The Murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin: Update 2

Derek Chauvin has been arrested. More at the bottom of comments.

Update 1: Prosecutors warn there is 'evidence that does not support criminal charge' in case of four cops accused of killing George Floyd , dailymail.co.uk, May 29, 2020 (with 2 min. video from Mike Freeman's weasel words)
Other reports note that Freeman's 'office' later walked that position back for him..

"Prosecutors have warned there is ‘evidence that does not support criminal charges’ in the case of four cops accused of killing George Floyd, as they say police can use a ‘certain amount of force - but not excessive’.

At a press conference Thursday, Mike Freeman, county attorney for Hennepin County, condemned the actions of officer Derek Chauvin as 'horrific and terrible'. But he said prosecutors needed to determine if the white cop used 'excessive' force when he knelt on the black man's neck for eight minutes until he passed out and later died.

'That video is graphic and horrific and terrible and no person should do that,' he said. 'But my job in the end is to prove he violated a criminal statute - but there is other evidence that does not support a criminal charge.'

Further updates from wsws.org at the bottom of the comment stream.

‘As Chief Prosecutor, Klobuchar Declined to Bring Charges Against Cop that Killed George Floyd; While serving as Minnesota’s chief prosecutor between 1999 and 2007, Klobuchar declined to bring charges against more than two dozen officers who had killed citizens while on duty – including against the cop that killed George Floyd’, Alan Macleod, May 27, 2019

(my bolds, and my thanks to Alan Macleod)

“The latest example of America’s racist police brutality problem was caught on camera in Minneapolis Monday, as Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on 46-year-old African-American George Floyd’s neck for over seven minutes until he passed out and died. In its headline on its website, Minneapolis police described the event as “man dies after medical incident during police interaction,” laundering themselves of any responsibility. Chauvin continued his assault even as Floyd desperately pleaded that he could not breathe, while bystanders protested his brutality. “You’re fucking stopping his breathing there, bro,” warned one concerned passer-by. Even after passing out, Chauvin did not release pressure on his neck. Chauvin has killed multiple times before while in uniform, has shot and wounded others and is well-known to local activist groups.

A history of racist policing, thanks to Klobuchar

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who Joe Biden recently asked to undergo vetting to be his running mate for November, issued a very tepid statement about the incident, describing the police killing of an unarmed black man over an alleged forged check as merely an “officer involved shooting,” – a copaganda word often used by police as a euphemism for “murder.”

Klobuchar also called for a “complete and thorough outside investigation into what occurred, and those involved in this incident must be held accountable.” However, this is unlikely to occur, in no small part because of Klobuchar herself and the precedent she set while serving as the state’s chief prosecutor between 1999 and 2007. In that time, she declined to bring charges against more than two dozen officers who had killed citizens while on duty – including against Chauvin himself, who shot and killed Wayne Reyes in 2006 and would later go on to shoot more civilians while in uniform.

At the same time, however, Klobuchar was ramping up the number of arrests as part of her tough-on-crime agenda, something which inordinately affected people of color. In her first year in office alone, the prison sentences for first-degree drug crimes doubled. Activists allege her embracing of the broken window-style policing was a deliberate strategy to win support in the white suburbs of Minneapolis, to the detriment of the city’s non-white communities, bolstering her successful run for senate in 2006.

While it may not be the first city that comes to mind, data shows that Minneapolis is among the most racist cities in the United States for racial profiling and police stops. The police force’s own data shows that, while black people make up only 18 percent of the population, they were involved in nearly half of all police stops. Conversely, whites make up 60 percent of the population but figured in less than 21 percent of the stops. 62 percent of body searches and 63 percent of people whose cars were searched were also black. Thus, Floyd’s killing is merely a viral example of a wider phenomenon, a spark that ignited a powder keg of resentment that had been building for some time.”

Is Joe Biden still ‘vetting’ Klobuchar as a possible running mate?

Minneapolis police fire teargas at protesters after death of George Floyd

 On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was murdered in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo,a New York City Police Department (NYPD) po-po, put him in a chokehold while arresting him.  The po-po were pissed that Garner had been allegedly selling ‘loosies’ (single cigarettes) on the street.

How many times had Eric Garner pleaded with police: “I can’t breathe” before he died?

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wendy davis's picture

a minnesota website parsed the charges:

According to Minnesota law, murder in the third degree is committed when there isn't intent or premeditation. A typical use of the third-degree murder charge would be used against a person who fired a gun in to a crowd or drove through a crowded sidewalk.
"Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree," Minnesota statue says.

Chauvin was also brought up on a second charge of second-degree manslaughter. A person can be convicted of manslaughter in the second-degree if they can prove one of five means stated in Minnesota law.

Prosecutors could argue that Chauvin committed "culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another," the statue states. (the bolded link went to:)

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/609.205

the protests are spreading, and LA has issued a 'no protests' law, national guardspeople are being deployed in many cities, and from the AP today:

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — As unrest spread across dozens of American cities on Friday, the Pentagon took the rare step of ordering the Army to put several active-duty U.S. military police units on the ready to deploy to Minneapolis, where the police killing of George Floyd sparked the widespread protests.

Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York have been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders. Soldiers in Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas have been told to be ready within 24 hours. The people did not want their names used because they were not authorized to discuss the preparations.

The get-ready orders were sent verbally on Friday, after President Donald Trump asked Defense Secretary Mark Esper for military options to help quell the unrest in Minneapolis after protests descended into looting and arson in some parts of the city.

Trump made the request on a phone call from the Oval Office on Thursday night that included Esper, National Security Advisor Robert O’ Brien and several others. The president asked Esper for rapid deployment options if the Minneapolis protests continued to spiral out of control, according to one of the people, a senior Pentagon official who was on the call.

The person said the military units would be deployed under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial.

“If this is where the president is headed response-wise, it would represent a significant escalation and a determination that the various state and local authorities are not up to the task of responding to the growing unrest,” said Brad Moss, a Washington D.C.-based attorney, who specializes in national security.

#WhataDumbassMove, as is this tweet:

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wendy davis's picture

up today: : ‘George Floyd protests spread nationwide’, (they list the many states), a few noteworthy items on the list:

Pepper balls have been deployed by police in Denver
Louisville police: "Things are still escalating"
Bail for former officer Derek Chauvin set at $500,000, document shows (wth?)
Protesters briefly gain access to Treasury Department complex in DC
Protesters peacefully kneeled in Minneapolis. They chanted “hands up don’t shoot” at a line of Minnesota State Police and National Guard members who were manning a checkpoint near the Precinct 3 police station that was set ablaze last night.

Oh, just too many, but this is the only one i’ve seen with this addition to militarized police:

14 hrs ago: Tensions mount as armored vehicles pull up at Atlanta's protest; this is not the photo they used, though, but they're not tanks with gun turret;

cnn had mentioned this new video of george's murder. it snows Three sociopathic pigs kneeling on him until he was DEAD. what will they be charged with?

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWzkgKPZWcw]

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wendy davis's picture

mass protests in defense of george floyd's murder. it's sincerely amazing how many folks are on the street, as well as the po-po's overly military presence in som locales.

Fargo??? ; )

that's plenty; i need to go start some dinner.

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