In June 2020, an old episode of the famous reality courtroom show "Judge Judy" has been making rounds online.
The claim is that the plaintiff in the case was George Floyd, the Black man who died in the hands of Minneapolis police officers in May 2020. Floyd's death started a worldwide protest against racism and police brutality.
Is it George Floyd?
The comments on the video were filled with derogatory terms about Floyd and the constant accusation that his criminal record justified his inhumane death. Some even stated that his past deeds made him undeserving of being the face of the Black Lives Matter movement.
However, the man named George Floyd in the "Judge Judy" video is not the George Floyd who died in Minneapolis back in May.
The Black man in the video is identified as George Floyd IV, while the full name of the one who died in Minneapolis was George Perry Floyd Jr. Also, the episode of "Judge Judy" that is circulating online aired in 2010, and it featured a 17-year-old Black man who had been arrested in Chicago, the said George Floyd is now 27-years-old.
The George Floyd who died in Minneapolis was 46-years-old. The entertainment site Snopes investigated the claim and confirmed with CBS that the episode aired in 2010.
Snopes also found a news article from 2009 that featured the carjacking incident that was discussed on the show, as well as a law blog post from 2010 about Judge Judy that mentioned the carjacking episode.
What the episode was about
NBC Chicago reported back in December 2009 that a 17-year-old was arrested after he crashed a hijacked car.
The teen was ordered held on a $250,000 bond for allegedly carjacking and punching an off-duty officer in the South Chicago neighborhood on the Southeast Side. He told the police that he did the crime because he was cold and did not want to walk home.
George Floyd was charged with carjacking, aggravated battery to a police officer and aggravated fleeing. All of the charges against him are felonies.
The website Legal As She Is Spoke wrote about this episode on "Judge Judy" in September 2010. The article stated that even those who do not watch her show got to see Judge Judy in action when she issued a ruling in a carjacking case in which a 17-year-old defendant threw a woman from her car and drove off.
The article also mentioned that the teen's excuse was that he was cold and did not express any remorse for his actions. Judge Judy spoke to Floyd's father who seemed to have given up on taking responsibility for his teen son's actions.
Judge Judy also addressed the defendant's previous infractions and she sentenced the minor to more hours working for his father, thus preventing him from concentrating on his personal life to which he said attributed to his poor work ethic.
In conclusion, the George Floyd in the said video is not the George Floyd Jr. that died in the hands of police officers and sparked the movement worldwide back in May 2020.
