The eyes of the nation are on the trial of Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. He's the policeman who had his knee pressing down on the neck of George Floyd -- after Floyd was handcuffed and on the ground, That action resulted in the death of George Floyd, and most Americans have seen and been shocked by the video of Floyd being killed.After viewing the video, I think many probably think a guilty verdict is a sure thing. But that is naive. It is extremely rare for a policeman to be convicted for assaulting or killing a suspect. We will have to wait and see if the Minneapolis jury is going to convict or let Chauvin off.
The following is part of a post by Shaun King in The North Star:
They weren’t subduing George Floyd - no - George Floyd was handcuffed, hands behind his back, on his stomach, and lifeless. They weren’t protecting themselves or the community. If that argument could ever be made, it damn sure ceased to be true for the final 300+ seconds that grown men refused to let up off of his limp body. That wasn’t protection - it was punishment. And on May 25th, 2020 the Minneapolis Police Department, with Officer Derek Chauvin in charge, and his band of brothers joining in, served as judge, jury, and executioner of George Floyd.
It’s called buck-busting. Or buck-breaking. Google it. It has a long history in slave-holding countries and it’s where white men would get the biggest, strongest Black man they could find and torture him in the most unthinkable ways imaginable in front of every enslaved African on the plantation, sometimes even from neighboring plantations, often unto death, just to show everybody that the white man was in charge. Yesterday the defense attorneys already started using the Black-Hulk defense, telling the jury how huge George was and how puny Derek Chauvin was. This defense, too, has deep roots in American history and ties to the murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Daniel Prude, and more.
This has always been a violent place. From the tens of millions of Native Americans who were killed, to the tens of millions of Africans who were enslaved, raped, tortured, bred, bought, sold, traded, and worked to death for generations, to the wars here and abroad, to the nearly 400 million guns in circulation - this place has always been, above all else, a deeply violent place.
The literal National Anthem of this land, written by a monster, is literally about violence with “the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air.” Our first president owned hundreds of human beings and used their good teeth to replace his rotten ones. This country killed its greatest presidents. This country murdered its greatest leaders. This country killed Emmett Till and set his killers free. This country murdered freedom riders, buried them, and refused to hold anyone accountable. This country - with its mass shootings on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - killing Asian women, killing school children, killing Black folk in church studying the Bible - violence, not peace, not freedom, violence, is the core value of this nation.
Yes, Dr. King said that riots are “the language of the unheard,” but hear me now - if Derek Chauvin is not convicted of some degree - first, second, or third - of murder, if he is not held accountable in the court of law, a reckoning is going to befall this country one way or another. And it should.
Convicting Derek Chauvin is the floor. It is the least. Hell, that’s not even justice. It’s a fraction, a semblance of accountability, but if justice means balancing the scales for what they did to this man, then sending Derek Chauvin to prison is a start, but we’re calling for that, and so much more. We’re calling for an end to qualified immunity. We’re calling for a radical new definition of public safety in every town, city, and county in this country. We’re calling for reimagined budgets and priorities. We’re calling for the decriminalization of poverty, substance use and abuse, and mental health. We’re calling for the complete renegotiation of police union contracts nationwide. We’re calling for a ban on prosecutors and politicians receiving money from police and their unions. We’re calling for an end on the war on drugs. We are calling on a complete expungement of drug crimes from records. We’re calling on the profits and tax revenues from marijuana to be used to revitalize the people and communities most impacted by the racist war on drugs.
So yeah - convict this man - do it on the evidence - but understand this - millions of Americans have already had their patience worn thin. And millions of Americans no longer believe you when you call for peace and calm for some and not others.
