Courier Staff Writer
George Floyd, the African American man who resided in Minneapolis and was known to many as a “gentle giant,” went from vivacious to lifeless, all at the hands of a White Minneapolis police officer who’s now been charged with murder.
Pittsburgh’s police chief, Scott E. Schubert, was so perturbed by what he, along with the rest of the world, saw (video of the May 25 encounter), that he addressed his entire police force in a May 29 letter, effectively telling them to never act anywhere close to the manner that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin did.
Chief Schubert then added: “As police officers, we have a fundamental duty to care for and safeguard everyone and anyone in our custody…there was no consideration for the value of human life and that is inexcusable.”
Chief Schubert was referring to the other Minneapolis police officers on-scene who did not intervene and stop fellow officer Chauvin from continuing his knee-on-neck maneuver on Floyd.
Valerie Dixon, the vice chair of B-PEP, said during the May 29 press conference in the Hill District that when a White officer kills an unarmed Black person, “our young people see a devalue in their human Black lives.
