According to the top post on this Reddit thread, written by a self-proclaimed restraint trainer and the major replies to them, this is absolutely, positively not the case:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/gsdwky/if_you_...
Apparently this is an old saying and is completely wrong.
edit: to visualize this. One of the steps in death via a python is suffocation. During that process, you could speak many times, all the way until your lungs are out of air, but you'll never get air in your lungs again.
Is having your ability to breathe severely reduced (say 10-20% capacity. Enough to exhale out words) not accurate enough for "I can't breathe" to be true?
Point being, it doesn't matter in the least what the autopsy report says. He died of having a knee pressed down on his neck.
Agreed. I was making a bit of a side comment about something I've learned through this whole story because I also thought that being able to speak means you're not choking (for example), when apparently that is not true.
Video taken by a bystander,
now seen around the world,
shows a police officer
kneeling on Floyd’s neck
for approximately five
minutes as he struggles,
telling officers he can’t
breathe.
That isn't what the autopsy report said.
The ME also claimed that the initial autopsy found no evidence that Floyd died of strangulation and traumatic asphyxia after Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.
Correct, he didn't die of strangulation or asphyxia. Someone who can't breathe can't say things like, "I can't breathe." Instead, Floyd died of circulatory insufficiency, subsequent to having a knee pressed on his neck for almost nine minutes.
The medical details are completely irrelevant when it comes to determining responsibility for the outcome. [1] The officer is equally responsible regardless.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggshell_skull