Analysis: Why didn’t officers on the scene do more to stop Floyd’s killing?

Good morning and welcome to the middle of your week. While George Floyd was pinned to the ground by Derek Chauvin, as many of us have seen in a cell phone video, the three other officers on the scene didn’t do much to stop Chauvin from killing Floyd. Why did they remain mostly silent? An expert gives his insight into the question. More on this, after weather.

A rainy afternoon, maybe? This morning will be somewhat cloudy, then there’s a chance of showers and thundershowers across the state this afternoon through later tonight. Highs will be in the upper 60s to the mid-70s. Find the latest on the Updraft blog.

“Nonintervention is already a learned behavior” for many cops. Jonathan Aronie, an attorney who monitored New Orleans’ troubled Police Department several years ago, says most officers in this country haven’t received any training on how to step in when they see a colleague do wrong. “Almost none have ever practiced saying to a senior officer, ‘Hey, don’t do what you’re doing,'” he said.

So in the wake of Floyd’s killing, several police departments, including St. Paul police, are launching “active bystander” training -- it aims to give officers tools to intervene and normalize the intervention to prevent fellow officers’ mistakes and misconduct.

Mask battle goes on in Minnesota -- now in court. A lawsuit filed by a group of Republican lawmakers and voters claims that Gov. Tim Walz’s mask order conflicts with state law that prohibits a person from concealing one’s identity by wearing a mask in public. The plaintiffs want the mask mandate halted before next Tuesday’s primary, saying with the state “both criminalizing wearing a mask and criminalizing not wearing a mask, people are fearful of political participation in public places.” Walz’s order, however, specifically addresses that point: You don’t violate the state law by following the mask mandate.

Despite all the mask debates between politicians, a majority of Americans support a mask mandate. A NPR/Ipsos poll shows that two-thirds of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, believe the U.S. is handling the pandemic worse than other nations; majorities support more aggressive measures like a travel ban or a mask mandate to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Find more on the poll results here.

As officials warned, upticks in hospitalizations, ICU cases are happening in Minnesota. State officials have been bracing Minnesotans for weeks to expect COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU cases to grow in response to the recent case surge, and the past few days of data suggest that’s happening. The counts of people currently hospitalized and needing intensive care are rising to levels not seen in six weeks.

Here are the latest coronavirus statistics in Minnesota

57,162 cases confirmed (606 new) via 1,078,695 tests

1,620 deaths (four new)

5,346 cases requiring hospitalization

328 people remain hospitalized; 159 in intensive care