George Floyd Murder
Committed by a Minnesota Police Officer Derek Chauvin- The Verdict is Reached
Guilty As Charged
The incident took place in May 2020 in broad, full daylight in the streets of
Minnesota near a convenience store. The police were summoned by the store clerk to
report that Floyd had tried to pass a fake $20 dollar bill for use of the purchase.
Police
Officer Derek Chauvin arrived on the scene took Floyd into custody, put him on
the ground, handcuffed him face down-while Officer Chauvin put his knee on
Floyd’s neck and knelt on it for more than nine minutes. Which resulted in the
death of Floyd due to asphyxiation and/or strangulation? This is where the
video showed Floyd gasping for air and calling for his mother and was noted as
a despicable display of abject police brutality, excessive force, and inhumane
treatment perpetrated by Officer Chauvin.
The video shocked the world and led to what became one of the largest Civil Rights
protests across the United States ever seen in decades. The Chief of Police of
Minnesota immediately fired Officer Chauvin and 3 other police officers that
were involved in the murder incident of George Floyd
This
was closely followed-up with Civil Rights protests that created an enormity of ripples
of concerns, in that, charges were brought against Officer Chauvin. There were
three types’ charges:
·
Second-degree murder, a death that occurs in the course
of another crime, in this case, an assault on George Floyd
·
Third-degree murder, the killing of someone when acting
without regard for human life but also without intent to kill
·
Second-degree manslaughter, the killing of someone with
“culpable negligence”
This incident of George Floyd’s death struck a chord that is, and was a reflection; of
being depressingly familiar in the annuals of history in the long string of
deaths at the hands of police officers in the land. Yet this particular incident
was also looked upon as an exceptional case. Notwithstanding the plethora of
concerned and sensitive bystanders who just happen to capture videos on the sequence
in its entirety.
Especially,
the capturing of the videos showing officer Chauvin apparent calm indifferent cavalier
arrogance, as he slowly squeezed the life out of George Floyd. Thus such attitude
displayed by Chauvin quickly brought condemnation, not only from numerous long
time critics of police violence, and
ordinary citizens-but it came from law enforcement officers of the rank and
file from across the United States, which served to the detriment of Chauvin.
Therefore,
in the aftermath of days and weeks of prosecutors and defense attorneys during
the trial in a court of laws with twelve jurors- a verdict was succinctly
reached after 10 hours of deliberation on this 20th day of April 2021.
A
particular news headline from “The
Atlantic” read: Chauvin Conviction Is The Exception That Proves the Rule.
The reasoning for such a headline, it is said, was due to all the preponderance
of demonstrations of how difficult the efforts were at accountability remains,
even though Chauvin was found guilty of all three counts of the charges.
Also
the fact that the jurors took barely 10 hours to convict Chauvin on all three
counts: Second-degree murder, Third-degree murder, and Second degree
manslaughter, offering a quick and decisive verdict in what turned out to be the
most watched police murder misconduct cases in many years.
It
is touted that such speedy results announced this 20th day of April
2021, is a sign to show how unusual the deliverance of a succinct verdict. It is further looked upon as an indication as
a verdict and victory for justice, and summarily relief for the populist, conservative,
liberal politicians, political pundits, and pontificators. Moreover, the Minnesota
police, and police law enforcement organization beyond Minnesota.
In the ends such a trial and quick verdict was
welcomed for those who had braced for unrest, if Officer Chauvin had been found
Not Guilty. In another sense, the trial shed light on the probability of why the
courts will remain a challenging venue to hopefully help reform law enforcement
in the United States
President
Biden said, ‘It was a murder in the full light of day, and it ripped the blinders
off for the whole world to see. For so many, it feels like it took all of that
for the judicial system to deliver just basic accountability”
Historically,
speaking and being cognizant aware, murder prosecutions for police officers have
been extremely ‘rare’, and among the few cases which have been tried in a court
of law, those cases had not resulted in many convictions. One of the few notable convictions in recent years was in
2019, the conviction of Mohamed Noor, another was a Minneapolis police officer,
in 2017, involving the shooting death of an unarmed woman. It has noticed that
Prosecutors and jurors alike have a history of giving officers broad leeway to
act as they see fit in the heat of the moment.
However,
in the George Floyd case, the prosecuting attorneys were given a very strong
hand to play. Albeit, they were privy to be able to call a long succession of vital
and key witnesses. Which was inclusive of experts in both medicine and
policing. Also, the Chief of Police, who was Chauvin's boss-as he broke with ‘code blue’ and err on the side of common
sense and the facts in regards to Chauvin not following proper procedures for
the use of excessive force, in the appropriate
ways. One other great impact that works in the favor of the prosecuting attorneys was the
nine-year-old eyewitness who knew that Chauvin’s approach was killing George Floyd.
In
addition, LT. Zimmerman, the dept. most senior officer and homicide unit
leader described Chauvin’s actions as ‘totally unnecessary’. The prosecuting attorneys
also called Firefighter Genevieve Hansen, who was at the scene while she was
off duty and she tried to intervene by begging the police to check Floyd’s
pulse-but to no avail she was not allowed.
The
prosecution echoed the final narrative utterance discourse that, :” This is not
anti-police prosecution-but it errs more on the side of pro-police prosecution.
Given
such evidence of proclamation by the prosecution, Chauvin’s attorney Eric J.
Nelson faced a very difficult task. Therefore, rather than try to mount a vigorous
credible defense of Chauvin’s innocence. Nelson sought to muddy the water a bit
by trying to convince the jurors that the other side had not proved their
case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The
three other officers that were on the scene still face charges and their trial
is still yet to begin a bit later in the year.
Steve
Braxton, CEO, Marketplace Consulting
& Ministries, Freelance Writer & Blogger, http://blog.feedspot.com/money_making_blog/
sbrax57@gmail.com
Author
of non-fiction books, memoirs and poetic stanza
