Derek Chauvin charged in George Floyd’s death
The cop who was caught on camera using his knee to pin George Floyd’s neck to the ground is being charged with unintentional murder and manslaughter — but may face more serious allegations, a Minnesota prosecutor said Friday.
The three other cops at the scene will likely also face charges in Floyd’s racially charged death, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said…
Under Minnesota law, third-degree murder covers “eminently dangerous” acts that cause death without the intent of doing so, and is punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
“We are in the process of continuing to review the evidence,” Freeman said. “There may be subsequent charges later.”
Freeman said Chauvin’s arrest was “by far, the fastest we’ve ever charged a police officer.”
I think it’s pretty clear why this happened so fast. The first reason is that Chauvin’s actions appear awful. The second is that there has been no evidence of Floyd’s resisting arrest or any particular reason why such a degree of force would be necessary or why it would need to take that particularly dangerous form. Perhaps most urgently, the speed probably reflects the hope is that such quick action will cool down the violence that has gotten way out of control.
Subsequent revelations may change things. Just to take a single example, an autopsy could show that Floyd had some other condition that led to his death and that what Chauvin did was not contributory. But I very much doubt anything like that will occur, although it’s possible. What is more likely is that something will be revealed that will cause Chauvin to be charged with an even higher degree of murder.
Whether or not the speed of the charges against Chauvin will actually calm the situation down is unclear, because there are many forces invested in having the unrest continue. Already, however, plenty of damage has been done. Just to take one example, see this.
In addition, there’s been a lot of brouhaha about Trump’s tweet I quoted in this earlier post today:
These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!
Legions of Trump critics are saying he’s threatening to kill looters. Trump says no:
Trump tweeted Friday afternoon that he was stating “as a fact” that looting could lead to violence, rather than advocating for it.
“Looting leads to shooting, and that’s why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night — or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot,” Trump wrote.
“I don’t want this to happen, and that’s what the expression put out last night means,” he continued. “It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement. It’s very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media. Honor the memory of George Floyd!”
It’s one of those cases, though, when I believe Trump was trying to be too cute with the rhyme, and should have made himself much clearer. He gave his critics verbal ammunition against him. After all, Trump knows better than anyone that there are legions of “haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media” – in particular, to insist on the worst possible interpretation of what Trump writes, says, or does.
[NOTE: Oh, and Amy Klobuchar’s chance to become Biden’s VP choice seems to be collateral damage. When she was Hennepin County attorney, she apparently failed to act on a previous shooting case in which Chauvin was also implicated.
In addition, when I read that Floyd’s family had hired Benjamin Crump as their attorney, that name had a very familiar ring. Crump was the attorney for Michael Brown’s family in the Ferguson case, as well as the Martin family in the George Zimmerman case, among others.]
ADDENDUM 7:15 PM: Preliminary autopsy report here. This is by no means the final word:
The full report of the ME is pending but the ME has made the following preliminary findings.
The autopsy revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. Mr. Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. The combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, this underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.
The defendant had his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was non-responsive. Police are trained that this type of restraint with a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous.
If the hold is considered “inherently dangerous” – and it certainly appears to be very dangerous – and Chauvin used it anyway, I think he will still be liable even if Floyd died of a heart attack. The police treatment will be said to have contributed substantially, which it almost certainly did. However, I am no expert on the law in such a situation, and I could be wrong.
The video looks so bad, so bad. They might as well have lynched the poor bastard.
I’m normally pro-cop, but it was as obvious as hell to me that the cop should have been booked and jailed on manslaughter charges within a couple of hours, and all the other cops who stood around and watched the killing should be charged as accessories.
Most cops are good people – until the BAD cops discover that there’s no penalty for bad behavior. And bad cops should bet HARDER sentences, because, by God, they KNEW BETTER!
THEN, and only then, will the pervasive rot of large police departments be cleaned up, and the citizens convinced that the cops can be trusted.
There should NEVER be any leniency for police misconduct. And this was, in spades.
It didn’t happen very fast.
It didn’t happen fast at all.
He should have been arrested as soon as the video came out. They had probable cause right then.
You don’t have to have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to arrest someone.
The intentional delay, while they desperately tried to find a way to let the cop off the hook, caused all of these riots.
What is going on is the Minn. cop/DA’s fault.
— cop may have known victim
— cop is married to an Asian
— two of the other 3 cops were minorities
— I think the undocumented shoppers may be overreacting.
My standard response to the legions of red faced screaming lefties:
First, I will withhold any firm conclusions until an appropriate amount of time, to allow for potentially unexpected, yet crucial, details to surface. They often do in these sensational, acrimonious, matters.
Second, if no additional material details do emerge, then this is likely one of the rare instances of genuine police brutality, with tragic results. Chauvin should certainly be prosecuted.
Third, even so, Chauvin is entitled to a fair trial before an impartial jury. That is not debatable
Fourth, this may indeed be a tragedy. So were the deaths of Kate Steinlie and Mollie Tibbets, both killed by illegal immigrants. Your (the leftist’s) rejoinder that one shouldn’t judge all illegal immigrants (call them “undocumented” if you wish but I’m not bowing to politically correct nomenclature) based on the behavior of a few, applies to the police as well. However, police officers risk their lives to protect public safety every day. Few illegal immigrants do the same.
Fifth, rioting is never justified. Period. If you think otherwise, you need to examine your own moral compass. You should reflect on what you’re advocating and whether you’re justifying, rationalizing or infantilizing (something leftists are wont to do) said behavior.
Whoa there! You may only need probable cause to arrest, but just an arrest has inherent problems: it starts the clock on the time allowed to actually file charges. And prosecutors need more than just probable cause to move on to filing charges. They need to get enough evidence so that they can satisfy the requirement that they believe they have enough of a case to prevail at trial where the burden is beyond reasonable doubt. That last is a significant hill to climb. An arrest cuts their time to file charges to approximately 48 hours which may be too short, especially when waiting for the results of an autopsy.
neo writes, “It’s one of those cases, though, when I believe Trump was trying to be too cute with the rhyme, and should have made himself much clearer. He gave his critics verbal ammunition against him.”
Trump is very often his own worst enemy. In this instance, as in so many, he simply cannot get himself out of his own (d#mn) way. “Too cute with the rhyme” indeed.
In a great many cases, the guy has *got* to be “much clearer” in exactly what he says and how he says it. A prime example is when he called the virus du jour “a hoax”. In context, he had just finished ranting over how the media played up the Russia! Russia! Russia! story, which did turn out to be one gigantic hoax, perpetrated by deep-staters who wanted him out at any cost. The media’s playing up covid was what Trump referred to at that point as a(nother) hoax — but he should have used a different, more exact, word. Alas: Trump is not big on exactness, or precision (he has been known to, ermmm, exaggerate).
As an unintended consequence, scores of his loyal followers repeat his words and actually think the virus is a hoax. I hope none of them die as a result.
I will say, though, that should Trump fail to “[give] his critics verbal ammunition against him,” said critics will gladly create ammunition of their very own, and of their very own accord. See “Schiff, Adam, the transcript that turned out to be a parody” for a prime example.
The only people I’ve ever heard say the virus was a hoax was people lying while they pretended to quote Trump.
If you see Trump playing 5D chess or something, think about the long term results of his words after they’re filtered, in a manner of speaking, through events.
So the Guard goes in, or has to be reinforced by the regulars as with the Detroit riots in 67.
Somebody is going to get shot. Is it because Trump ordered it? Or did somebody ignore the warning? Or was somebody set up to get shot?
IMO, lots of folks will be yelling about this, but if it weren’t that, it would be the hideous combover. Nobody will pay attention.
R
Third, even so, Chauvin is entitled to a fair trial before an impartial jury. That is not debatable</i
He won’t get it. This is a lynching. He was not the good guy but the coroner report says no strangulation or asphyxia. The trial should be fun. I’m keeping my AR 15 close.
This is why you have to be very careful when it comes to paranoid fear-mongering. I get the sense that a lot of our over-educated/under-accomplished elites think demagoguery is simple. It’s not. That’s why there are very few successful demagogues. They usually either wind up overplaying their hand or being consumed by the very passions they whip up.
The Left allowed and encouraged this “police are exterminating black men” stuff to fester and metastasize. Now we’ve all got to deal with it.
Mike
This country really needs a better training/education/vetting of aspiring demagogues. An efficient controllable mob is not something an amateur demagogue can whip into a frenzy overnight. Those mobs are the work of a well seasoned professional demagogue. I rest my case.
This was an arrest gone very wrong. And for what? Passing a counterfeit $20 bill? The cops should have taken George’s name and address and referred the case to the FBI. The FBI handles counterfeit and forgery cases. George might be a big counterfeiter, but I doubt it. This was small potatoes.
So, what happened? They cuffed him and put him in the back of the patrol car. SOP, so far. What happened next? Why did they take him out of the car and force him onto the ground? And once he was on the ground where he was essentially helpless, why put a knee on his neck? I’m theorizing, but I think this officer, Chauvin, lost his temper over something George did or said and was intending to “teach him a lesson.” Totally wrong, but he may have done it to other perps before and gotten away with it (No fatalities). Street justice gone horribly wrong.
Now, thanks to officer Chauvin and phone video, major cities around the country that are under Democrat control are aflame. Two wrongs make a right. Right? Not IMO. Peaceful protests are understandable. They are allowed by the Constitution. As American as apple pie. But there are forces (ANTIFA, BLM, I’m looking at you) in the country who love to step in and stir the pot when they see a chance. Why? They want to see the capitalist system fail. Race wars fit their plans quite nicely. Why Democrat controlled cities? Because they tend to have larger black populations and the local officials are usually loathe to enforce the law very energetically. A perfect combo. So here we go again. the 1960/70s have returned.
Someone seems to think that 1968 is a model to follow, not an example of what not to do. Just as the Left seems to think the book 1984 is an instruction book.
This is what happens when Dems run a place for decades and let corrupt unions set standards for the behavior of employees. Think rubber rooms.
Mike,
He probably won’t get a fair trial, I grant you. But, surprises happen. If his defense successfully moves the trial out of Hennepin (or Ramsey) County, he’s likely to be in a much redder, much less virtue signaling area. Minnesota outside of the Twin Cities is reddish purple. Duluth (where I went to college) and the iron range were heavily Democrat until very recently…but old school, blue collar Democrat. Not surprisingly, they’ve been trending GOP in the age of Trump.
At any rate, he is absolutely entitled to a fair trial, whether or not he gets one.
These guys knew each other.
I smell a personal grudge that just got settled…some debt just got cancelled.
Pay attention to Sundance over at Conservative Tree House.
Cop and the poor man worked overlapping shifts as security or bouncers at a Minneapolis bar or club for a period less than a year. This was not about racial targeting. There was some personal grudge or revenge involved.
Still murder, but not likely any so-called hate crime.
But to Soros funded armies of brown shirts, it’s always white-Power hates blacks day to riot!
Second, if no additional material details do emerge, then this is likely one of the rare instances of genuine police brutality, with tragic results.
As rare as copblock and fake news. https://www.copblock.org/
https://youtu.be/lGLsvbFaE-g?fbclid=IwAR2uO83cc-qvqnzrUxF38uZl8LGKsF2g-xWXIlstG0LaVPWx5uw7S7tOiFI
https://youtu.be/0M1GV4fFqNM?fbclid=IwAR3Z6LvOTC9vcdLIY3_bxnogDNIfuvtdgAjArYGcGNIAVvftKhI60vxwc_I
The system usually finds snitches and American veterans/patriots, and kicks them out. It’s why the LEOs are run by corrupt extremists, same as with jihadis. The majority is good? Maybe, but it does not matter.
I agree, take a look at CTH’s commentary on this at
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/05/29/president-trump-looting-leads-to-shooting-msm-go-bananas/#more-193030
I’m from Chicago. Personally don’t care for the riots that were seen in St. Louis, Baltimore and now in Minneapolis. Why? Until people riot against blacks killing other blacks other than a white cop killing a black man every two years these riots are nothing more than juvenile and emotional. Let’s not forget that the Democratic mayors did nothing to effectively deescalate the riots. To me the Minneapolis riots are much ado about nothing. They’re empty in substance.
Denver just issued a curfew for tonight.
The 1960s called: they want their riots back.
His wife has filed for divorce. For better for worse and all that.
The speed of the gov’t action makes one think that riots actually do have an effect.
Faster justice.
Because of the unjust but unpunished rioting destruction.
I’ll be very interested in the counterfeit story, and possible police involvement there, but the cop with the knee on the neck looks like he deserves whatever punishment he gets.
http://www.amerika.org/politics/and-the-george-floyd-bubble-bursts/
You may have noticed that several days ago, I predicted the outcome of the George Floyd case by saying that he had a heart attack:
Much like Eric Garner, this case would probably not produce a finding of murder or manslaughter because it will turn out that the victim had a heart attack. This is relatively common during arrests, which are stressful and can trigger cardiac arrest.
It turns out that now mainstream news sources confirm that the kneeling-on-neck had nothing to do with Floyd’s death which was the result of a heart attack, exacerbated by stress and drug or alcohol abuse:
An official autopsy revealed nothing to support strangulation as the cause of death, concluding that the combined effects of being restrained, potential intoxicants in Floyd’s system and his underlying health issues, including heart disease, likely contributed to his death.
Here it is from the Associated Press:
An autopsy said the combined effects of being restrained, potential intoxicants in Floyd’s system and his underlying health issues, including heart disease, likely contributed to his death. It revealed nothing to support strangulation as the cause of death.
This is why the DA did not press charges in the first place:
“That video is graphic and horrific and terrible and no person should do that,” Freeman said. “But my job in the end is to prove that he violated a criminal statute, and there’s other evidence that does not support a criminal charge… I will not rush to justice.”
The public got snookered by an old scam, which is editing video to show something out of context to project a spin which supports the Leftist narrative.
Surveillance footage from the nearby Dragon Wok restaurant does not appear to support the claim that Floyd resisted arrest during the initial encounter. However, there are several minutes where Floyd’s and the officers interactions cannot be seen from the camera’s vantage point.
We have one video of the occupants of the car being arrested and walked to a police car; the next video starts up an indeterminate amount of time later and shows them being restrained. All events between the two are missing and have not yet been made public.
Based on years of seeing American news, my guess will be that at some point Floyd figured out that the shopkeeper had called this in, that he had outstanding warrants, and that he would be going downtown, and either assaulted the police, attempted to escape, or made legal threats against them.
This is why all three of them were sitting on him: he was a big guy raging out of control, and they were going to immobilize him until there were enough police officers there to restrain him and get him into a secure form of transportation, since a big guy out of control can wreck a cruiser and cause a crash.
When the full evidence comes out, these officers will be suing the state and possibly certain actors within it who ordered the prosecution. Multi-million dollar settlements will quietly occur. Chauvin’s ex-wife, who began divorce proceedings yesterday, will find herself losing out on a big score.
However, the grinding death-worship of the white bourgeois middle class fear will continue, and they will pay to rebuild everything destroyed by the rioters. No one will be prosecuted or face consequences. Society will absorb a few hundred million in damages.
This will be passed on to the residents, who apparently keep voting for these morons, in the form of higher taxes, and to the ghetto residents in the form of higher prices. Once the stores in the ghetto raise their prices, everyone else will, too, to keep the ghetto from going there.
A few of those in the know will figure out that these riots were a paid political hit orchestrated by the Left:
Walz said the people producing the violent riots are 20 percent Minnesotans and 80 percent from the outside.
Getting all those people into town took money. Someone funded this. Perhaps the same someones who have been trying to harp on RussiaGate, impeachment, emoluments, Stormy Daniels, COVID-19, and Ukraine needed a new distraction-deflection to try to invalidate the Trump success story.
Taking out Trump may have been the immediate goal, but the Minneapolis race riots of 2020 are part of the ongoing racial shakedown caused by the competition between minorities and the majority that is inherent to diversity. As Tom Wolfe writes in Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers:
Ninety-nine percent of the time whites were in no physical danger whatsoever during mau-mauing. The brothers understood through and through that it was a tactic, a procedure, a game. If you actually hurt or endangered somebody at one of these sessions, you were only cutting yourself off from whatever was being handed out, the jobs, the money, the influence. The idea was to terrify but don’t touch. The term mau-mauing itself expressed this game-like quality. It expressed the put-on side of it. In public you used the same term the whites used, namely, “confrontation.” The term mau-mauing was a source of amusement in private. The term mau-mauing said, ‘The white man has a voodoo fear of us, because deep down he still thinks we’re savages. Right? So we’re going to do that Savage number for him.’ It was like a practical joke at the expense of the white man’s superstitiousness.
Every time there is a problem which touches on race, the Left and its pet minorities bring out the idea that its cause was race, reasoning backward that if people are equal, then anyone who is not thriving must have been discriminated against.
They use the threat of their own chaotic behavior to subjugate democracy, its politicians, and the fearful-of-controversy bourgeois middle class voters behind it, who do what they always do which is offer to write a check right away to make the problem go away.
Consequently the ghetto burns down its local stores, the Left vaults itself into more power, and the voters go home feeling hopeful but at the same time, suspecting that something very, very wrong and evil is going on in their society. Then the television comes on and all is forgotten.
In all of this, mostly we should feel bad for the murder hornets, who were about to be the latest media talking point but got displaced by the latest race riots. In the meantime, America and Europe have become tired of diversity, as the lackluster white response to these riots shows.