A US police officer was sentenced Thursday to two and a half years in prison for remaining passive during the 2020 killing of George Floyd that rocked the world.
• Also read: 20 years for violating George Floyd’s constitutional rights
• Also read: US police officer charged with manslaughter of black man
Thomas Lane, 39, was found guilty in February along with two other former Minneapolis police officers after a trial in the federal courts of the African-American man’s “civil rights violation.”
The three men were accused of not bringing the necessary help to the black man in his forties, on whose neck their colleague Derek Chauvin knelt for almost ten minutes.
He has already been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison. Thomas Lane is the first of the other three to become fixated on his fate.
Prosecutors had asked for more than five years in prison, but his attorney pleaded for a lighter sentence, having suggested putting George Floyd on his side and trying to revive him when help arrived.
At the end of the hearing, George Floyd’s relatives expressed their frustration with the verdict. “It’s terrible,” his brother Philonise commented in front of the camera: “The whole penal system needs to be cleaned up.”
Freshly recruited by law enforcement in Minneapolis, Thomas Lane was on patrol with another freshman, Alexander Kueng, on May 25, 2020, when a store owner accused George Floyd of selling a counterfeit $20 bill at his store.
As they struggled to get this man of imposing stature and erratic driving into their vehicle, they were joined by two experienced agents, Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao.
The four quickly threw the handcuffed African American man to the ground. Derek Chauvin sat on his neck, the two newcomers at his side, while Tou Thao kept the panicked passers-by at bay. They hadn’t moved, despite the forty-year-old’s panting and unconsciousness.
The scene, which was filmed and posted online, sparked huge protests against racism and police brutality across the United States and beyond, and continues to fuel reflection on America’s racist past.
The federal judiciary has yet to prosecute Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng, who will also face charges of “complicity in murder” in a trial organized by the Minnesota judiciary this fall.
Thomas Lane pleaded guilty to that count and is awaiting his sentence, which he will no doubt have to serve concurrently with the federal sentence.