Easy money curtesy of the taxpayers?
The Minneapolis City Council has approved an award of $150,000 to the mixed martial arts fighter who witnessed the death of George Floyd who claims that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.
Last week, the city signed off on the payment to Donald Williams, a star witness in the case against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in his murder trial for his role in the unfortunate demise of the career criminal and drug addict.
Williams sued the city last year, alleging that the cops assaulted him during the 2020 Memorial Day weekend incident that sparked months of violent race riots after video footage of Chauvin and Floyd went viral.
(Video: YouTube/KARE 11)
According to the lawsuit, Officer Chauvin looked directly at Williams and shook a canister of chemical spray from his belt toward him and others who were expressing concern for the soon-to-be deceased Floyd’s welfare.
Williams testified to a jury that he repeatedly called Chauvin “a bum” in an effort to get him to go easy on Floyd who was being subdued while he was resisting arrest. Former Officer Tou Thao stepped toward Williams and put a hand on his chest, the lawsuit alleged.
The 35-year-old claimed that as a result of the encounter with police at the Cup Foods convenience store in Minneapolis that he has feared for his safety, that he has endured pain, and that he’s suffered from embarrassment and humiliation, incurring medical expenses, according to the Minneapolis-based Star-Tribune.
The leftist-stacked city council approved the settlement “without discussion,” the paper reported.
At Chauvin’s trial, Williams told the jury that the officer used what MMA fighters refer to as a “blood choke” on Floyd, a move that restricted his circulation.
“The officer on top was shimmying to actually get the final choke in while he was on top, the kill choke,” he told the state’s Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank, saying that he watched Floyd “fade away like a fish in a bag.”
“You see his eyes slowly pale out and he knew…he vocalized it, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, you saw the blood coming out of his nose, he said his stomach hurt and from then on he was lifeless. He didn’t speak,” Williams testified.
“I was able to focus and analyze on what was happening because of my martial arts training. It moved fast for everyone, but it was slow for me,” Williams said in a 2021 interview with The Guardian. “All these comments [Floyd] made or someone else said, it triggered things in my brain. I knew the reason why things were happening [with Floyd].”
“I look to my left, I see George Floyd,” Williams told the Star-Tribune in 2021. “I look to my right, I see George Floyd. I look somewhere else and it’s like I’m always remembering.”
The payout is just the latest expenditure by the city which has been feasted on by lawyers since the George Floyd incident, having already coughed up nearly $50 million in claims related to police brutality, according to the Star-Tribune.
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Author: Chris Donaldson
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