three need to be in there. My brother – he’s in the morgue. That’s not right. I want justice now. He deserves that. He’s a gentle giant.”
CNN then cut to a correspondent in Minneapolis, the scene of devastating violence over the past few days, who was speaking to Medaria Arradondo, chief of the city’s police.
Asked why he fired the four officers so swiftly, Arradondo said: “There are absolute truths in life. We need air to breathe. The killing of Mr Floyd was an absolute truth, that it was wrong, and so I did not need days or weeks or months or processes or bureaucracies to tell me that what occurred out here last Monday was wrong.
“This was a violation of humanity,” he said. “This was a violation of the oath that the majority of the men and women that put this uniform on [take] – this goes absolutely against it. This is contrary to what we believe in. What occurred to me, it was an absolute truth that it was wrong, period.”
Speaking to the police chief, Floyd asked if he would “get justice for my brother”.
Removing his hat, Arradondo said: “Being silent or not intervening, to me, you’re complicit. So I don’t see a level of distinction that’s any different. Obviously the charging and those decisions have to come through our county attorney’s office, certainly the FBI is investigating that, but I want you to know my decision to fire all four officers was not based on some sort of hierarchy.
“Mr Floyd died in our hands, and so I see that as being complicit … I don’t see a difference in terms of the ultimate outcome, [which] is he is not here with us … Silence and inaction – you’re complicit. If there were one solitary voice that would have intervened and acted, that’s what I would have hoped for. That did not occur.”
Floyd replied: “They arrest guys every day. They had enough evidence to fire them, so they have enough evidence to arrest them. I don’t know who he’s talking to, but I need him to do it, because we all are listening. Black lives matter.”
Floyd’s attorney, Ben Crump, said Arradondo had been “very respectful to the family and we thank him for that”.
“Black Americans keeps getting killed by police and nobody’s held accountable. It’s an expression of righteous anger that people are expressing all across America. But even as much pain as Philonise is going through, he’s still asking people to be peaceful because we don’t want innocent people to be affected.”
CNN also spoke to the mother of Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed in Georgia in February by two white men while he was out for a run. Video of the killing went viral months later, prompting local authorities to act.
“It really breaks my heart that it’s come to this, but I truly understand where protesters are coming from” said Wanda Cooper. “Black lives are being lost, and they’re being lost for no reason.”
