Bystanders and the Murder of George Floyd: Analyzing Bystander Intervention in the Course of a Police Killing

TL;DR

The paper analyzes how bystanders reacted during George Floyd's murder, showing that their verbal strategies, especially assessments, could influence police behavior, though ultimately failed to prevent the killing.

Contribution

The study introduces a detailed microbehavioral analysis of bystander interventions during a police killing, highlighting the potential of assessment-based strategies to influence police actions.

Findings

Bystanders used 205 verbal interventions, primarily assessments, to address police actions during George Floyd's murder.

Assessment-based strategies were more likely to be acknowledged by police, offering brief opportunities to alter the lethal trajectory.

The failure to avert the killing was attributed to police inaction, not ineffective bystander interventions.

Abstract

Using a detailed transcription, obtained from body-camera, CCTV, and smartphone footage of the murder of George Floyd, we examine the behavior of bystanders as events unfolded. Analysis reveals 205 direct verbal bystander interventions comprised of five forms (declaratives, assessments, interrogatives, imperatives, insults). We also describe the key physical intervention strategies deployed by the bystanders. We show that bystanders prioritize interventions based on what they “know” (rather than asking questions or making demands). We suggest that this is because assessment-based strategies are less likely to be seen as a direct challenge to the power of the police and therefore have more chance of inducing constructive engagement. Although bystanders were ultimately unsuccessful in persuading the police to change course, we identify five moments in the action sequences where the assessment concerns of the bystanders were taken up by the officers—albeit fleetingly. We argue that these bystander interventions create the opportunity for officers to break the pattern of behavior that will lead to murder. It is a failure of the officers and not the bystanders that the police are unable to take those opportunities. We argue that assessment-based interventions have the potential to breach structural and situational power dynamics that usually lead to bystander interventions being overridden or ignored. We conclude by drawing some wider implications for the way bystanders and police officers can be trained to improve the safety of individuals caught up in police arrests.

The United States faces an epidemic of police killings. These killings often take place in the presence of third-party bystanders. How do bystanders act when faced with police violence? We consolidated 12 separate in situ video/audio recordings of the murder of George Floyd—captured by body-worn cameras, bystanders’ smartphones, and CCTV—to create a detailed, moment-by-moment transcript. Analyzing this multimodal, multiperspective data, we identify the range of verbal and physical strategies that bystanders deployed to try and save George Floyd’s life. Our microbehavioral analysis reveals the complexity and coordination of third-party interventions in the trajectory of police violence. We demonstrate that bystander verbal strategies based around assessments (rather than question asking or making demands) have greater potential for getting the police to acknowledge the concerns of the bystanders. We show how bystander interventions were taken up by the police—albeit fleetingly—and that it was a failure of the officers and not the bystanders that meant that the lethal trajectory was not averted.

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