Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman on Friday condemned the actions of the Minneapolis police officer charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.
Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was seen on video kneeling on the neck of Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after pleading that he could not breathe.
Protests over Floyd’s death have erupted around the United States.
On Friday, Ziman posted a message on her Facebook page stating that after watching the video of the Minneapolis officer, she didn’t need to wait for more information before she made an assessment.
“When you place your knee on the neck of a human being for over eight minutes – a human being who is handcuffed and pleading that he can’t breathe – there is no defense,” Ziman wrote. “George Floyd is a human being.”
Several law enforcement officers, including Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg, have spoken out about Floyd’s death.
“Resisting suffocation is not resisting arrest,” Ziman wrote on Twitter Friday morning.
Ziman’s Facebook post said: “We cannot control what is happening around us, but we can turn to our own corner of the world and ensure that the culture in the Aurora Police Department is in alignment with valuing human life and the Constitution.”
In the wake of Floyd’s death, Aurora resident Andy Williams said he is planning a peaceful protest with local activists at 3 p.m. Sunday outside the police department.
“We want equality,” said Williams, who urged police officers to join the protest and stand with them. “The same thing in Minnesota can happen because that guy (in Minneapolis) had a track record that was ignored. Let’s not act like this can’t happen in Aurora.”
Indivisible Aurora Executive Director Luma Webster said the nonprofit organization has been sharing resources and reading materials to help people become better advocates and recently held a live stream talk on what it means to be an ally for people of color.
“We have a very diverse community in Aurora, and they need to be upheld and heard,” Webster said.
Aurora police spokesman Paris Lewbel said the department has undergone implicit bias training and training on how to de-escalate situations every year. Ziman said they include implicit bias training in the department’s curriculum because of Aurora’s diversity.
In her Facebook message, Ziman said windows of a police squad car were smashed overnight Thursday in Aurora. It’s not clear whether that incident is in any way a response to Floyd’s death.
The damaged vehicle was out of service and parked for repairs at a body shop on the 200 block of West New York Street, Lewbel said.
mejones@chicagotribune.com.
Associated Press contributed.
