The trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin began as the most overtly emotional display on nationwide TV. And this is the chosen direction from the DA, usually stone-faced prosecuting attorneys who prefer the jury hear just the facts without raw emotion from those on the stand. Instead, the prosecution’s first witnesses whose inability to control their tears may intentionally sway the jury—the one group in the courtroom who is supposed to consider the testimony and without bias collectively determine a just verdict. One news network covering the trial ‘gavel to gavel’ titles their coverage The Death of George Floyd: Derek Chauvin on Trial. That’s not objective. The trial is about the former policeman and his actions which a jury will decide may or may not have contributed to and caused the death of Mr. Floyd. The punishment phase is not part of the ongoing trial.
In court we heard the recording of Chauvin explain to a bystander, who somehow ended up on the stand early in the trial, the reason why he did what he did. Chauvin comes across as an officer who was not enraged or out of control. He explained the suspect was ‘sizable’ and appeared to the police as being ‘on something.’ Videos indicate Mr. Floyd was uncooperative and working against police who were trying to put him in a squad car. Then Mr. Floyd ended up hand cuffed behind his back and belly down on the street, telling the police he could not breathe … yet he would not stop talking, and his words turned into prayers and pleas. To the cops, he was a suspect, and they knew he was an ex-con, and he was not going to go with them to the police station for likely booking.
Police size up a call anticipating anything can happen. They also carry a gun and handcuffs. If a suspect has a weapon, police shoot to kill. Police see situations differently than we do. When confronted with an assailant, they think “It’s his life or mine.” These circumstances are rare in a patrol officer’s life, maybe once or never in a 20-year career.
Contrary to opinion, Mr. Floyd did not die of a broken neck. He could not breathe in the position he was in, held down by Chauvin. Two autopsies revealed illegal narcotics, one a dangerous and deadly painkiller, the other an equally bad upper. Who knows how long he had been taking those drugs and that combination despite a heart condition? Mr. Floyd had spent time in prison and must have known if he were arrested for anything (misdemeanor or felony, DUI or petty crime), he likely would end up back in prison.
Then there’s the crowd that grew around the police scene and convenience store where someone had called authorities about Mr. Floyd passing a fake bill and therefore not paying for items. The store owners have said after what all happened—the image of a white police officer pressing the neck of a handcuffed Black man until he died at the scene, the nights of violent fiery protests, the costly damage to businesses in the area—they’d never call the police again. Cell phone cameras and cop cams recorded the event live and have been replayed around the world. The scene touched a nerve among millions of people who protested against police brutality. A shrine and mural were set up at the site where Mr. Floyd died … in the hands of police.
Law & Order, gavel gavel
Americans have made police officers out to be the ‘enemy of the people.’ The January insurrection showed the self-proclaimed law-and-order folks are anti-social, malcontents, against the law, coming full circle to criminals and felons. With military assault weapons in hand, they stormed over Capitol police like they didn’t have to ‘stop in the name of the law.’ What’s so strange is some of the insurrectionists were cops and military, and some of the Capitol police supported and welcomed the insurrectionists into the People’s House.
Police are attacked from both sides: fascists who proclaim a love of authority but not when it comes to their whims and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement who have a right to call out bad cops for dozens of unwarranted shooting deaths more and more caught on camera.
When it comes to law and order, we have to decide our shared ideal of the future. Is it police who no longer carry guns? Police who have a heart, shoot rubber bullets, or let their suspect run away because he or she does not want to be apprehended? Or police are no longer called to handle anyone who appears to be acting weird or is doing something that poses a danger with a weapon? Does every community need to create a separate group, and not call them a force, of psychologists and counselors who will handle people who appear to be on drugs and/or mentally ill? And that mental health staff will be unarmed when the other person may be psychotic? Should we have another separate group from police who will handle domestic cases (because they are the most dangerous calls for police)?
We want to believe the old way of policing is just not working and for Blacks and the disenfranchised has never worked. We’ve grown so cynical that we believe, more often than not, justice does not prevail. None of us civilians know what police deal with. We’ve watched plenty of cop shows, though, so we think we’re know-it-alls. Police have to follow laws and procedures. They can’t arrest someone because somebody thinks something is going to happen. And yes, in the cam world in which we live, we’ve seen some bad cops do horrific things like shooting the wrong people, shooting innocent people, shooting unarmed people, shooting people who run from the police. Perhaps we don’t want our police anymore to overpower a suspect over petty crime.
We want police who are fair and just, who will protect the innocent and go after ‘the bad guy.’
Or maybe we don’t want police anymore. In this country, we all can carry guns and think we can protect ourselves.
Instead of seriously studying the problem (it seems to be just one BIG problem: inept bad and perhaps bigoted police officers) and coming up with solutions, the tables have been turned in a courtroom where a former police officer is accused by the People of not only manslaughter but murder, and everyone is pushing the jury to convict. That is how the trial is coming across to rational minds.