Protests have been flaring up around the country as a direct result of the death of 46-year-old Minnesota resident George Floyd on May 25.
Floyd was an unarmed black man who died at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. His death has sparked outrage from many, ranging from former presidents to local citizens and law enforcement officers.
A social media post immediately following the incident, by Sunflower Police Chief Bobby Walker, went viral with thousands of shares.
More recently, Indianola Police Chief Edrick Hall weighed in on the matter.
Hall said in an interview this week that Floyd’s death was clearly a homicide and should be treated as such.
“That was a murder. George Floyd was killed by that police officer. The other three officers, they stood watch. They should be charged. The charges should be first-degree murder,” Hall said.
He reflected back to his comments from a social media post years ago about another shooting where a white female officer killed an unarmed black man and said, “I've always been an advocate for doing right because I'm raising black boys to become black men myself. So, long before this case, I've always been an advocate for right.”
Hall supports his fellow law enforcement officers that do right but acknowledged that no organization has a perfect composition.
“Like every profession, you're going to have some bad apples. There are some bad preachers, there are some bad teachers, there's bad in everything that you do,” he said.
Nonetheless, “All in all, the majority of people that do this job do it the right way and do it for the love of it. So, what it's going to take is the same thing I said three years ago, it's going to take the officer that wants to do his job and have the love for it, to call out the ones that lack integrity, to call out the ones that are racists, to call out the ones that are prejudiced and have them removed from the system and it's going to take the public to work with us in that,” Hall said.
The veteran law enforcement officer said that tactic the officer apparently used of wedging his knee into Floyd’s neck is not a part of normal police training.
“No sir, no sir, no sir, no sir, we're not even trained to put your knee around nobody's neck, period. So, that's the first strike, but to sit there and apply pressure. You can tell by the bend of his boot that he was applying pressure to that man's neck.”
Hall said he would never tolerate that type of action from one of his officers. “If ever, I am over any agency and anybody do anything like that, first, they will be terminated and second, we will cut an affidavit warrant for their arrest. You cannot tolerate that and likewise we cannot tolerate the vandalism the destruction of property and a lot of the property that has been damaged belongs to African American people.
Hall said he is not against protesting. “But, I am against the looting, I'm against the rioting and I'm certainly against the attack on law enforcement,” he said.
He added, “So, the people that you are upset with are the white prejudiced police officers that have done wrong, but you are hurting your own kind by raiding their businesses (and) setting fires.”
Hall went on to say that the people are also hurting themselves by setting fire to and damaging the police cars because taxpayers paid for those and they are the taxpayers’.
“You have to think it through thoroughly,” he said.
Hall said that although he hasn't said anything on social media, he has been continually talking to his sons.
“I'm a long way from being racist at all, but the talk that a black father has to have with his black child, particularly black sons, is different from any other race because outside of the uniform I'm just an ordinary black man.”
He shared a conversation that many black parents are having with their sons. “When you are stopped by police, do what you’re asked to do, keep your hands on the steering wheel, be respectful, don't move too fast.”
Hall added a special addendum with regard to his talk with his sons. “Don't tell them who your father is that will only make them mad,” he said.
He cautions his sons that outside of Indianola no other officers know who he is. “If I travel to Memphis, they don't know who I am. If a police officer stops me, he doesn't know who I am. So, I have to make sure that I have these conversations with my son, and I have it with them all of the time.”
“If you are mistreated, come home. We’ll get a lawyer to deal with that, but by all means don't give them a reason to take your life. If you are mistreated there are lawyers that deal with this,” he said.
So far there have been no local protests, but Hall said someone put something on a Facebook page about looting downtown Indianola.
“We take all of that seriously. We monitored the page for the remainder of the night, we did put extra officers downtown to monitor.”
Hall said they felt like that was just people joking or playing, but, “We still took it seriously. We took extra steps, the necessary steps to make sure we were able to protect the property had anything occurred.”
Hall said he has also been in touch with the US Attorney's office and they have pledged to help in case there's any need for federal assistance; however, right now he doesn't see a need.
Hall said one of the things he plans to do now is review his department’s policy to make sure there is a stern guideline that clearly states that if an officer sees another officer violating a person's civil rights that they must willfully and immediately stop that officer from engaging in any type of activity or report it immediately.
Hall says he already has similar wording in his policy, but he wants to revamp it so that there is no doubt.
“The demographics of my department mainly matches the demographic of the city so most of the officers are young, most of them are male and most of them are African American. So, a lot of them kinda understand and they were all disgusted by what went on.”
