This is a political post.
How are we HERE again?
I have avoided writing about the Chauvin Trial.
As someone said on Instagram the other day, I'm just not up for anymore black pain and suffering. It is becoming a carousel that we can't get off for some reason and the longer we take the more dangerous the pressure grows.
I did catch snippets of the closing arguments. When his defense attorney argued that the framing of the prosecutors "completely disregards" what happened before Floyd was pinned to the pavement it brought back an old memory. After the riots in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict long ago, one of the daytime talk show people had an episode where they went down into the neighborhood and white and black people together. And I remember distinctly a young white woman standing up and trying to justify the beating Mr. King took at the hands of the police. She pleaded with the crowd to understand that "we don't know what happened before the video started." And an older white woman stood up, as young girl stood there repeating we just don't know and put her hand on the girl's shoulder. Her words were profound. She simply told the young woman that "there is nothing he could have done to have deserved what happened to him."
There was nothing that George Floyd did that day, or any other day, that deserved a penalty of death. Period.
And for the record, his medical condition and previous drug use should be no defense. The eggshell plaintiff rule should be in full effect here. I'm still amazed that the defense attorney characterized Chauvin as feeling threatened by the crowd, despite all the testimony and video showing otherwise. I'm not sure if he was expecting cheers as casually killed a man by leaning on his neck ..with his hands in his pockets. Threatened? I'm really not sure what was going through his mind. And frankly I kinda don't want to know.
Now, even if you don't believe in defunding the police (still a dumb name for a good idea) as many of the jurors indicate they do not, the concept of watching a man in custody being killed in slow motion, casually as it was, should move something inside you. I hope. As the prosecution stated, "To be very clear, this case is called the State of Minnesota versus Derek Chauvin. It is not called the State of Minnesota versus the police." The idea of bad cops getting away with it, time and time again, only undercuts the idea of the police as the good guys in the eyes of the public. And will eventually begin to increase the real, not just perceived, danger that officers face out in the field. This nightmare scenario has to stop somewhere, so why not here? Believe it or not, if you think about it, this actually is a pro-police prosecution.
And considering that during this trial we have experienced the deaths of Daunte Wright at the hands of the police just a few miles from where this trial is taking place, and Adam Toledo's death while his hands were raised as instructed. Meanwhile, another part of the same state a man who rams two police cars, assaults an officer and led the police on a chase with an officer hanging onto the side of the truck is taken into custody. I can only wonder what the difference in circumstances was.
I'm hoping for the best. Maybe we've woken up that continually granting ultimate power on an individual basis to people usually not vetted for bias or other dangerous tendencies probably isn't a good idea. I mean, the evidence should be clear here. Because if not, then I think 2021 is coming for 2020's Most Turrible Year belt.
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