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Death of George Floyd: before the trial, the edifying account of the uncle of another victim

2021-03-08T05:25:37.044Z


In 2016, Philando Castile was shot dead by police in the suburbs of Minneapolis in the United States. With the George Floyd affair, four years old


A painful and intolerable feeling of déjà vu.

Upon discovering the death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis (United States) and whose trial begins on Monday, Clarence Castile plunged back into the nightmare that he and his family had experienced four years earlier.

“What a shock to see a man die like this, suffocated by the knee of a policeman.

I couldn't believe it, blows this 60-year-old landscaper.

And then I said to myself:

It happened once again ... "

On June 7, 2016, in the early evening, Philando Castile, Clarence's nephew, died under the bullets of a police officer in the suburb of Saint-Paul, the twin city of Minneapolis.

His agony was broadcast live on Facebook by his partner, who was in the passenger seat.

"I saw my nephew die"

The images of the camera positioned inside the officer's car made it possible to retrace the unfolding of the scene.

Jeronimo Yanez, the police officer in question, tells the young man that one of his taillights is not working.

He asks for his papers.

Philando Castile, a 32-year-old school canteen employee, complied but immediately told the agent that he was carrying a weapon for which he had a permit.

Almost immediately, the officer panics and shoots the driver four times, who will not survive his injuries.

His companion's little girl, aged 4, seated in the back, attends the whole scene.

"I saw my nephew die," his uncle recalls.

I saw this policeman scream and shoot his gun.

And here it is again with George Floyd.

"

VIDEO.

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A year after the death of Philando Castile, on June 16, 2017, Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted by a popular jury.

“All the evidence was there.

They had the images of the car camera, the sound, the testimonies of his companion and the other policeman present, recalls Clarence Castile in front of the autobiography of Barack Obama placed on the coffee table in the living room.

Everything was in front of their eyes and we saw the result.

"

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The 60-year-old can't help but draw a parallel with the fate of Mohamed Noor, a Minneapolis policeman of Somali origin prosecuted for having killed a white woman in June 2017. “There were no videos and no videos. 'witnesses other than the police present and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

But it was a black policeman who had killed a white woman, ”explains Clarence Castile, annoyed.

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Faced with this observation, the landscaper is careful not to make a prognosis as to the outcome of the trial of Derek Chauvin, the officer who held George Floyd under his knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.

“The entire sequence was filmed from all angles.

What more would they need?

he asks.

All I hope is for justice to triumph.

Derek Chauvin was absolutely not in a stressful situation.

We are faced with a typical case of police brutality on the part of a man who had no regard for the existence of the one he forcibly held under his knee.

Someone must be held responsible for the death of George Floyd.

We are all human beings, we make mistakes.

But in these cases, take responsibility for them and expect to be punished accordingly.

The police are treated a little differently.

"

In Minneapolis, a fake cemetery has been set up with the name of every person killed by police in the United States.

Here, the "stele" of Philando Castile./LP/Philippe de Poulpiquet  

In the eyes of Clarence Castile, the United States does indeed suffer from "systemic racism".

“Blacks in this country are no longer chained like they were 500 years ago but we are still shackled by mental shackles.

The fight between Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers is not over: we are still not treated equally, ”he says, wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt (“ Black lives matter. », The vast anti-racist movement born in 2013 in the United States).

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But his suffering and resentment following the death of his nephew, Clarence Castile has chosen to transform them into positive steps.

This man with a graying beard enlisted as a reserve officer in the Saint-Paul police.

"I wanted to help bring the police closer to the people," he said calmly.

"Most of the police are correct, they are doing their job"

The sixty-year-old is therefore involved in advocating "de-escalation".

“In the event of a meeting, everyone must know how to react correctly so as not to fuel the tension.

This of course concerns the police officers but also those implicated.

I participated in several workshops with members of my community to explain to them how to behave in the event of a questioning.

Because if they don't react appropriately, we know it can turn deadly.

"

The reserve officer flourished in fulfilling his mission.

“I was very well received by the police,” he emphasizes.

Most are correct, they are doing their job.

It's like everywhere, there are good and bad.

Everyone I have spoken to about the circumstances of my nephew's death have told me that they would not have acted like that.

But the point is, they didn't experience the situation and it happened.

"

"I learned that change takes time"

Even if he does not claim to be a specialist, this art lover applauds the desire of the new President Joe Biden to generalize the wearing of pedestrian cameras by the police.

“It might have been a game-changer if Jeronimo Yanez had worn one,” he explains.

Because it was said at the trial that it was not possible to realize what he had seen in the car.

This is probably the reason why he was acquitted.

"

Faced with the death of George Floyd, Clarence Castile does not hide a certain weariness.

“But I learned that change takes time,” he says.

This requires a change of mentalities and not of laws and it takes much longer.

Mutual understanding will be the key because if we stay on patterns of anger and fear, no evolution will be possible.

"

Source: leparis

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