Defense witness for George Floyd murderer appears in pro-Trump ad

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September 16, 2024
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“Four years ago, in this alley, rioters threw a brick at my face and knocked out my teeth. Why? Because I was a police officer. And what did Kamala Harris do? While America’s cities were burning, Kamala was defending peaceful protests. She raised millions to help bail rioters out of jail. And supported defunding our police, making us all less safe. Kamala Harris is dangerous.”

— Scott Creighton, retired Minneapolis police officer, in an ad released by the pro-Trump group Preserve America PAC on Sept. 12

Preserve America PAC, a pro-Trump group, appears to specialize in first-person accounts by people allegedly wronged by Vice President Kamala Harris.

We previously looked at an ad featuring a woman whose son was killed by an undocumented immigrant in Texas — when Harris was district attorney for San Francisco. The new ad features a former police officer who says he was injured in the riots that erupted after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. A similar ad, which features a police officer identified only as “Paul,” attacks her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for his handling of the situation.

These types of ads can be effective because personal testimony seems authentic. But, as the adwith the grieving mother does,Creighton makes misleading claims about Harris. The ad also does not mention that he was the first defense witness to testify for police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering Floyd and sentenced to 22½ years in prison.

The Facts

George Floyd was a Black man who was murdered on May 25, 2020, by Chauvin after he was arrested on suspicion of counterfeiting. Chauvin, in a scene recorded on video, knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, asphyxiating him. Protests — and riots — erupted across the United States. In Minneapolis, a police station was burned to the ground, and Walz,the governor then as now,called in the National Guard on May 29 to restore order.

Vandals caused property damage to more than 1,500 locations, with fires set at nearly 150 buildings, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Hundreds of officers left the force, and a number filed disability claims, including Creighton. He received $190,000 in worker compensation, according to WCCO, the local CBS News station.

But police misconduct during the riots also was costly to the city. One man received a $2.4 million settlement after being hit with a rubber bullet during a protest. Videos, captured by police body cameras, documented officers speaking derisively about the demonstrators, the news media and Mayor Jacob Frey.

Creighton was called by Chauvin’s defense team because in 2019,not quite a year before Floyd’s death, he had initiated a traffic stop and arrested Floyd, who had been in the passenger seat, for drug possession. “The passenger was unresponsive and uncompliant to my demands,” Creighton testified. “I then had to physically reach in because I wanted to see his hands.”

Creighton said he drew a gun on Floyd as he approached the vehicle and Floyd failed to place his hands on the dashboard. Another officer brandished a stun gun. But Creighton’s testimony was undercut by his body-cam footage, which shows Creighton and another officer cursing and shouting at Floyd as they order him to show officers his hands. “Don’t shoot me, man!” Floyd says to Creighton, who then pulls him from the car and handcuffs him.

Asked why Creighton was chosen for this message, a Preserve America representative pointed to his statement that he was hit by a brick during the 2020 melee. Preserve America did not respond to a request to make Creighton available for an interview, and he could not be reached.

Now let’s look at his claims.

“What did Kamala Harris do? While America’s cities were burning, Kamala was defending peaceful protests.”

This tells half the story. Creighton ignores that Harris condemned the riots, even as she said people had a right to peacefully protest.

“It’s no wonder people are taking to the streets, and I support them. We must always defend peaceful protest and peaceful protesters,” Harris said after looting erupted in Kenosha, Wis., in August 2020. “We should not confuse them with those looting and committing acts of violence, including the shooter who was arrested for murder. And make no mistake, we will not let these vigilantes and extremists derail the path to justice.” (She was referring to Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two people. He was acquitted of all charges after a trial in 2021.)

Similarly, when riots erupted in Portland, Ore., in late Augustthat year, Harris tweeted to a post by Joe Biden condemning the violence: “I join @JoeBiden in condemning this violence. This cannot — and must not — be who we are. Americans deserve a president who will heal our country and bring people together — not fan the flames of hate and division.”

Robert O’Brien, Donald Trump’s national security adviser at the time, told CNN that Trump supported peaceful demonstrations, even as he pledged a crackdown on violence.

We couldn’t find a specific statement by Harris on the violence in Minneapolis, or even the protests, but she did have one tweet that is referenced in Creighton’s next statement.

“She raised millions to help bail rioters out of jail.”

This cannot be verified.

Creighton is referring to a tweet, from then-Sen. Harris, on June 2, 2020,just weeks before Biden selected her as his running mate: “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.” As of this week, the post had been retweeted 23,000 times.

As we’ve reported before, until Floyd’s murder, the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF) was a relatively small vehicle for assisting people who needed cash for bail. The MFF’s 2018 tax filing shows it raised only about $100,000 that year. Just weeks after Floyd’s death, it raised $35 million — in part because of tweets such as the one by Harris. The fund initially had only about $10,000 set aside to help out protesters, MFF said in a tweet.

Harris herself never personally bailed out anyone or had any interaction with the fund, the fund’s interim director told the Sacramento Bee in 2021. Internet personalities such as Nikita Dragun and James Charles tweeted images of donations of $3,000 and $1,000, respectively, around the same time. Justin Timberlake also tweeted his support. There’s no way to know how much money was raised because of Harris’s tweet. The Preserve America source noted that her ActBlue fundraising page for the MFF remains live.

In the end, few people involved in the protests needed the MFF’s help to get out of jail. According to an accounting by the American Bail Coalition, verified by The Fact Checker with a review of Hennepin County jail records, all but three of the 170 people arrested during the protests between May 26 and June 2 were released from jail within a week. Of the 167 released, only 10 had to put up a monetary bond; in most cases, the amounts were nominal, such as $78 or $100. In fact, 92 percent of those arrested had to pay no bail — and 29 percent of those arrested did not face charges.

“And supported defunding our police, making us all less safe.”

This is mostly false. Harris, a former prosecutor, never supported the “defund the police” movement, though she called for “reimagining public safety” in the United States. The ad cites an article in the New York Post reporting that Harris told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the movement posed legitimate questions about police budgets, but the Post acknowledged Harris “stopped short” of backing defunding.

“Defund the police” was often misunderstood. It did not call for the outright elimination of police departments. Proponents by and large wanted to redirect some funds now spent on police forces to items such as education, public health, housing and youth services. The idea was that low-income communities would become stronger — and less in need of policing tactics — if root problems were addressed.

Under this concept, some police officers would be replaced with trained social workers or specialized response teams in an effort to let police focus on violent crime, not drug overdoses or homelessness. The theory is that police would be better positioned to deal with rapes and murders if they were not required to deal with other social ills that sometimes lead to community confrontations with police.

In several interviews in June 2020, Harris demurred when directly asked whether she supported “defund the police.” But she also straddled the issue with her rhetoric on taking a fresh look at public safety.

“We need to reimagine how we are achieving public safety in America,” she said when Meghan McCain of “The View” asked whether she supported the movement. “To have cities where one-third of their entire budget is going to policing, but yet there is a dire need in those same cities for mental health resources, for resources going into public schools, for resources going into job training and job creation — come on. We have to be honest about this.”

Appearing on MSNBC on June 8, 2020, to discuss a bill she co-sponsored that aimed to improve police practices and hold police accountable for egregious conduct, Harris was also asked about “defund the police.” (The bill did not call for reducing police budgets.) Again, she offered similar rhetoric that fell short of supporting the movement.

“We don’t want police officers to be dealing with the homeless issue,” she said. “We don’t want police officers to be dealing with substance abuse and mental health. No — we should be putting those resources into our public health systems; we should be looking at our budgets and asking, ‘Are we getting the best return on our investment as taxpayers?’”

The Pinocchio Test

Creighton certainly is an interesting choice to be a spokesman about the violent aftermath that resulted from Floyd’s murder. His message is also flawed.

He says she defended peaceful protests — which are protected by law — but fails to mention she condemned the violence. He makes an unverified claim that she raised millions to bail rioters out of jail. It’s unclear how much of the money that was raised could be attributed to her — and in any case, few people arrested needed to put up money. Finally, he says she supported the “defund the police” movement. She never embraced it, instead saying the movement raised good questions about how public safety could be best achieved.

Overall, the ad earns Three Pinocchios.