The man representing the families of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor said he takes on the biggest cases so he can 'help the Davids of the world take on the Goliath'

• Civil Rights lawyer Ben Crump told Insider that he represents the families of victims of high-profile shootings in the black community because he tries "to help the Davids of the world take on the Goliath."
• Crump spoke to Insider in May, less than a week before George Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes.
• Crump is now representing Floyd's family, as well as the families of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.
• He's calling for further arrests and charges in Floyd's case, and told Insider that it's "the public pressure that makes the system finally try to be accountable for black lives."

Shortly after a video traveled around the world on May 25, showing George Floyd dying as a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, Ben Crump took the case.

Crump has distinguished himself as one of the country's top civil rights lawyers. In recent weeks, he has also been hired to represent the families of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Before his most recent clients, Crump worked with the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and other black victims whose stories advanced the Black Lives Matter movement.

Why does he do the work he does? He says it's to help the "Davids of the world take on the Goliath."

"We have not only just tried to be there for marginalized people of color, or disenfranchised people of color, but we want to be there for anybody who suffered an injustice," he told Insider.

Tallahassee, Florida-based Crump, who spoke to Insider less than a week before George Floyd's death, called the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall his "personal hero," and someone he models his career after.

"I try to think what would Justice Marshall be doing if he was doing work now," Crump said. "Justice Marshall always looked for cases that did not just impact an individual, but we'll have a larger impact on society itself. And so those cases, cases that shocked the conscience, kind of gauge what cases we take. You try to help the Davids of the world take on the Goliath."

Crump represents families to seek justice on behalf of the dead

Crump's goal is to seek justice — he calls for arrests, charges, and convictions — and he does so very publicly.

In Floyd's case, he has carried out interviews with the media, written a column for USA Today, released frequent statements on behalf of Floyd's family, and commissioned an independent autopsy that differed from the findings of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.

While the medical examiner attributed Floyd's death to being restrained, and underlying health conditions, Crump's concluded that the pressure on his back and neck caused asphyxia.

Crump told Insider that one of his strategies is to fight his cases in the "court of public opinion," oftentimes before cases are heard in court of law, which he said is the "sad reality we live in."

"It's the public pressure that makes the system finally try to be accountable for black lives. And It's never easy trying to say when a person of color is killed by a white person that you can just expect the justice system to run its course," Crump said. "Now you have to give it a tug to make it run its course, or the moral arc of the universe won't bend towards justice unless we bend it."

Derek Chauvin, the officer who was seen kneeling on Floyd's neck, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Three other officers who were fired over the incident have not faced charges.

"We expected a first-degree murder charge. We want a first-degree murder charge," Floyd's family said through Crump when charges were announced last week. "And we want to see the other officers arrested. We call on authorities to revise these charges to reflect the true culpability of this officer. The pain that the black community feels over this murder and what it reflects about the treatment of black people in America is raw and is spilling out on to the streets across America."

• Read more:
• Seattle protesters are using umbrellas to block pepper spray and tear gas, mirroring tactics used by the Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrations
• Ferguson elected its first black mayor 6 years after a white police officer shot and killed teenager Michael Brown
• Police forcefully removed protesters from Lafayette Square so Trump could pose in front of a church. White House officials say the photo op was Ivanka's idea.
• One of America's most popular police trainers is teaching officers how to kill with fear-based warrior tactics