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Shock Of George Floyd Death Felt In Summit County Sheriff's Office

Summit County Sheriff's Office

While protests and turmoil rock the country over the death of George Floyd, Summit County’s Sheriff says that he, his deputies, and all the officers he knows are universally disgusted and horrified about how Floyd died.

Sheriff Justin Martinez talked to us on Friday, before the country was shaken by another incident—the shooting death in Atlanta of Rayshard Brooks.

Sheriff Martinez said in recent weeks, he and his officers have felt a mixture of emotions.       

“I think the mood ranges every day, from sadness to hurt, anger, maybe even a little fear in there that.  We are all angered, myself included, as to what those officers in Minneapolis did to Mr. Floyd.   That was absolutely inexcusable.   There was no need for that to have ever have happened.  There’s not a deputy, an officer, a chief that I know of that would even go down the road so far as to say, “Well, we weren’t there, we don’t know what happened.”  Absolutely what happened was wrong.”

He said he supports the rights of protestors who have taken to the streets—but not when the demonstations turn into rioting and looting.     

“And then to see the nation’s rage towards law enforcement, and wanting to really pigeonhole all of us into the same category of, we’re all racists.  We’re all out there brutalizing people.  We’re all the same.   And that is so-that’s not fair.”

On a related topic, Governor Gary Herbert recently issued a state-wide ban on chokeholds.

Sheriff Martinez said his department has never employed that practice.   He said it’s wrong, especially when a suspect is in handcuffs.”         

“If somebody’s in handcuffs, and now you’re gonna choose to restrict their airways, there’s just no need for that.  I just don’t see that.  With all the de-escalation that we have, with all the verbal—trying to talk somebody down, trying to calm down the situation.  Obviously, that’s the priority.  If it’s gonna continue to be a situation where we’re gonna have to use whatever reasonable, necessary force, we’ve got other—we’ve got a Taser.  We can keep our distance.  We’ve got pepper spray.  We can call in a canine.  We wanna do everything we can before we ever go hands on with an individual.   Because once you go hands on, basically in a fight like that, there’s a risk of the deputy getting hurt as well.  So we try to do everything we can before any type of physical activity occurs.”

Summit County Sheriff Justin Martinez.

Known for getting all the facts right, as well as his distinctive sign-off, Rick covered Summit County meetings and issues for 35 years on KPCW. He now heads the Friday Film Review team.
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