Vox Sentences - “Please, I can’t breathe"

Protesters are tear-gassed in Minneapolis after the killing of George Floyd; the EU has a plan to recover from the coronavirus.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Cameron Peters.

• On Tuesday, police in Minneapolis unleashed tear gas and rubber bullets on demonstrators protesting the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a Minneapolis police officer. [Time / Mahita Gajanan]
• Hundreds of protesters marched on a police precinct station Tuesday evening and were met by officers in riot gear; on Wednesday, a Minneapolis City Council member, Jeremiah Ellison, condemned the aggressive police response, which he said was disproportionate. [Minneapolis Star Tribune / Andy Mannix]
• A video of the killing shows the officer kneeling on a handcuffed Floyd’s neck while bystanders beg the police to stop. Floyd can be heard telling officers, “Please, I can’t breathe.” [New York Times]
• Police were initially called over reports of a counterfeit $20 bill on Monday. Upon arriving, officers pinned Floyd face down on the pavement for more than five minutes until he lost consciousness. Floyd was later taken to a hospital, where he died. [Minneapolis Star Tribune / Libor Jany]
• The four officers involved in the arrest were fired Tuesday morning, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced at a press conference that the FBI has opened a civil rights investigation into the killing. “Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” Frey said. [NPR / Austin Horn]
• On Tuesday, George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, called for the officers to be prosecuted for murder. “They treated him worse than they treat animals,” he said. “They took a life — they deserve life.” [Vice / David Gilbert]
• As Vox’s Catherine Kim writes, Floyd’s death is just the latest instance of police brutality against black communities. Floyd’s cries of “I can’t breathe” closely parallel the words Eric Garner, who was killed by police in 2014, and in March, Kentucky police shot EMT Breonna Taylor to death in her own apartment. [Vox / Catherine Kim]
• The Minneapolis Police Department in particular has long had problems with race relations. In 2015, the shooting death of Jamar Clark, a black man who witnesses said was handcuffed when he was shot, ignited weeks of protests against police brutality. [Minnesota Public Radio / Brandt Williams, Tim Nelson, and Matt Sepic]

• On Wednesday, the European Union proposed a €750 billion coronavirus recovery plan that would expand the bloc’s power and rescue the economies in some of the nations hit hardest by the pandemic, including Italy and Spain. [Reuters / Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski]
• Specifically, the plan, which is equivalent to about $825 billion in spending, would give the EU “major new tax and spending powers of the sort held by a federal state” in what is potentially another step toward European integration. [Washington Post / Michael Birnbaum and Loveday Morris]
• The proposed recovery plan, the majority of which would take the form of grants to member states, was accompanied by a €1.1 trillion new EU budget proposal from 2021 through 2027, also unveiled Wednesday. It would build on an earlier €540 billion rescue effort by the EU. [BBC]
• For the proposal to go into effect, it will require unanimous approval by the European Parliament, which includes representatives from all 27 nations. [New York Times]

[The Verge / Loren Grush]

• “It’s a ticking clock”: Renters worry as pandemic-related eviction protections begin to expire. [NYT / Sarah Mervosh]
• On Tuesday, for the first time, Twitter fact-checked one of President Trump’s tweets. [Recode / Shirin Ghaffary]
• When it comes to climate policy, Democrats aren’t in disarray. [Vox / David Roberts]

[NBC's Ben Collins on Trump's accusation that Twitter is "stifling free speech" by fact-checking his tweets / Twitter]

You can tell because of a number called the test positivity rate. [YouTube / Laura Bult and Danush Parvaneh]