Police intervention creates big protests: "Ten horrible minutes"

Parts of Monday's arrest in Minneapolis were filmed by passersby. It shows how the man, named George Floyd, lies on the ground while a white policeman pushes his knee to his neck. At the same time, Floyd is heard appealing to the police that he cannot breathe.

- Then he said his mother's name and then he died, the witness Charles McMillan told SVT.

After just over five minutes he seems to lose consciousness, but the police keep their knees over their necks.

George Floyd later died in hospital.

The video has been circulated on social media and aroused disgust and strong condemnation. On Tuesday, thousands of people took to the streets of Minneapolis to demonstrate against police brutality.

- These are ten horrific minutes documented that shake the United States. What makes people extremely upset is that there are three other cops around George Floyd. But during this time he repeatedly asks for help and says he cannot breathe, no one intervenes, says SVT's USA correspondent Stefan Åsberg in Aktuellt.

The four police officers have been fired and the arrest is being investigated by the FBI. After the incident became known, the city's mayor Jacob Frey said: "Being black in the United States should not be a death sentence." Now he is calling on prosecutors to prosecute the police who put their knees in the neck.

- These police officers are also being investigated for hate crimes, says Stefan Åsberg.

How big is the problem of racism in the US police force?

- It's hard to put a number on it. But this debate is constantly here in the United States.

The violent arrest of George Floyd is reminiscent of several previous cases of police brutality in the United States. In a noted case in Minneapolis four years ago, an African-American man was shot dead with seven shots in his car after police allegedly tried to reach for his weapon. Later it turned out that he was unarmed.