Local FOP chief on George Floyd: We stand in solidarity with every outraged person
An excerpt from a Naperville FOP Statement issued June 25 by John Reed on the death a month earlier of George Floyd after being restrained with a knee against his neck for more than eight minutes by a Minneapolis police officer.
No person in police custody should ever be put into a position ... that could likely result in harm, injury or even death.
Once a person is arrested, the arresting officer is responsible for that person's well-being. One of the most obvious dangers post-arrest is harm from positional asphyxia, a form of asphyxia that occurs when someone's position prevents adequate breathing.
Positioning of subjects post arrest is a commonly trained subject because of the fact that any person in a state of excitement can die merely from being laid on his/her chest alone. Add any pressure to the person's back, shoulders or neck area and that horrific result will likely occur.
After having received extensive training on this subject over the last 20 years, I asked myself over and over the following: How could those men not know this? How could this not have ever been covered in any of their training sessions?
The utter recklessness displayed following the arrest by not rolling Mr. (George) Floyd on his side, which would have been a very simple thing to do, is beyond comprehension. I simply cannot imagine what that officer was thinking ... .
What the Naperville Fraternal Order of Police would like to express to everyone in our city and beyond, in no uncertain terms, is that we stand in complete solidarity with every angered and outraged person that witnessed the murder of George Floyd, and we, along with you, recognize it for the injustice and crime it was.
We are, in fact, opposed to every act of atrocity, injustice and incident of murder everywhere, and stand with all victims of violent crime all over the world, no matter their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation religion or other differing characteristic.
Furthermore, the Naperville FOP fully acknowledges that racism does still exist in this country, and we want everyone to understand that we not only abhor and despise those attitudes, but we find them wholly intolerable, and thus will not suffer any of our brothers or sisters acting, speaking or behaving in any form of a racist or unjust manner.
To be honest, it seems strange to even have to type these words, to have to say or proclaim that we are against crime and injustice and racism, but for what it's worth, if these words mean anything to anyone, we of course are.