I’ve been covering the George Floyd case since its inception. Floyd was a drug-addicted violent felon. Among his arrests/convictions were three armed robberies, six burglaries, three car thefts, and holding a gun to the belly of a very pregnant robbery victim. When Minneapolis PD officer Derek Chauvin and three others met him, he was trying to pass a counterfeit bill and resisted arrest. Such behavior is not usually associated with saints, but the Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) in control of Minneapolis gave him special dispensation. 

Floyd actually died from his drug-induced, severe health problems, but the narrative demanded he be killed by a supposed “choke restraint” applied by Chauvin, who was convicted and is currently in prison, having survived one shanking there. At Chauvin’s trial, despite clear evidence the technique applied by Chauvin was not only taught at the MPD Academy, but was standard operating procedure (SOP), the mob demanded his conviction and they were rewarded. Now it appears, the truth is coming out:

Graphic: X Screenshot

Fourteen current and former police officers with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) have signed sworn declarations which say they believe MPD Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell perjured herself when testifying in former MPD officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

Specifically, the group of former officers say they believe Blackwell perjured herself when she testified in court that the restraint method Chauvin used to subdue George Floyd in May 2020 was not a part of MPD officer training. In that trial, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

However, many say the knee-on-neck restraint Chauvin employed was trained under the maximal-restraint technique (MRT), a restraint the MPD taught and allowed until 2023.

This wouldn’t have come to light were it not for a lawsuit filed by Blackwell against Alpha News, a reporter and producer and a publishing company.

“With this motion, 33 former MPD officers who served with Blackwell, and one who currently serves with her, have sworn that MPD trained this restraint as part of the ‘maximal-restraint technique’ (‘MRT’) and otherwise. Indeed, 14 of these officers have sworn—under oath—their belief that Blackwell perjured herself,” wrote attorney Chris Madel in this week’s motion.

These officers, according to the motion, “swore that this training was well known—indeed, common knowledge—and omnipresent.”

Graphic: Screenshot, MPD training. Public Domain.

The slide from MPD training introduced, but ignored, in Chauvin’s trial certainly supports the officer’s statements.

Current and former MPD officers say they believe Blackwell perjured herself :

Former MPD officer Ken Tidgwell was among the former law enforcement officers who signed a declaration saying he believes Blackwell perjured herself.

A former patrol sergeant and member of the Minneapolis Police Honor and Color Guards, Tidgwell wrote that he nearly lost a leg from an injury he sustained during the riots that followed Floyd’s death.

Tidgwell said he was trained to use the MRT when he was a member of the MPD. Further, Tidgwell stated that the MRT includes a knee-to-neck/upper shoulder restraint.

Photographs of Chauvin restraining Floyd, when included from all angles, demonstrate Chauvin was applying pressure to Floyd’s shoulder blade and not directly on his neck. Floyd, who began complaining he couldn’t breath long before he was placed on the ground, as he begged the officers to do, continued that complaint as Chauvin restrained him. Evidence was also introduced he used that ploy in earlier arrests. He had many opportunities to perfect his act, but that day, his drug-abused body betrayed him.

The former patrol sergeant also mentioned that he and another member of MPD put together a “virtual museum” of the department. This museum chronicles over 100 years of department history with various photos and documents. In his declaration, Tidgwell produced a photo from the museum project which depicts Blackwell arresting a man in 2014.

“It appears that Katie Blackwell was employing the knee-to-neck/upper shoulder restraint that I described in this declaration in the picture I included in paragraph 5 above,” wrote Tidgwell.

Another officer about to retire at the end of a 30-year MPD career came forward only because he believed his retirement would allow him to avoid retaliation for telling the truth.

To be scrupulously fair, it’s possible Blackwell wasn’t aware when she testified that the technique she was photographed using was taught and sanctioned by the MPD and had been for decades. High-level police administrators are often far removed from the day-to- day reality of policing. However, she certainly would have been aware after the trial, and every officer has an obligation to be fully informed and prepared whenever they testify in any case. The trial also made clear the MPD administration, like every organ of Minneapolis government, was absolutely determined to throw Chauvin and his fellow officers under the bus in favor not of actual, but social, justice.

Hopefully, these new revelations might help exonerate the officers. However, this is Minnesota, where actual justice and political common sense go to die.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.