Five years ago the entire world watched Derek Chauvin murder George Floyd. What did we miss? Get ad-free episodes to Revisionist History by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Pushkin+ subscribers can access ad-free episodes, full audiobooks, exclusive binges, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkinSubscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus For more from Dr. Gary Klein, check out his Masterclass in Practical Decision Making.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What happened on May 25th, 2020?
I first asked if the screens had frozen.
My name is Malcolm Gladwell. Welcome to Revisionist History, my podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood. I'm guessing you watched the bystander videos of what happened that night during the fevered COVID summer of 2020. I know I did. I knew the villain. I knew the victim. I thought that's all I needed to know. But then I ran across the George Floyd video again, not long ago, by chance.
One of those serendipitous internet moments. And watched it for the first time in years, far from the intense emotions of the first time I saw it. And I realized I didn't understand what was happening. What Chauvin was doing. What the other police officers on the scene were thinking. which made me wonder if somehow the first time around I had missed the lesson of the case.
So over the next two episodes, I'm going to do a close reading of what happened to George Floyd. An unfamiliar reading, starting with the perspective of the very first person to see things unfold in real time, Jenna Scurry.
Because before George Floyd stopped breathing, before the angry crowd gathered, before the scene turned into tragedy, she could see Derek Chauvin behaving so strangely that it led her, a 911 dispatcher who had seen a thousand crime scenes in her career, to stop and stare at the video feed in disbelief. As in, this can't be real. The screen must be frozen.
Did you find that it had frozen? No. Well, I was told that it was not frozen. Did you see the screen change yourself? Yes, I saw the person's moving. So what did you start thinking at that point?
Something might be wrong.
Wrong with what? What are you thinking?
It was a gut instinct of... In the incident, something's not going right, whether it be they needed more assistance or if there just something wasn't right. I don't know how to explain it. It was a gut instinct to tell me that now we can be concerned.
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Chapter 2: Who was Jenna Scurry and what did she witness?
I think in my memory I tried different tactics of calm and reasoning and tried to be assertive. I pled and was desperate.
Hansen testified at Chauvin's trial.
In terms of his face when you're first there, or even the rest of him, what is it that you saw that made you concerned about his medical needs?
I was really concerned about, I thought his face looked puffy and swollen, which would happen if you were putting a grown man's weight on someone's neck. I noticed some fluid coming from what looked like George Floyd's body. And in a lot of cases, we see a patient release their bladder when they die. I can't tell you exactly where the fluid was coming from, but that's where my mind went.
He wasn't moving. He was being restrained, but he wasn't moving.
Later at the trial, a police surgeon named Bill Smock walked the jury through the videotape of Floyd's final moments, pointing out all the mounting warning signs.
What I want you to also watch for is what is his right arm doing as this progresses. You will see him pushing against the tire. You'll see his right arm, his elbow, pushing against.
Yes, I'd like to know what is it showing us.
Why is that significant? This is very important because it's showing what Mr. Floyd is doing to try and breathe, to get his right side of his chest up off of the pavement so that he can bring in air.
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