“We don’t train neck and leg restrictions with officers on duty and, as far as I know, we never did,” said Lt. Johnny Mercil.
While restrictions on the neck may be allowed in suspects who actively resist, they should not be done with the knee and would not be allowed on a suspect in handcuffs and under control, he said. Officers are taught to use only force commensurate with the threat.
“You want to use the minimum amount of strength needed to fulfill your goals,” said Mercil. “If you can use a lower level of strength to achieve your goals, it will be safer and better for everyone involved.”
“That in some way or form it is something that is for politics. It is not part of our training and certainly not part of our ethics or values, ”said Arradondo.
Chauvin, 45, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, third-degree murder and wrongful death. Defense attorney Eric Nelson has not indicated whether Chauvin will testify in his own defense.
The testimony at the trial began last Monday and is expected to last about a month.
The training coordinator emphasizes scaling down
The Minneapolis Police Department’s crisis intervention program training coordinator testified on Tuesday about the importance of recognizing when someone is in crisis and lessening the situation.
“The policy requires that when it is safe and viable, we must slow down the escalation,” said the sergeant. Ker Yang, who has been in the department for 24 years.
Officers are trained in a critical decision-making model for dealing with people in crisis, which invites them to continually assess and reassess what is needed in the situation, he said. Chauvin took a 40-hour course on crisis intervention training in 2016, in which actors portrayed people in crisis and officials had to slow the escalation of the situation, testified Yang.
At questioning, Yang said the crisis intervention model could potentially apply to the suspect as well as close observers. The training advises police officers to appear confident, remain calm, maintain space, speak slowly and softly and avoid stare or eye contact, he said.
Yang’s testimony came after Arradondo and other officials criticized Chauvin’s actions. Arradondo said on Monday that the act of kneeling violated policies of deceleration, reasonable use of force and the requirement to provide help.
“This action is not a reduction in escalation, and when we talk about the structure of our sanctity of life and when we talk about the principles and values that we have, this action goes contrary to what we are talking about,” said Arradondo.
Minneapolis strength training consisted of neck restraints with one or two arms, according to police inspector Katie Blackwell, who was in charge of the department’s training program last year.
“I don’t know what kind of improvised position this is,” she testified about Chauvin’s kneeling. “This is not what we train.”
Passenger in Floyd’s vehicle plans to plead for Quinta
Morries Hall, who was in the car with Floyd when the police first confronted them last May, appeared in court via Zoom on Tuesday before the jury arrived to discuss his intention to plead for the Fifth if he is called to testify at the judgment.
Both the prosecution and the defense summoned Hall as a witness. Nelson said he planned to ask Hall about his interactions with Floyd that day, the suspected use of a counterfeit note, whether he gave Floyd drugs and his statements to the police about Floyd’s behavior in the vehicle.
Hall’s lawyer, Adrienne Cousins, argued that he planned to use the Fifth Amendment’s right against self-incrimination, and she asked Judge Peter Cahill to overturn his subpoena to testify. Cousins said he feared that Hall’s testimony could be used in a third-degree murder or drug charge against him.
“This leaves Mr. Hall potentially incriminating himself in a future third-degree murder case,” Cousins told Cahill, noting that the homicide statute allows for prosecution against someone who provided drugs that led to an overdose.
Judge Cahill said any questions about possible irregularities would not be allowed, but said he would be open to allowing specific questions about Floyd’s behavior on the vehicle that day. He asked Nelson to write specific questions on this point, which will be referred to Hall and his lawyers and discussed at a future hearing.
Hall’s testimony may be central to the defense, which argued that Floyd’s cause of death was a mix of drug use and pre-existing health problems.
Hall is currently in custody on unrelated charges of domestic violence, domestic assault by strangulation and breach of a protection order.