BLM Movement continues to rally—and polarize Americans

Posted April 18, 2022

By Tai Nguyen and Ayan Yusuf

Cub Investigative Reporters

George Floyd’s murder by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in 2020 sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, which to this day has both rallied and polarized Americans.

On the evening of May 25, 2020, George Floyd purchased cigarettes at Cup Foods at 7:40 p.m, which was a grocery store at the intersection near Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis. Store employee Martin Clerk believed Floyd passed a counterfeit $20 bill when he came into the grocery store. After Floyd, who appeared to be intoxicated, left the store approximately four minutes and 40 seconds later in his SUV, Clerk attempted to stop Floyd’s SUV and called the police.

“Most of the times when patrons give us a counterfeit bill they don't even know its fake so when the police are called there is no crime being committed," stated Clerk to the New York Times. "We just wanted to know where it came from and that's usually what takes place."

Seventeen minutes later, Kueng and Lane then arrived at the intersection where the store was located. They both entered the Cup Foods before crossing the street which was where George Floyd’s car was parked. The two police officers walked up to George Floyd’s SUV after coming out from the Cup Food market. Lane then tapped Gerorge Floyd’s car, but he refused to open his window since he asked George Floyd to show his hands three times. Few seconds later, George Floyd opened his door and apologized for his action after officer Lane drew his gun at him. During this time, Derek Chauvin was on the way, and multiple witnesses started to record evidence of four police officers lacking professionalism. Derek Chauvin arrived at 8:15 p.m at the scene and struggled to put George Floyd in handcuffs by the wall on the opposite side of the grocery store. Derek Chauvin and the three officers took George Floyd in one of their cars, George Floyd was still resisting to surrender, making him fall to the ground. At this point, he has gotten pinned on the neck face-down on the street by Derek Chauvin. His last breath was at 8:20 p.m as Kueng applied George Floyd’s torso, and Lane applied his legs. With three police officers on George Floyd, it makes it hard for George Floyd to breathe since he’s a smoker, which puts his health in bad condition.

Minutes later, George Floyd got sent at 8:22 p.m to Hennepin County Medical Center after the three officers found out George was not breathing, so they called an ambulance for a non-emergency basis. George then arrived at Hennepin County Medical Center at 8:27 p.m. Dr. Martin Tobin, who is Irish-American critical care neuromuscular control of breathing, pronounced that George Floyd died at 9:25 p.m.

“George Floyd's death was a homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression. Floyd also had no underlying medical problem that contributed to his death; that ability to speak does not imply ability to breathe, said Allecia Wilson.

After the death of George Floyd, a 46-years old African-America on May 25, 2021, families from around the world have been hurted. On May 26, 2021, the FBI confirmed and reviewed George Floyd’s death indecent request from the Minneapolis Police Department. They said that George Floyd’s death was a top priority. The FBI reviewed the crimmal charges from all the edvidence and witnesses, officer Derek Chauvin was recently fired for attempting a third-degree murder and as well second-degreee manslaughterand due to state crimmial charges. He was being held at Oak Park Heights state Prison along with the other three officers Tou Thao, Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, that were involved, who was also found guilty in George Floyd’s murder. Derek Chauvin then applied "with a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous" according to the wikipedia, leading Minneapolis and other cities to react his death by protesting, shouting “no peace, no justice,” activating 21 different states ruining buildings and 96,000 national guard troops to shoot toward the protestors in since the officer confirmed that was shot in the head and was in a critical condition.

On June 5, 2021, the Minneapolis City banned the use of restraining orders with the State of Minnesota banning chokeholds and neck restraints. The Minneapolis Police Department asks chiefs to make decisions in a timely manner that civilian analysts and investigators be given authority to body-cam footage and file complaints.

On June 18, the Hennepin County attorney’s office said that its criminal complaint misstated the amount of time Derek Chauvin kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck. The complaint originally said that Derek Chauvin had done so for eight minutes and 46 seconds, a length of time that became a symbol and rallying cry for protesters.

“However, George Floyd’s death became world-wide news, involving schools’ attention since some schools were taught to be anti-racism and some were taught to treat people the way they wanted to be treated depending on the school boards, said Integrated 2 math student teacher,” said Calem.

The data shows that around 14,000 people have been arrested for protesting against police brutality, 25 unrest deaths, and 93% of the protests were peaceful and non-destructive. About 1-2 billion were insured of the damages in the United States, setting the highest record after the Los Angeles riot that happened in 1992, Although, the death of George Floyd made Kellie Chauvin, who filed a divorce due to allegations of domestic abuse from Derek Chauvin, Minneapolis, Minnesota depression rate for Black Americans has increased 30% of the population while the White Americans only increased 1%. This marks one of the cities to have the highest rating of depression since George Floyd’s death. The family of George Floyd received $27 million as Minneapolis agreed to pay them an unprecedented amount. The family’s attorney also says that it was the largest pretrial settlement of civil rights wrongful death cases in world history as there were videos shown.

In the video, George Floyd says "My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. I need some water or something, please. Please," and "They're going to kill me, man," and then, "Don't kill me” after it has been sent out to social media to get viral.

When the death broke out, In July of 2020, Portland had lost 129 swom members, 75 retired, and 54 resigned, including officers who were detectives and command staff while in 2019, 6 officers were retired and 4 were resignations, and the year before that shows 45 retirements, 9 resignations. With that being said the Bureau shows that approximately 550 officers are active. 54 are still in training. Portland Police say it's the lowest number in more than 25 years. And due to budget cuts, 100 swoms remained unfilled. Portland Police last hired eight officers in July of 2020.

Jacob Lawrence Frey, who is the mayor of Minneapolis ordered the people to stay home since what started as largely peaceful protests for George Floyd have turned to outright looting and domestic terrorism in our region. Many cities said that hundreds of arrests as protesters clashed with the police and some areas were looted leading to The National Guard being deployed in more than two dozen states to assist overwhelmed police departments, and dozens of mayors extended curfews.”

When George Floyd died, the state of New York wanted to build a better network to catch up with the speed of its funding as the speed in New York is 250 Mbps or higher. The most common way is through cables because it connects to countries across the world via cables laid on the ocean floor. These cables are often thousands of miles in length and are able to transmit huge amounts of data rapidly from one point to another.

“They wanted to see the Black communities thriving, not just surviving. This marks the first time in the movement’s nearly eight-year history that the Black Lives Matter leaders have revealed and detailed their finances,” stated the New York Times.

In May of 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement said they committed $21.7 million in grant funding to the Black Lives Matter chapters, as well as 30 Black-led local organizations that ended in 2020 with the balance of more than $60 million, spending nearly a quarter of assets on giant funds and other charitable activities.

The Black Lives Matter movement also said they have individual donations on fundraising platforms averaging $30.76 more than 10% of the donations were recurring, not stating who gave the money in 2020 and how the leaders declined to name prominent donors. In the last year, the foundation's expenses were approximately about $8.4 million, including staffing, operating, and administrative costs, along with activities such as civic engagement, rapid response, and crisis intervention. One of their 2021 focuses was economic justice, particularly as it relates to the ongoing socioeconomic crisis that impacted the COVID-19 on Black communities while the racial justice movement had a broad impact on philanthropic giving last year. With that being said, Candid and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, which helps donors to maximize their impact by making more related-disaster that would give decisions, had 35% of the $20.2 billion in U.S. funding dollars from corporations, foundations, public charities, and high-net-worth individuals to address the COVID-19 that was explicitly designated for communities of color.

The president, Candid, Brad Smith, who provides information about philanthropic groups said “there are other ways for nonprofits to be transparent with the public besides federal disclosure forms. A philanthropic organization's website is its best tool to show how willing it is to be held accountable.” He also stated that “In exchange for getting tax-exempt status, as an organization are committed to providing a greater level of transparency to confirm you are fulfilling your mission because of Cullors, Garza and Tometi’s vision, who were along with the work so that many Black organizers in the ecosystem, that made the Black Lives Matter movement finds itself at a new phase of its development since they used part of the funds to the new building, however it made the Black Lives Matter movement grew immensely after the death of George Floyd. This shows that the Black Lives Matter foundation was a fast-growing foundation that was ever made, and is in charge of their actions as Abdullah said, “We’re turning a corner, recognizing that we have to build institutions that endure beyond us.”

While coming to the end of the Black Lives Matter article, The Black Lives Matter movement has been making its way to archiving that would make their movement better after searching for some funding offers from groups, and also admitting that they have not been clear about the movement’s finances and governance over the years, and possibly looking at a new phase of their develop soon, going from small, scrappy to maturing foundation as the Black Lives Matter movement find their way every day to success their Black Lives Matter movement foundation.