Former Minneapolis Police Chief recalls the “absolute pain” moments of watching George Floyd's video

Minneapolis (AP) – Former Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo vividly remembers receiving a call from a community activist. The caller told him that despite his pleasant plea of ​​”I can't breathe,” videos scattered on social media where a white officer nailed the black man to the ground.

The dying person is George Floyd. The officer was Derek Chauvin. Aradondo is the city's first black police chief.

“It was absolutely painful,” Arradondo, 58, recalled in an interview before Floyd's fifth anniversary.

What he saw clashes with his people telling him about the fatal encounter, and he knew immediately that it meant change for his department and the city. But he admitted that he did not immediately foresee Floyd's death echoed in the United States and around the world.

“I served for 32 years,” he said. “But there is no doubt that May 25, 2020 was a decisive moment for me in my public service career.”

The video shows Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck and nailing him to the sidewalk outside a convenience store, where Floyd tries to buy cigarettes using a forged $20 bill. Chauvin remained stressed for 9 1/2 minutes despite onlookers begging to stop, even as a firefighter who was off duty tried to intervene, another officer said he could not find his pulse.

“Remnants of Pain and Anger”

Arradondo sat in an interview in a public library that was severely damaged by the turmoil after Floyd's death. It was on Lake Street, a major artery, and saw some of the worst damage, which he said still carries “a remnants of pain and anger that happened five years ago.”

Just below the block, an empty shell of a police station was burned during the riots. In sight is a target store and a supermarket for robbed cubs. The store is still on board. Although some businesses have been rebuilt, the open spaces sit in the places of others.

Aradondo still supports his and Mayor Jacob Frey's decision to abandon the Third District and let it burn. Protesters violated the building, and the police (sparsely) had no resources to hold it. Therefore, he ordered his officers to evacuate.

“In the most significant crisis we have ever experienced, it can be said that in the state, I have to continue to keep people’s lives and safety when life and death are at stake,” he said.

Police reform

Subsequently, despite a resistant police culture and a strong officer union, Aradondo later helped to carry out a policing overhaul of the city. He testified against Chauvin at the 2021 murder trial, a rare breach of the “Blue Wall” that traditionally protects officials for misconduct.

Five years later, Arradondo retired in 2022, said he believes law enforcement agencies across the country have made progress in police accountability — although progress is gradual — now the police chief and sheriff are now elevating police responsible for misconduct more quickly.

Arradondo, who was promoted to chief in 2017, was hopeful among local African Americans who affectionately called him “Rondo.” But his department is known for using force too quickly, and many are angry that police killed young black people in Minnesota and beyond.

Aladdodo said he hopes to make more changes to the police department before Floyd was killed.

“I would have tried harder and harder to remove some of the toxic cultures to make this drug survive that night, May 25, 2020,” he said. “I would certainly spend more time improving the community that has been pleading with the police department for decades to listen to us and change.”

Make modifications

Arradondo has just published a book, Chief Rondo: Ensuring Justice in the Murder of George Floyd, which explores leadership, justice and race, the broader policing impact, and the challenges of working in flawed systems. He closed it with a letter dedicated to Floyd's daughter Gianna.

He said: “I never had a chance to meet Gianna, but I hope she knew that even if I wasn't there that night, at the intersection where her father begged for help, I heard him and I would do everything possible to justify him.”

What he wants to say is that she has not heard from four people who have previously been convicted of their role in the death of George Floyd:

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry for your father being taken away.”