Mississippi mayor slammed for saying George Floyd was lying: ‘If you can say you can’t breathe, you’re breathing'
A mayor from a Mississippi city has drawn outrage after suggesting Geoge Floyd, the black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, was lying about not being able to breathe. The mayor of Petal, Hal Marx, also defended the officers involved in the crime, stating that they were being "crucified".
Marx made the statement while responding to a tweet about Floyd's death, writing: "If you are talking about the incident in MN, I didn't see anything unreasonable. If you can say you can't breathe, you're breathing. Most likely that man died of overdose or heart attack. Video doesn't show his resistance that got him in that position. Police being crucified." The Petal mayor's statement was written on Tuesday, May 26, after another Twitter user wrote a vague tweet, saying: "Why in the world would anyone choose to become a police officer in our society today?"
The country is seeing widespread protests following Floyd's death as demonstrators demand the arrest of the officers involved. The four Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyd's brutal death were fired on May 26 after a video of the incident went viral on social media. The footage showed Floyd pleading with officers as one of them, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck as the 46-year-old told them to let him stand because he could not breathe. The clip showed Floyd pleading with the officer to allow him to breathe and a few minutes later he became unconscious. He was later pronounced dead.
The Petal mayor has since attempted to defend his comments, saying that he was attempting to call for due process. He told the Hattiesburg American: "I think that people are so quick to judge the police before they have all the facts. I can't say whether a crime was committed or whether they did anything right or wrong. All I'm saying is don't rush to judgment based on what you see in that video. I've seen too many cases before where the police were judged to be guilty in the public's eye but later were found to be not guilty under the law. For saying that, all of a sudden I'm called racist, I need to have a knee put on my neck — all kinds of hateful stuff simply for having an opinion and asking people to get all the facts before they judge."
Mounting criticism include calls for Marx to resign from his position. The former teacher and journalist, however, has stated that he will serve out his term as mayor, which ends in July 2021. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) member Clarence Magee, however, called Marx's statement "very troubling."
"To hear that statement made by a mayor or anybody is very troubling. What we saw was disgusting on the part of the officer. It leaves me with mixed emotions," Magee said. "Believing and thinking that we have not gone far enough in this day and time with social media and all that kind of stuff — nobody should condone that. Everybody should condemn it, including the mayor. Skin color had nothing to do with it."