If not for a video taken during the encounter, this would have been the official description of Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd:

The authenticity of the above was verified by news sources and Snopes. The Minneapolis Police Department has since removed (censored) this original post from public view apparently recognizing it was not a true account of the situation – and today, after what was learned at trial, reads as a cover up of police malfeasance.

Censoring critical information – where the truth usually comes out eventually – ruins their credibility. How can jurors in future trials trust police officer testimony? There will always be room for doubt.

The MPD’s press release was propaganda messaging intended to spin your views of what happened. Another trick used by police departments is to promptly release a history of all prior police interactions with someone who has been shot – this is intended to paint the victim as a “bad person”. Simultaneously, the police will often wait 72 hours before releasing the names of the officers involved – and then once they announce those names, they will tell us about the experience, awards and recognition’s received – basically a list of the officer’s Gold Stars since 4th grade. All of this is propaganda to influence your views – it is not intended to further the cause of justice.