ATLANTA — There is no hiding the fact law enforcement officer's actions have been put under a microscope following the killing of George Floyd during his arrest in May 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
It's often a case that is a reference point any time an arrest is questionable regarding the use of force by an officer against a suspect.
Most recently, on April 18, Frank E. Tyson died in police custody after use of force was used during a crash investigation in Canton, Ohio. The Canton Police Department released the body camera footage of Tyson's arrest on Wednesday.
It's a 35-minute, 45-second video.
The officers were responding to a crash in which Tyson hit a power pole. He eventually stopped before getting out of his vehicle and gaining access to a nearby American Veterans Post.
Inside, Tyson is seen on the officer's body camera standing in front of the bar. Almost immediately, he starts yelling at the officers to "call the sheriff."
At this point, officers engage with Tyson, but they quickly get into a scuffle in which the officers begin to use force to take him to the ground.
Anita Fraser, who retired from the Fulton County Sheriff's Office after two decades of training officers not just in Fulton County but also Dekalb County, said that the initial response from Tyson is what they call "excited delirium."
"He (Tyson) automatically went into a frantic start," she said.
During the time officers are trying to secure Tyson, you see an officer place his knee on Tyson's back.
This is one of those instances where many people flash back to George Floyd being on the ground with a knee on him. However, a major difference was that Floyd had a knee to his neck.
"I am a mother of three African American males," Fraser said. "The biggest fear is having your son mistreated. We're living in a culture in which George Floyd changed."
She added, "In that perspective, where an officer's knee was applied for a long extended time... in this video that was not the case."
Fraser said from what she saw in the video, the officer used his knee to stabilize Tyson so that the other officers could get him in handcuffs.
Fraser said in her years of experience and what she watched, "It was not done in a malicious manner." She said a lot of what we witnessed in this video boils down to departmental policy and training.
After Tyson is in handcuffs, he's left on his stomach, face down for five minutes. It's during this time he goes into cardiac arrest. This happens after he said repeatedly that he couldn't breathe.
Fraser said in the video, you see Tyson's feet move, and you hear the officer tell him to quit resisting. During much of the five minutes, the officers didn't check on Tyson.
It would be five minutes later, they check for a pulse and realize he's not breathing. Fraser said again that during some of the five minutes, the officer interpreted Tyson's foot movement as him being combative.
"That officer should have addressed the issue or had some concerns, with the subject laying here," Fraser said.
Fraser said when you step back and look at the totality of the video, "No use of force is going to ever be pretty, ever."
She added, "Based on the circumstances of force, they did a good job."
Fraser explained, however, it boils down to "judgement and perception of the officer."
"I know that department and that chief will be going back and looking through their videos as they should with all use of force and see okay what have we done in training to address this, what did we do right and what did we do wrong and what could we do better," Fraser said.