On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a black man suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street. Two other officers further restrained Floyd while a fourth prevented onlookers from intervening. During the final three minutes of the video footage, Floyd was motionless and had no pulse, but officers made no attempt to revive him and Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even as arriving emergency medical technicians attempted to treat him.
Following Floyd’s death, protests erupted in every state across the United States demanding that all four officers be detained and charged. While the demonstrations were overall peaceful, violence and riot did break out in cities across America, prompting some states to deploy the National Guard. Police brutality and systemic racism have long been an issue in the US. Black communities are disproportionately targeted by police and treated more harshly for minor offenses. The protests slowly spread across the globe, with peaceful demonstrations being held from Germany to New Zealand and the Netherlands. Today, those protests reached Armenia.
More than a week after Floyd’s death, all four police officers have been charged. Chauvin was previously charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and most recently, an additional charge of second-degree murder. The other three police officers were recently charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.