Ok, agreed. Floyds past, sordid as it may be, has nothing to do with this at all, though. Only his actions from passing the funny money on are really at issue. Even his being lit up does not factor in the cops behavior. It's an ad hom.
Floyd was high and accused of passing a bad bill. Ok. None of that should even escalate to cuffing or arrest. So as I see it, the cops decided he was a second class citizen right out of the gate. And that's not a trivial problem on its own.
Floyd gets pissed and is uncooperative with arresting officers. Ok, he shouldn't be. But again, the professionalism of the officers needed to kick in by then. Truth be told, keeping everybody alive and safe is kind of one of their primary objectives? No?
You see Floyd as escalating because he was high and riled. Ok. I see the cops as escalating much sooner. Probably like for years, to get to the point where this kind of behavior should have even crossed their minds.
I do agree with your point that Floyd was not some angelic hero. But he was a victim of police brutality, no question. I see the Floyd statues and murals as a reminder of the faces police target, and I'm a lot closer to being like him in that situation than I am to being like a cop who watches as his pulse fades under his knee.
Is it so outlandish to hold cops to a dramatically higher standard than drug abusing criminals? I don't think it should be. Again, I've had cops go safetys off when I was on private property with permission of the owner. A sudden move on my part and I might have been a thread topic here. And I too live my life in such a way that I don't expect police to draw on me. I sympathize far more with victims of police brutality, enough to identify with Floyd more than Chauvin.