What The Media Didn’t Tell You
As readers may be aware, in recent essays I’ve taken a position on the death of George Floyd that is controversial. Candid discussions with readers and friends have emphasized this point (thanks DB). The OPTICS of the event, together with the firestorm of protest that followed Floyd’s death, coupled with the shameless and self serving pandering of the Democrat party and its subservient media, have made Floyd’s death a “hot button issue,” and the ensuing news coverage has been TERRIBLY slanted. Accordingly, some readers may have questioned my analysis and even my judgement regarding the matter. And, the unanimous guilty verdict handed down earlier this week, would seem to further impugn my comments. It’s with this in mind that I’d like to revisit Floyd’s case once again.
I’ve just read an essay forwarded to me by a reader (Thanks MO) which is worth sharing. The article, accessed via the National Review’s website, seeks to explain how the Floyd case is NOT an example of systemic racism, a point on which I firmly agree. In the article, however, author Andrew C. McCarthy makes a very important point regarding something else. It’s a point that I also have made a number of times: George Floyd was NOT asphyxiated. George Floyd was NOT strangulated. The relevant text of the article is EXCERPTED below. The full article can be found through the following link:
What the Media Didn’t Tell You about the Chauvin Case
Andrew C. McCarthy
April 24, 2021
https://www.nationalreview.com
“Before Chauvin ever intervened, Floyd was already complaining that he could not breathe — at a time when his breathing was obviously not being impeded by police.
According to the prosecution’s evidence, which the jury must be presumed to have credited, Floyd died because his lungs were constricted. To be very specific, Floyd was never placed in a choke hold. That Chauvin did not choke him is not merely a defense contention. It is the prosecution’s evidence. Floyd’s airway was never constricted by the placement of police hands or knees on his throat.”
So, Mr. McCarthy, in addition to demonstrating that racism wasn’t a factor in the death of George Floyd, concludes also that Floyd was not asphyxiated or strangulated. But he fails to make the actual cause of death crystal clear.
While it’s true that Floyd died because of low oxygen in his blood, that condition was NOT, however, caused by Officer Chauvin. Nor was it caused by Floyd’s medical problems. While his underlying heart disease and ongoing case of COVID may have contributed, they, of and by themselves, did not cause his death…. His death occurred when he STOPPED BREATHING. And he stopped breathing because he ingested lethal amounts of fentanyl*, one of the most potent narcotics ever created. Cessation of breathing is the most common way that a narcotic overdose kills people. Within moments from the time that breathing stops, low oxygen levels quickly degrade cardiac function and soon cause irreversible brain damage leading to death. This would have occurred WHETHER OR NOT Chauvin was restraining him. It would even have occurred had Floyd remained unrestrained and comfortably seated in the back of the squad car. It’s the way that drug smuggling “mules” occasionally die when one of the plastic packets of heroin they’ve ingested bursts in their intestines.
It’s very important to be clear on this: George Floyd died because of low oxygen levels in his blood, which occurred when he stopped breathing which in turn was caused by a fatal over dose of the extremely potent narcotic fentanyl of which he voluntarily ingested huge amounts in order to hide evidence of drug possession.
So, what about some of the medical “experts” that failed to acknowledge all this? As I mentioned in my last post, I believe there was an undercurrent of FEAR of violence should an acquittal have been handed down. One of the trial’s alternate jurors, Lisa Christensen, recently said exactly that in an interview. Her comments can be viewed through the following link:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/alternate-juror-chauvin-trial-concerned-safety?_amp=true
So, was Officer Chauvin culpable is any way? The answer is yes. He was derelict in his duty to carefully monitor George Floyd’s condition throughout the arrest and apprehension, and then render appropriate medical assistance. Once Floyd stopped breathing cardiopulmonary resuscitation should have been administered. The fact that he did not do so could be construed, perhaps, as involuntary manslaughter – NOT murder.
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I stand behind my analysis of the death of George Floyd. As counterintuitive and “inconvenient” as that analysis may be, it is, I’m afraid, the truth. Justice has, in this trial, not been served.
*It’s very important in this case to understand just how much of an overdose Floyd had. His blood level of fentanyl was ELEVEN NANOGRAMS PER MILLILITER. There seems to be much clouding, unintentional or perhaps even intentional, of just how BAD that is. I recently heard it referred to on CBS Radio as “trace amounts of narcotic.” The term “trace amounts” would be appropriate only in comparison with, say, a pint of beer or a gallon of milk. In terms of actual effect in the body, it is certainly NOT minuscule. It must be realized that 11 nanograms per milliliter is NEARLY FOUR TIMES the level which has been documented in fatal cases. In fact, Hennepin County Pathologist, Dr. Andrew Baker, did admit, verbatim, that “the 11 nanogram level would normally be considered to be FATAL IN ITS OWN RIGHT.” See a previous essay, “Sometimes Things Are Not What They Seem” Emperorsnuclothes.com, September 18, 2020 for a more complete discussion and a photograph of the toxicology report.