BLACK LIFE MATTERS

 On May 25, Minneapolis police arrested George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, after a grocery store employee called 911 and told police that Mr. Floyd had bought cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Seventeen minutes after the When the first police car arrived, Mr. Floyd was unconscious and trapped under three police officers, with no sign of life. 

 By combining videos of passers-by and security cameras, reviewing official documents and consulting experts, The New York Times has reconstructed in great detail the minutes leading up to Mr. Floyd's death. The video shows officers taking a series of actions contrary to Minneapolis Police Department policy that resulted in death, leaving Mr. Floyd unable to breathe even as he and onlookers scream for help. 

 The day after Mr. Floyd died, police fired the four officers involved in the episode. On May 29, Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman announced third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter against Derek Chauvin, the officer most clearly seen in witness videos pinning Mr. Floyd to the ground. Chauvin, who is white, kept his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck for at least eight minutes and 15 seconds, according to a Times analysis of a time-stamped video. Our video investigation shows that Mr. Chauvin did not retract his knee even after Mr. Floyd lost consciousness and for a minute and 20 seconds after paramedics arrived. 

 On June 3, Hennepin County prosecutors added a more serious second-degree murder charge against Chauvin and also charged each of the other three former officers — Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao — of complicity in first-degree murder. On June 18, the Hennepin County District Attorney said his charges skewed the time Mr. Chauvin kept his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck. The complaint originally stated that Mr Chauvin did it for eight minutes and 46 seconds, a time that has become a symbol and rallying cry for protesters. In response to questions from reporters who noted a discrepancy from the times stated in the complaint, the agency said the actual time was seven minutes and 46 seconds. But The Times' own analysis of the video shows that this revised time is also wrong. 

 "It doesn't matter," said Jamar Nelson, who works with the families of crime victims in Minneapolis. “In the end it was long enough to kill him, long enough to execute him. 

 This entire incident has touched humanity and the consciences of people of all ages, creeds and races. He opened the eyes of the world to the experience of black people in the face of everyday racism. It has been a year like no other and as the COVID19 pandemic swept the world, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to voice the call to action against racial injustice.