'Police officers' of Reddit share honest opinions on George Floyd's death: 'This is murder'

Trigger warning: This story contains themes of race-motivated violence and police brutality

It's been almost a year since a White Minneapolis cop kneeled on George Floyd's neck for at least more than eight minutes, reportedly causing the latter's death. A renowned pulmonary critical care doctor, Dr. Martin Tobin of Chicago, testified at Derek Chauvin's trial that the cop was responsible for Floyd's death. In a damning statement against the cop, Dr. Tobin said, "A healthy person subjected to what Mr. Floyd was subjected to would have died." He further said, "This caused damage to his brain that we see, and it also caused a PEA arrhythmia that caused his heart to stop."

Floyd's death sparked protests across America with a sharp backlash against cops. Not many police officers have spoken out publicly about the incident. A Reddit group asked cops on the platform about Floyd's death: "Police Officers of Reddit, what are you thinking when you see cases like George Floyd?" 

The responses are an eye-opener. Redditor GamerPopo said, "I have been in law enforcement for 14 years. I love how 99.9 percent of the time, my badge is shiny...today my badge is not shiny. I am tired of hearing the excuses given by other people for a police officer's misconduct. I am tired of excuses being made for people who tarnish my badge. This officer violated the rights of George Floyd and murdered him through his actions. The officers who were on scene and failed to act are just as responsible. There are multiple videos of this incident and there is no real question as to what happened."

Another Redditor McFeely_Smackup said Derek Chauvin was very aware of what he was doing. "I'm a former police officer, and so have had plenty of training in physical restraint of individuals being arrested. There is no police academy training officers to kneel on someone's neck to subdue them, That's how you kill a person. There is extensive training on how to avoid seriously injuring a person while restraining them, and I guarantee you every one of these officers was trained to never strike a person in the neck or choke them. The officer who killed him is very clearly liable for manslaughter at the very least," they commented.

Another person who claimed to be a lieutenant at their hometown police department said they were "absolutely sick to my stomach" on seeing the video. "I started my day by showing the video to my officers and making sure my people understood that this is murder, plain and simple. You never, outside of a life and death struggle, do anything like this. George Floyd was handcuffed and on the ground. There will always be times where an officer sees danger and has to make a split-second decision without the luxury of weighing the consequences. That clearly was not the case here. He had all the time in the world to think about what he was doing. He had multiple people there telling him to stop. And none of his fellow officers intervened. All of that is why I find this incident particularly disgusting. They had so many chances to do the right thing," commented Wolfhound1142.

Neandythal wrote, "I’m a police officer in California. I am absolutely disgusted by the officers’ actions. When someone is in our custody you must treat them properly. I don’t care if they are arrested for murder or forgery. They are a human with a story and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. I had tears streaming down my face watching the video of George Floyd. We swore to protect our communities and that’s what we set out to do every day. Putting a knee into the neck of a handcuffed man for an extended period of time isn’t protecting. A man has lost his life due to the gross negligence of an evil person."