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“Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on Tuesday of murdering George Floyd… A 12-member jury found Chauvin, 45, guilty of all three charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.” Reuters
Both sides agree with the verdict:
“Juries are often hesitant, and rightly so, to second-guess cops when they make split-second life-and-death decisions. Those decisions may prove wrong, and on occasion they are justly punished as unreasonable, but cops tend to get the benefit of the doubt because most people understand that they need to assess threats to themselves and others in an instant, and it is all too easy to sit in judgment of that at leisure with plenty of time to review the situation, without adrenaline pumping and fear vivid…
“None of that was on the table for Chauvin’s defense. George Floyd died slowly, as Chauvin kneeled on him for eight minutes. No jury on earth was especially likely to see this as a reflex reaction in the heat of a moment. The cops had the right and responsibility to use some force to restrain and subdue Floyd, and maybe his death was due in part to other factors besides force. But the extended time involved in this case always made it likely that any reasonable jury would convict Chauvin of some crime bearing responsibility for the death of a man who did not deserve to die.”
Dan McLaughlin, National Review
“No reasonable person could have watched the video of Floyd's death and not have held Chauvin fully accountable for such a depraved killing… this time, our justice system worked. The American people who marched in the streets during a pandemic should be proud that their activism had an impact. The prosecutors in the Chauvin trail should be commended for their outstanding, comprehensive presentations. The jurors should feel satisfied knowing they did the right thing while under tremendous pressure. And although nothing can bring Floyd back to his devastated family and community, at least today the world knows that his life mattered.”
Raul A. Reyes, CNN
Other opinions below.
“The judicial system worked. It usually does. It won't bring George Floyd back, or eliminate all bad policing, but police are now on notice. And good cops still vastly outnumber bad ones. It's time to refine and reform the policing system, not tear it down…
“Police reforms should include severe restrictions on chokeholds, severe restrictions on warrantless raids and no-knock raids, much less use of (and better training in) old military equipment, restrictions on qualified immunity, better training in de-escalation tactics (especially for nonviolent offenders), and more. Also, there should be a concerted effort against over-criminalization of minor or unknowing offenses.”
Quin Hillyer, Washington Examiner
Regarding the civil unrest, “President Biden has been little help, despite his inaugural pleas for unity and healing. On Tuesday before the verdict, Mr. Biden said he was ‘praying’ for the jury to reach ‘the right verdict’ and that the evidence was ‘overwhelming.’ That’s an outrageous interference with the administration of justice. Though the jury was sequestered at the time, it’s possible word of his comments could have made it to the jury had their deliberations gone on. That could have been grounds for a mistrial…
“One defense witness had his former house vandalized, which might have unsettled some jurors about the implications of an acquittal. The city settled a civil case with Floyd’s relatives that wasn’t shielded from the jury. Trial Judge Peter Cahill said Monday that Rep. Maxine Waters’s weekend call in nearby Brooklyn Center that protesters should get ‘confrontational’ in the event of an acquittal could be grounds for mistrial on appeal… As the cases [against the other officers] move ahead, the politicians and media elites should be calming tempers, not inflaming them.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“The guilty verdicts against Chauvin are rational and defensible… Nevertheless, there is a serious question about whether [he] got a fair trial… This is a case in which the defendant plausibly argued from the start that he could not get a fair trial in Hennepin County. The judge declined to change venue, opining that the court could ensure a fair trial by an exacting jury-selection process. Yet, in the middle of that process, Minneapolis, which was obligated to ensure due process, publicized its decision to pay the Floyd family $27 million to settle a wrongful-death civil-rights suit…
“Throughout the trial, the publicity continued to be intense. There was also significant coverage of the jurors. They weren’t identified by name and address, but enough information was published that their families had to know it would not take a very enterprising snoop to track them down. Then, just as the presentation of evidence was about to end, the tragic accidental killing of Daunte Wright by a police officer occurred in Brooklyn Center… Defense counsel Eric Nelson rightly pleaded with the judge to sequester the jury… Instead, the judge gave the jury a long weekend at home…
“It was only 24 hours ago when commentators were observing, in the wake of Waters’s inflammatory remarks, that there was reason to fear the jury would peremptorily convict Chauvin without carefully considering the record — so fraught with intimidation and prejudice had the atmosphere become. Then this afternoon, the jury returned a stunningly quick verdict, after asking no questions about the complex evidentiary record: Guilty on all counts.”
Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review
“All it took to get that conviction was: nearly 10 uninterrupted minutes of video documenting the murder in broad daylight; a victim who was already handcuffed and prone at the time of his murder; months of nationwide protests; years of organizing by Black activists; a narrative that rose above the noise of a pandemic; a Democratic state attorney general; a prosecutor willing to indict; a nationally televised trial that ran for three weeks; multiple cops testifying against one of their own; and largely incontrovertible testimony from medical experts…
“Bringing the cops to heel cannot happen through individual prosecutions. We need to address systemic racism in law enforcement and the permissive culture of violence against people of color…
“It can be addressed legislatively—by passing laws that change the police use-of-force guidelines and setting up independent third parties to investigate and prosecute problem officers… It can be addressed politically—by voting for mayors who aren’t in the pocket of police unions and by showing up to vote for local district attorneys who promise to treat police brutality like any other crime…
“It can be addressed with funding—by defunding and demilitarizing the police and funding non-police personnel to handle mental health crises and traffic duty. It can be addressed through the media—by demanding coverage that doesn’t simply parrot police reports and narratives that distort and harm real lives. It can be addressed in people’s hearts—by the simple act of believing Black people when we tell you what’s happening to us.”
Elie Mystal, The Nation
“What stood out to me was how sharply the prosecutor focused the jury and public attention solely on the 9 minutes and 29 seconds that Chauvin spent with his knee on George Floyd’s neck. This was an excellent legal strategy…
“Yet it underscores that this case was never about any of the myriad injustices that preceded those 9 minutes and 29 seconds: the aggressive, multiple-officer response to an incredibly minor incident; the immediate wielding of a gun against Floyd when stopping his car; the racist and dehumanizing lens through which officers viewed Floyd before he was in custody; the failure to take Floyd's mental health concerns seriously when he described his anxiety and claustrophobia. None of those injustices count as unreasonable uses of force, and Chauvin would not have been held accountable for any of them if he had not also murdered Floyd.”
Monica C. Bell, Politico
“In June 2020, the city [of Denver] began allowing 911 operators to dispatch a Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) consisting of a mental health clinician and a paramedic. Over the first six months, these teams responded to 748 calls without a single use of force or call for armed assistance. Many of these calls were rooted in substance abuse and homelessness—situations armed police are routinely called to respond to across the country…
“Research shows that escalations of force by police are more likely whenever someone who is not White is involved, even after controlling for crime rates. Every 911 call prompted by a Black or Brown person sleeping in their car, attending a pool party, selling loose cigarettes, or even birdwatching could turn deadly. A school disciplinary issue could lead to lifelong trauma. By disarming our public safety response to nonviolent situations, we could disarm the prejudices of our communities.”
Atiba Goff, Time
