I was so struck by the caption of Eugene Robinson’s Washington Post column I didn’t even bother to read the column: “The world saw George Floyd’s final minutes. Now it will see whether he gets justice.”
What would justice be in this case? IMO relatively few people are interested in justice and all that will satisfy the most vocal is vengeance, something else entirely.
Update
The editors of the Washington Post contribute their views as to what would constitute justice in this case:
Jerry W. Blackwell, one of the prosecutors, played the video during his opening arguments to drive home how Mr. Chauvin did not “let up†or “get up.†Floyd said 27 times he couldn’t breathe, and a crowd that formed called repeatedly on police to get up because it was clear Floyd was in distress. “While he’s crying out, Mr. Chauvin never moves,†the prosecutor told the jury. “You can believe your eyes, that it’s homicide, it’s murder.â€
Mr. Chauvin’s lawyer argued there is more to the case than the video, contending that Floyd’s death was caused by his underlying heart disease and drug use; he even blamed the crowd for posing a threat and diverting officers’ attention from Floyd. “You will learn,†said Eric J. Nelson, “that Derek Chauvin was doing exactly what he had been trained to do during the course of his 19-year career.â€
We hope no jury can accept that a police officer would be trained to be so willing to cause harm and so indifferent to human suffering.
I think that somewhere around the 5th-10th time he said he couldn’t breathe, this guy who was already handcuffed, should have had the officer get off his neck. I have given fentanyl to thousands of people. Not buying the drug OD thing, not how it acts. So justice would be that the law is carried out for someone who negligently and with indifference kills someone else.
Steve
As a fairly dispassionate observer of the video, one point I noticed was the interaction between Chauvin and the (hostile) crowd of filming observers.
We will never know if Chauvin would have acted differently without them but I believe it’s possible he “got his back up” and could not relent without appearing weak, especially to the rookies with him.
I also think Floyd may well have died no matter what Chauvin did or did not do. But since the two coroners involved cannot agree on a cause of death, we’ll never know.
As a point of reference, only 20% of African Americans believed O.J. Simpson killed his ex, at the time of trial. So defund the police and use the funding for the fire department.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/videos/most-black-people-now-think-oj-simpson-was-guilty/
steve, that sounds like murder in the third degree under Minnesota law. It does not appear to me to satisfy the requirements of murder in the second degree under that state’s laws. I note that there’s no mandatory sentencing requirement in either statute.
That gets to the heart of my question. Would terminating his employment as a police officer but not sentencing him to jail satisfy justice?
Also, note that there’s a sort of Catch-22 for the police officer in this. The claim is that he was following training and policy. If that is the case for him to have done otherwise would have caused him to be subject to termination but doing it would also cause him to be subject to termination.
I literally have no opinion on this other than that I’m sorry the man died. May he rest in peace. But I’m not on the jury, I’m not a Minneapolis police officer, and I’m not a lawyer in Minnesota.
I agree the third-degree murder description most closely fits the facts as I understand them.
“Also, note that there’s a sort of Catch-22 for the police officer in this. The claim is that he was following training and policy. If that is the case for him to have done otherwise would have caused him to be subject to termination but doing it would also cause him to be subject to termination.”
I think “training and policy” is too often used as an excuse to avoid responsibility. I don’t think that argument works in this case in my opinion.
“Excited delirium” is going to be the issue. This will be the reason Chauvin dared not remove his knee.
Police officers are not doctors, but Chauvin called an ambulance when the perp laid down, and secured him for the safety of the public until EMT’s arrived.
Maybe an argument could be made convenience store clerks should have medical training so as not to instigate deadly encounters with police. The woman was in no way threatened, but called police over the behavior of the perp, whom she believed should not be in operation of a motor vehicle. Hence Floyd’s death. If that woman had called an ambulance instead , who knows?
If and who knows? Isn’t that the essence of this trial?
I suspect that the Minneapolis police training had allowed the officer to put his knee on the guy’s neck. I doubt that it said it was OK to leave it there until the guy died. Again, the guy was in cuffs. Behind his back. I have helped restrain hundreds of people. I just cannot imagine needing to do that in someone who was already in cuffs AND you had 3 other people there to help.
Steve
George Floyd is dead; he is beyond human concerns. The question is whether or not Chauvin will receive justice.