An American police officer was sentenced on Thursday to two and a half years in prison for remaining passive during the murder of George Floyd that shook the world in 2020. Thomas Lane, 39, was found guilty in February of “violating civil rights “of the Africans. -American, with two other former Minneapolis police officers, after a trial in federal court.
The three men were accused of failing to bring necessary help to the 40-year-old black man, on whose neck their colleague Derek Chauvin had knelt for almost ten minutes. He has already been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison. Thomas Lane is the first of the other three to take notice of his fate.
“It’s terrible”
Prosecutors had asked for more than five years in prison, but his lawyer argued for a lighter sentence, arguing that he had suggested turning George Floyd on his side and trying to revive him when help arrived.
At the end of the hearing, relatives of George Floyd expressed their frustration with the sentence. “It’s terrible,” his brother Philonise commented in front of the cameras: “The entire penal system must be reformed.”
Newly recruited by the Minneapolis police, Thomas Lane was out on patrol on May 25, 2020 with another rookie, Alexander Kueng, when a merchant accused George Floyd of selling a counterfeit $20 bill at his store. As they struggled to get this man of imposing stature and erratic driving into his vehicle, they were joined by two experienced officers, Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao.
The four of them had quickly tackled the African American to the ground, handcuffed. Derek Chauvin had settled into his neck, the two new ones at his side, while Tou Thao kept terrified bystanders at a distance. They hadn’t moved, despite the forty-year-old’s gasps and loss of consciousness.
Soon two more trials for “complicity of homicide”
The scene, filmed and posted online, sparked huge protests against racism and police brutality across the United States and beyond, and continues to fuel reflection on America’s racist past.
Federal justice has yet to prosecute Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng, who will also be tried in the fall for “accessory to murder” in a trial organized by the Minnesota state justice system. Thomas Lane has pleaded guilty in this part and is awaiting his sentence, which will undoubtedly have to be served concurrently with the federal sentence.
Source: BFM TV
