LANSING, Mich. — Lansing Police Chief Daryl Green said he was disgusted and disheartened after watching the video from Minneapolis showing a police officer on the neck of George Floyd. But what disgusted him the most was the other officers not stepping in and stopping the situation when they saw it.
"Officers on the job have the duty to intervene whenever they see any type of excessive force and this was clearly excessive force," said Green. "There was no reason for that officer to have his knee and body weight on Mr. Floyd's neck."
Chief Green says he feels even more disheartened that the officer who was on Floyd's neck is not in jail.
"For me it's clear evidence that-that situation involving that officer and his knee top of Mr. Floyd was clearly probable cause to arrest that officer," said Green.
Chief Green says the situation in Minneapolis not only affected the community there, but every community throughout the nation.
"Even though this was an incident in Minneapolis, it has you know consequences on community relationships here in Lansing, Michigan," said Green.
The Chief says as soon as he saw that clip, he downloaded it and made sure all of his employees watched the video. He also says it's important they learn from the incident and understand why people are enraged by it.
"I sent the email out to all of our employees and just to let them know I wanted them to see the video and I wanted them to experience it, experience some of the emotions I had experienced," said Green. "This incident was definitely touching and it was like I said it was very difficult to watch even as a police officer because you almost want to jump through the screen and grab this officer and push him away and off of Mr. Floyd."
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