Black Cop Who Watched George Floyd Die Thought He'd Be Fired If He Intervened [View all]
When former Minneapolis police officer J. Alexander Kueng took the stand in the federal trial against him and two other officers who watched George Floyd’s murder, he spoke about the department’s culture of rooting out those who didn’t follow orders unconditionally.
“Was there concern about being fired?” Kueng’s attorney asked Wednesday.
“Every day, sir,” Kueng said. “It was clear the chain of command was not to be breached, or else.”
Kueng is one of three former cops facing life in prison for allegedly depriving Floyd of his civil rights when they failed to provide medical attention or intervene in the 46-year-old Black man’s deadly arrest by former officer Derek Chauvin, who’s now serving 22 and a half years in prison for murder.
So far, the officers’ defense has focused on the shortcomings of their training and the strict hierarchy of policing: Even if they thought Chauvin shouldn’t have knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, they couldn’t have spoken up, especially to a superior officer. Kueng even said that Chauvin, who had 19 years of experience on the force, technically had the ability to terminate him if he saw fit, according to the Star Tribune.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3vq4b/alexander-kueng-feared-being-fired-for-intervening
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Saying the quiet part out loud
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