As I understand it, the theory of the case is that once Floyd was subdued/restrained, continued use of force was unnecessary, and therefore unlawful. Because officer Chauvin continued to apply force after he had lost that authority, it was an assault/battery - a felony - and that his actions led to George Floyd's death. I think anyone who watched the video (and that will include the jurors, and the 17-year-old girl that filmed it) can see that continued force was unnecessary. It was just cruelty.
Yup.
In LA, when a suspect is grounded, disarmed or determined to be unarmed, and in cuffs, they are "Code 4".
Code 4 is cop jargon for "SUSPECT IN CUSTODY".
Once a suspect is Code 4, the rough stuff is supposed to stop, suspect is supposed to be transported, three hots and a cot, see the judge and post bail if bail is an option...bam, cake, done.
Very early on in my freelance video news journo career I watched as a giant of a Samoan man was thrashing about at a block party, leaving numerous injuries in his path of rage.
I observed him exiting the door of a home just before starting his tirade...he had to slip through the door partly sideways due to his enormous frame and he barely cleared the top of the doorway.
This man mountain was, in my estimation, at least 6'8" or taller and seemed to be well north of four hundred pounds.
The scanner indicated that LAPD had arrived.
Four officers approached the man and I thought for all the world that my camera was about to witness my first officer involved shooting.
It was clear he was a well known "problem client" because they all knew his name and they said that they "didn't want any trouble" but trouble was on the menu as he tossed three of them halfway across the yard like stuffed toys and then charged the fourth.
Four MORE cops arrived as backup, and the melee continued.
Taser deployed, but Man Mountain calmly plucked it from his chest and just got madder.
"Any second now", I muttered silently, "this is gonna be very bloody".
And yet somehow they finally managed to subdue him.
It was indeed VERY messy but...not fatal.
And the moment that they got him HOG-TIED, the tension relaxed and the rough stuff was over, even despite me overhearing cops talking about cracked ribs and a couple of them displaying facial injuries. He laid waste to pretty much all of them one way or another.
I even overheard one cop wondering aloud jokingly if they should have called the entire Pacific Division, which was only three blocks away.
But Man Mountain and the officers all survived and it took four of them to heave him into the paddy wagon, no way were they going to be able to shoehorn him into the back of a patrol car.
But my point is, this was still a largely by the book takedown and the line where he was "Code 4" was clear and obvious and the officer's reactions showed as such. Once he was Code 4, all of them went into a normal type of conduct.