One person doing what is required, even when the events are painful to watch and seemingly impossible to stop. That is what we can say about Darnella Frazier.
The Minneapolis Police Department’s initial inaccurate and misleading description of George Floyd’s death last May “might have become the official account” of what took place, had it not been for video taken by a teenage bystander, Keith Boykin, a CNN commentator, wrote on Twitter.
The video, taken by Darnella Frazier, emerged the night of Mr. Floyd’s death and drove much of the public’s understanding of what took place. Chief Medaria Arradondo of the police department testified at Mr. Chauvin’s trial that within hours of Mr. Floyd’s death he received a text from a local resident telling him about the video.
Later, Chief Arradondo, who testified as a witness for the prosecution at Mr. Chauvin’s trial, praised Ms. Frazier for her actions.
Time and again, and it is sad to recognize the facts, but the events that are outlined by police concerning events that end in shootings and the death of others are not always accurate. More to the point the police at times lie.
That is why the video that Frazier took of the events leading up to the death of George Floyd was essential to the outcome yesterday when Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all charges by a jury of his peers.
Such videos, either from witnesses or body cameras worn by police underscore the absolute need to have such evidence. That was very much the case in the highly disturbing bodycam video of a Chicago police officer shooting a 13-year-old boy. The video shows the youth appearing to drop a handgun and begin raising his hands less than a second before an officer fires his gun and kills him. A prosecutor previously had told a judge that the teenager had a gun in his hand at the time of the police shooting.
Such video is essential. The foundation of such evidence is that camera recordings do not misrepresent what actually occurs. With camera footage, we will know what actually occurred. Because a camera captures whatever is in front of it means that there is a completely objective piece of evidence. Obviously, one camera angle can not account for the complete event or incident that is taking place.
But the footage from even one camera can lead to stopping a police department from further undermining the facts and truth itself, such as in the Floyd case and can, in time, bring about justice. As happened at the end of the jury proceedings in the Chauvin trial.
So today Caffeinated Politics gives a robust salute to Darnella Frazier for being the person who knew what needed to be done in a most painful situation.
And so it goes.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 