Photo via @atrupar/Twitter
March 31, 2021, 1:21 pm
The murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of killing George Floyd, is underway after a long jury selection process and witnesses to Floyd’s death are in the process of testifying and cross-examination. Some particularly heartbreaking test came from a firefighter and trained EMT who begged the police to let her help a clearly distressed Floyd but was denied.
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“I got there and I could have given medical assistance,” said Genevieve Hansen. “That’s exactly what I should have done.”
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Video footage from the scene of Floyd’s arrest was played for the court in which Hansen can be heard demanding that officers check the man’s pulse as she feared for his life.
“I had already assessed that [Floyd] was in an altered state of consciousness. What I needed to know was if he had a pulse,” she explained. “He wasn’t moving, and he was cuffed. And three grown men putting all of their weight on somebody is too much.”
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Hansen says she even offered to walk the officers on the scene through the necessary steps to check Floyd’s vitals and perform CPR if necessary, but was dismissed. She testified that then-officer Tou Thao, who faces charges for failing to intervene and stop Chauvin from kneeling on Floyd’s neck, “said something along the lines of, ‘If you really are a Minneapolis firefighter, you would know better than to get involved.’”
Hansen eventually broke down as she described her feelings of helplessness as she believed a human being was dying in front of her.
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“Because I was desperate to help. … Because there was a man being killed and … had I had access to a call similar to that, I would have been able to provide medical attention to the best of my abilities. And this human was denied that.”
During cross-examination, Chauvin’s lawyers did their best to try and paint Hansen as a hysterical woman who surely couldn’t possibly be remembering the events of that day correctly because she was upset over having to watch a man die and being denied any opportunity to help him.
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“I don’t know if you’ve seen anybody being killed, but it’s upsetting,” she said. However, she maintained that her recollection of the events was correct, especially since they have the whole thing on video.
Chauvin’s defense appears to be leaning hard into the idea that people who become upset and angry at the sight of deadly police brutality are not reliable witnesses, which would naturally eliminate the testimony of all human beings. People are also praising the testimony of a Black witness, trained martial artist Donald Williams, who refused to be painted with the “angry Black man” stereotype by the defense attorneys.
After pointing out that the witness did some swearing and told an officer not to physically push him or others as Floyd was on the ground dying, Chauvin’s lawyer tried to force him to admit to becoming increasingly angry at the scene.
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“So, again, sir, it’s fair to say that you grew angrier and angrier,” said the lawyer.
“No, I grew professional and professional. I stayed in my body,” said Williams, calmly. “You can’t paint me out to be angry.”
*First Published: March 31, 2021, 1:21 pm
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