The prevailing ethic promoted by culture seems to be against acting as a "Karen." In childhood there are admonitions against being a "tattle-tale." There are popular alliterations like "Snitches get stitches."
Let's say if in the case of Mr. Floyd another one of the officers had said, "get off him, this submission hold is not in line with department policy" and the officer got off Mr. Floyd and Mr. Floyd had not died. What then? One might realistically imagine that the above negative concepts would be applied to the officer who said something. Maybe by hearing those words Mr. Floyd could pursue a complaint against the officer.
There are probably lots of reasons why an officer and probably most people in that situation would feel pressure to avoid speaking out in that moment.
> Let's say if in the case of Mr. Floyd another one of the officers had said, "get off him, this submission hold is not in line with department policy" and the officer got off Mr. Floyd and Mr. Floyd had not died. What then?
Then we'd never heard about George Floyd.
Not to say there is no serious police brutality problem, but it's worth remembering the huge selection bias in what videos go viral and we end up seeing.
There is over 1 million cops in the US, and out of however many million interactions they have with the public each day, an overwhelming majority are perfectly fine.
There isn't any room for error when you have the power to ruin or end someone's life. A bad cop can ruin or end more lives over a career than die in a plane crash. Where is the NTSB for police?
Let's say if in the case of Mr. Floyd another one of the officers had said, "get off him, this submission hold is not in line with department policy" and the officer got off Mr. Floyd and Mr. Floyd had not died. What then? One might realistically imagine that the above negative concepts would be applied to the officer who said something. Maybe by hearing those words Mr. Floyd could pursue a complaint against the officer.
There are probably lots of reasons why an officer and probably most people in that situation would feel pressure to avoid speaking out in that moment.