TRAIL AND ERROR

It is now official. The trial of officer Derek Chauvin is a classic example of what is seriously wrong in this country. This all started with a false narrative. Millions of Americans are convinced that Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, solely because he was black. They are equally convinced that there is a serious problem in this country with angry racist white cops shooting unarmed black men for walking while black. There is, of course, no evidence of this rather than the rush to judgement by the out-of-control liberal left-wing media. They want people to believe this. They need people to believe this. Facts be damned. To the liberal left the constitution and the bill of rights have been abandoned on the alter of anti-Trumpism and anti-Christianity. Some of this is actually deserved. Trump is and was famous for insulting people. Christians far too often ignored the doctrine of grace and embraced the arrogance of legalism. Whether deserved or not, Christians were known primarily for what they were against. Too many Christian leaders were famous for arrogantly putting down the evil they saw in others, seldom considering self-reflection. This is not true, of course, for the vast majority of preachers and is absolutely not what Christians were hearing in church. But it is exactly the image that the world saw because super-star ministers drowned out any other message.

I frankly do not know if Derek Chauvin is guilty of a crime or not. I just know that there is zero chance of him getting due process. He has already convicted by the MSM and while the decision of the jury may or may not affect his ability to live freely or in prison, he is doomed either way. If he is acquitted his only chance of survival is to go into witness protection. But nothing like that is remotely possible.

The truth about this case, ignored by the MSM, is quite simple. Police were called to deal with a huge black man, high on drugs and acting out of control. They tried, and failed, to get him to go peacefully to the station. He resisted, so they handcuffed him and pinned him down. Somewhere in the course of events, George Floyd died. At best, police failed to realize that he had stopped breathing. Perhaps part of the reason for that is that police were surrounded by an angry crowd, screaming insults, and holding up cell phones. Sadly, one of the side effects of the smart phone is that almost everyone has a video camera available. Just recently, during the shooting in a supermarket, there was one idiot literally trying to film the scene while shots were still being fired.

We have dissolved into this. Where cell phone video, taken in the midst of chaos, is considered to the be one and only true record of events. Never truer than regarding George Floyd and Derek Chauvin. Many people watched the only video shown, seeming to prove that Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck slowly choking him to death. But, if you wanted the video, a couple of things should have been obvious. One is that Chauvin knee wasn’t actually on Floyd’s neck. The other is that Chauvin never appeared to be looking at Floyd. He was looking around, probably at the angry mob. Look at that video, did this look like a man in a rage to you? If anything, he looked distracted.

But facts don’t matter. If they did, odds are that he would never have been charged with a crime at all. What happened here was the media outcry was so loud and so sustained that authorities in Minneapolis began a desperate search for tomorrow. Or rather, I should say, a search for some reason to charge Chauvin with murder. The autopsy reports showed so much toxicity that Floyd may have died even if police had not been called. Well, maybe not exactly, because Floyd swallowed a bunch of pills when police arrived. But in any event, he was in serious jeopardy of dying regardless of what police did because of the actions he did himself. But there was tremendous pressure on the coroner to find this a homicide. Otherwise, those angry people rioting in Minneapolis would become angry. Then they kept looking for the most serious charge possible against Chauvin, again without regard to the facts. But soon prosecutors realized that if they tried to charge Chauvin with the more serious crime, he was likely to be acquitted. So, they begged the judge to allow consideration of a much lower level of crime. That is why in addition to Second Degree Unintentional Murder, they added, Third degree murder and Second-Degree Manslaughter. Note that this third charge says that Chauvin should have known to put Floyd in a side recovery position. He should go to prison for ten years because of that?

See the contrast here. While the mob is screaming murder, the prosecutor is primarily arguing that he could have done things better. Big difference. I wonder if the jury will notice? Just a couple of days ago, Brooklyn, MN., police shot and killed another suspect. BLM immediately organized a protest. Then they discovered two things that changed their mind. One was that the guy police shot was not black, he was white. Second, he was shooting at police. This didn’t fit their narrative, so the protest was cancelled mid-stride.

Now self-righteous arrogant left-wing journalists are screaming NEVER AGAIN! This assumes that what happened in the George Floyd case was purely the result of systemic racism and police abuse of power. But they miss something. When police arrived, Floyd was sitting behind the wheel of his car, ready to drive somewhere. He many not have actually been up to driving, but that was apparently his plan. Can you imagine being on the road with another driver coming at you, in Floyd’s condition? You should, because if we truly say never again, that is exactly what will happen. Even the man shot accidentally by the female police officer who mistook her service revolver for a taser, was trying to escape arrest by driving away. That is what our future looks like, if we don’t wake up. Police are already retiring in droves and there are few recruits. Those who stay in the job will soon develop a not my problem approach to policing. Any police officer who confronts an angry black man under these circumstances is at high risk of facing criminal charges, regardless of the outcome. On the other hand, if they don’t subdue some of these people, they put other innocent people at risk. Most of those people, by the way, will be minorities leaving in poverty-stricken areas. In other words, fixing alleged systemic racism by police is guaranteed to hurt the very people they claim to represent.

Today, doubling down on stupid, President Joe Biden said that Derek Chauvin is obviously guilty. Joe, who can’t remember where he is at times, is an expert on a trial he didn’t even watch. If Chauvin is convicted, it will be appealed. Maxine Waters had already made this a certainty. Now Joe Biden not only guaranteed an appeal, but he also guaranteed a new trial. This, of course, will only happen years from now, after Chauvin had paying enormous legal bills while hiding in this basement.

The question is: “Who possibly benefits from this?” Certainly not people already terrified by black-on-black crime. Certainly not the police and not the people who benefit from the security the police provide. Even the “unarmed black men” being shot by racist white cops won’t benefit, except for the few lucky enough to get millions is a settlement from places like Minneapolis.

I have many black friends. I recognize the reality that sometimes police do profile people because of the color of their skin. I wish it were not true. But this reminds me of another friend, who is a Muslim man. He talked about always being profiled at airports. He said at first, I was upset, but then I realized that the terrorists they were trying to stop were trying to kill me too. Exactly.

TDM