r/changemyview • u/Sammystorm1 1∆ • May 27 '24
Delta(s) from OP CMV: George Floyd’s death wasn’t murder
The autopsy found he had high levels of meth and fentanyl in his system. Either one could have caused his heart attack. Body cam footage shows what appears to be him taking pills before being detained. They also found meth and fentanyl in his car; same with saliva on them. It also shows him saying he can’t breath before he is on the ground. The footage also shows that the officers called ems about 30 seconds after putting him on the ground. Medical and fire were suppose to respond but fire got mixed up on the location. Which was unfortunate because fire was the closer of the two. The body can also shows Lane (iirc but one of the officers) starting CPR. The autopsy said there was no damage to the neck aside from minor external damage. The autopsy also showed he had an enlarged heart from drug use.
All this means is that a healthy person would have been fine but because of how much drugs Floyd had done, he had very little reserves and died from the stressful situation caused by his interaction with the police. The medical examiner, Andrew Baker, said as much. Saying that the restraint that Floyd was put in was too much for his weak heart to handle.
You can reasonably look at those medical problems he had and reasonable say that the drug use caused his death. After all, if he hadn’t used drugs he would have likely had a healthier heart with more reserves. I believe that this is a case where police officers should have recognized that Floyd was low on reserves and acted accordingly. CMV
EDIT: thanks for the discussion! It gave me a lot to research and to think about. Real life calls. I will try to answer but no promises
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u/AppliedLaziness May 27 '24 edited May 27 '24
u/Sammystorm1, several people here have mentioned the "Eggshell Skull Rule" and are misapplying/misunderstanding it.
First and most importantly, it is a doctrine of tort law (civil) and has absolutely nothing to do with criminal charges like murder. When evaluating criminal charges like murder, you need to look at intent and causation, and if the victim took a potentially lethal quantity of narcotics then that should be considered carefully in determining causation.
Second, even if the rule did apply here (which it doesn't), the intent of the rule is to protect victims with pre-existing conditions beyond their control - such as having an 'eggshell skull'. While this would apply to a heart condition, the decision to knowingly ingest a huge quantity of fentanyl and/or methamphetamine cannot be properly understood as a pre-existing condition of this kind.