Is George Floyd's criminal record of any relevance?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I've seen a couple of social media posts basically saying "I hate racism... but", bringing up Floyd's past record.

No, I do not believe it should be of any relevance. What matters is that the cops had no justification whatsoever for what they done and such attitudes are classical examples of victim blaming, whether the victim was an innocent apple or someone with record (we've recently seen such victim blaming in another thread about police abuse, the one involving a dog).

[Roblox]

No (sane, not a racist right winger looking to smear any black man who dies publicly).

[Santander]

Well, it is relevant in that that committing crimes greatly increases your chances of a hostile encounter with the police. However, it is not relevant to judging the actions by the officers who were on the scene.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Not in this case, no.

If it were something more like the Michael Brown case, where the police said he attacked them and his team said it was a cold-blooded murder, then any evidence that he was someone who might attack an officer would be admissible.

In this case, the police don't even have an alibi and there is no ambiguity about what happened.  There is no conceivable situation where putting your knee on a suspect's neck until he suffocates to death is an appropriate police action, unlike the more ambiguous cases where an officer claims to have fired his weapon in self-defense.  And we have video footage proving that Chauvin was using excessive force for absolutely no good reason.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

Not in this case.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

No

[Elgato1978]

Since we do not live in some dystopian future where the police are judge, jury and executioner
I would say that crushing someone’s throat over a counterfeit 20 is a bit heavy, even for  Judge Dredd.

[John Dule]

Yes, insofar as it might provide us with some explanation for why the officer used such overpowering force-- if he ran a background check on Floyd, that might explain why he did what he did. Regardless though, that is a reason for his conduct, not an excuse for it.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Not if you are getting your neck snapped.

I don't think the murder charge is appropriate for the new officers. They would not have expected that result.

You dont train for months/years to murder someone on your 4th day. That does not make sense.

The cause of death is from pressure in the neck area. So my thinking is that the cause of death lies with guy guy kneeling on his throat.

It is a real sad situation and there are no winners here.