This image has been circulating on various social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. It shows United States President Joe Biden on one knee before a young boy alleged to be George Floyd’s son. It further adds that the US government hasd given Floyd’s family a compensation of USD 27 million.
We ran a background check on the legitimacy of these two claims.
Background
On the evening of May 25, 2020, 46-year old George Floyd was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis. A report had been made against him on allegations that he had paid for a packet of cigarettes with a counterfeit USD 20 bill.
He had been working as a bouncer before the Coronavirus pandemic rendered him jobless. An account of his death published by the BBC shows that George Floyd was restrained by police officers while one of the officers, Mr Derek Chauvin, pinned him on the ground, with his knee between Floyd’s head and neck for more than 9 minutes, 29 seconds.
During this time, George kept pleading with the officer and saying, “please, I can’t breathe, please” about 20 times. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital
Hennepin County medical examiner, Dr Baker ruled George Floyd’s death as a being a homicide. From his finding, he states that Floyd had a severe underlying heart disease and an enlarged heart that needed more oxygen than normal to function, as well as narrowing of two heart arteries.
In a statement during the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, the medical examiner said, “and in my opinion, the law enforcement subdual, restraint and the neck compression was just more than Mr Floyd could take by virtue of those heart conditions.”
A toxicology report showed that George Floyd had traces of fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system. However, Dr Baker maintained that his heart disease and the use of fentanyl were a contributing factor but not a direct cause of his death.
Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. The other three former police officers, J. Alexander Kueng, Tou Thao and Thomas Lane were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.
Verification
A reverse image search directs to an article by Capital & Main published on October 14, 2020. A caption of the same image reads, ‘Democratic president nominee Joe Biden kneels to chat with C.J. Brown on September 09, 2020, in Detroit, Michigan.’ This image was taken during campaigns by Democratic presidential nominee Biden before he was elected president.
Additionally, Corrine Perkins, North America editor for Reuters had tweeted the same photo showing then Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, speaking to the young boy, identified as C.J. Brown.
Secondly, having the exact month when the image was taken, we ran an advanced Google search between September 01, 2020, and September 30, 2020, with ‘Joe Biden C.J. Brown’ as keywords. The same image appeared in Detroit (WXYZ). President Joe Biden had visited Three Thirteen in Detroit to shop for his grandchildren during one of his campaign visits in Michigan. From this particular search, more images crop up of Clement Brown, C.J’s father standing behind president Biden.
In a civil lawsuit, a settlement was reached that saw the family of George Floyd getting compensation of USD 27 million from the city of Minneapolis. In a statement by Bridgett Floyd, Floyd’s sister, she said she was pleased that this part of the tragic journey of finding justice for her brother had been resolved.
Verdict
The image claiming to show president Joe Biden kneeling before George Floyd’s son asking for forgiveness is taken out of context and is therefore MISLEADING. However, it is true that the family of George Floyd was compensated.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
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