Chauvin kneeled on his back. To be clear, there are moments when Chauvin is on the neck, and then on Floyd's back, and on Floyd's shoulder. He's just trying to hold him down. But really consider just how much you've been lied to when the first thing I need to tell you is that the idea that Chauvin was kneeling on some guy's neck for 7-9 minutes isn't true.
while his buddy stands guard nearby.
There were 3 other police officers, and this is because Chauvin had been fighting. Those 3 other police officers became necessary to stand guard because the crowd that had already gathered was extremely hostile.
A crowd starts gathering around and you can hear some of them plead with Chauvin to take his knee off of Floyd's neck.
And screaming, and shoving, and one of them having to be held back in the crowd because he was going to attack the police officers. Which is why...
But Chauvin doesn't relent until paramedics arrive
... the reason the the paramedics didn't arrive immediately is because the crowd made the scene insecure, and they were taking a risk to get in. Let me reiterate this: the crowd prevented Floyd from getting emergency medical treatment. Among the many things responsible for Floyd's death, the crowd is one of them. They are more responsible for Floyd's death than Chauvin is.
Why didn't Chauvin stand-up? Because Floyd had been pushing around the four of them moments earlier. If he did get up, Chauvin had no way of stopping him.
Floyd said he can't breath.
He definitely said that. He said it on the ground... and in the car... and outside of the car. You know what causes shortness of breath? OD-ing and cardiac arrest.
When someone says they can't breathe there are only 3 ways this can be done: airway restriction, lack of lung expansion, and diaphragm immobility. The last one is hard to do without a literal bear hug. Lack of lung expansion is a threat, particularly if you are severely overweight and someone's sitting on your ribs to prevent them from expanding. Chauvin wasn't putting pressure the ribs, he was putting a knee on the shoulder blade and spine. Which gets us to the airway...
but it was the knee on his neck cutting off oxygen to the brain completely that killed him.
... because this isn't a restriction of the airway. That would be a restriction of the blood vessels.
Both are anatomically impossible from Chauvin's position. This is why the man who testified he was an MMA fighter and called it a blood choke (the guy who had to be restrained from attacking the cops) is a liar. A blood choke compresses both blood vessels that lead to your brain and are located on the front left and right side of your neck. In MMA, a good way to accomplish this is called a "rear naked choke". Cutting off blood circulation to the brain causes a loss of consciousness... in 6 seconds. Now, it does take minutes to kill someone with this. But this can only be done when both pairs of blood vessels are restricted. That can only be done by applying force to the frontsides. Not the back of the neck. The blood vessels are protected by neck muscles and the spine from the back. It is not anatomically possible to preform a blood choke with a knee to the back of the neck, intermittently. IT. IS. NOT. POSSIBLE. If you don't believe me, try it.
Seriously, attempt to choke someone with one single bit of blunt force, like a knee, from the back of a neck. It can't be done. You might as well be trying to choke someone out with an ankle lock.
Of course, this lie is STILL different from the media's lie that his airway was restricted, which is even more impossible. If someone's throat is being restricted, they will struggle to both breath and speak. That did not happen. It is also not possible to restrict the airway from the back of their neck. That is not where the throat is.
Finally, we get to the actual reason you don't put pressure on a person's neck: danger to the spine. Not the throat. Not the blood vessels. The Spine. You don't want to potentially damage the suspect's spine. It could kill or paralyze them... but only by breaking their C1/C2 vertebrae. It has nothing to do with the airway.
If a police horse had stood on Floyd's neck, it would have broken his spine. It wouldn't have cut off oxygen to his brain.
sigh
The level of lies sometimes even surprises me, and it really shouldn't.
That same county medical examiner released a preliminary autopsy which said that there was no evidence of asphyxiation (cutting off of oxygen to the body), and further that there was no damage to his neck.
And they disproved in court that carbon monoxide poisoning from being too near to a running car exhaust was at fault... By showcasing that Floyd had perfectly normal levels of oxygen in his body, thus proving he couldn't have died from carbon poisoning from idling cars.
...But you know, maybe I'm crazy, just a kooky loon, I don't have one o' them fancy med school degrees... But doesn't strangling someone impact the amount of oxygen in them? Like, isn't that kind of why you die when you're strangled, when you drill down enough? Your body doesn't have enough oxygen in it?
No, because that's not murder. You actually have to have killed someone to be a murder. You can't just allegedly look bad to a crowd.
Floyd died of an overdose.
Chauvin is, at this point, the victim of a lynching.
The knee was on his back. (Even according to the prosecution.)
Floyd was saying he couldn't breathe while he was in the fucking car before anyone was pressing anything down on him
Yes:
Chauvin kneeled on his back. To be clear, there are moments when Chauvin is on the neck, and then on Floyd's back, and on Floyd's shoulder. He's just trying to hold him down. But really consider just how much you've been lied to when the first thing I need to tell you is that the idea that Chauvin was kneeling on some guy's neck for 7-9 minutes isn't true.
There were 3 other police officers, and this is because Chauvin had been fighting. Those 3 other police officers became necessary to stand guard because the crowd that had already gathered was extremely hostile.
And screaming, and shoving, and one of them having to be held back in the crowd because he was going to attack the police officers. Which is why...
... the reason the the paramedics didn't arrive immediately is because the crowd made the scene insecure, and they were taking a risk to get in. Let me reiterate this: the crowd prevented Floyd from getting emergency medical treatment. Among the many things responsible for Floyd's death, the crowd is one of them. They are more responsible for Floyd's death than Chauvin is.
Why didn't Chauvin stand-up? Because Floyd had been pushing around the four of them moments earlier. If he did get up, Chauvin had no way of stopping him.
He definitely said that. He said it on the ground... and in the car... and outside of the car. You know what causes shortness of breath? OD-ing and cardiac arrest.
When someone says they can't breathe there are only 3 ways this can be done: airway restriction, lack of lung expansion, and diaphragm immobility. The last one is hard to do without a literal bear hug. Lack of lung expansion is a threat, particularly if you are severely overweight and someone's sitting on your ribs to prevent them from expanding. Chauvin wasn't putting pressure the ribs, he was putting a knee on the shoulder blade and spine. Which gets us to the airway...
... because this isn't a restriction of the airway. That would be a restriction of the blood vessels.
Both are anatomically impossible from Chauvin's position. This is why the man who testified he was an MMA fighter and called it a blood choke (the guy who had to be restrained from attacking the cops) is a liar. A blood choke compresses both blood vessels that lead to your brain and are located on the front left and right side of your neck. In MMA, a good way to accomplish this is called a "rear naked choke". Cutting off blood circulation to the brain causes a loss of consciousness... in 6 seconds. Now, it does take minutes to kill someone with this. But this can only be done when both pairs of blood vessels are restricted. That can only be done by applying force to the front sides. Not the back of the neck. The blood vessels are protected by neck muscles and the spine from the back. It is not anatomically possible to preform a blood choke with a knee to the back of the neck, intermittently. IT. IS. NOT. POSSIBLE. If you don't believe me, try it.
Seriously, attempt to choke someone with one single bit of blunt force, like a knee, from the back of a neck. It can't be done. You might as well be trying to choke someone out with an ankle lock.
Of course, this lie is STILL different from the media's lie that his airway was restricted, which is even more impossible. If someone's throat is being restricted, they will struggle to both breath and speak. That did not happen. It is also not possible to restrict the airway from the back of their neck. That is not where the throat is.
Finally, we get to the actual reason you don't put pressure on a person's neck: danger to the spine. Not the throat. Not the blood vessels. The Spine. You don't want to potentially damage the suspect's spine. It could kill or paralyze them... but only by breaking their C1/C2 vertebrae. It has nothing to do with the airway.
If a police horse had stood on Floyd's neck, it would have broken his spine. It wouldn't have cut off oxygen to his brain.
sigh
The level of lies sometimes even surprises me, and it really shouldn't.
That same county medical examiner released a preliminary autopsy which said that there was no evidence of asphyxiation (cutting off of oxygen to the body), and further that there was no damage to his neck.
Weird how there's no damage to his neck when Chauvin had to assert so much force that it choked Floyd from both sides..
And they disproved in court that carbon monoxide poisoning from being too near to a running car exhaust was at fault... By showcasing that Floyd had perfectly normal levels of oxygen in his body, thus proving he couldn't have died from carbon poisoning from idling cars.
...But you know, maybe I'm crazy, just a kooky loon, I don't have one o' them fancy med school degrees... But doesn't strangling someone impact the amount of oxygen in them? Like, isn't that kind of why you die when you're strangled, when you drill down enough? Your body doesn't have enough oxygen in it?