Soca Warriors Online Discussion Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Trini _2026 on May 27, 2020, 08:39:44 AM
-
So Sad
https://www.youtube.com/v/lirHz93qJ50
-
One would think that the conduct and instincts of law enforcement officers in these incidents would have shifted ...
-
And re: that woman in Central Park who called 911 on the bird watcher during her invented attack ... I hope not to read or hear anyone inserting the term 'unconscious bias' into the mix.
-
And they want to know why Colin Kaepernick used to take a knee every time the anthem is played.
-
And they want to know why Colin Kaepernick used to take a knee every time the anthem is played.
And the one who used his knee to suppress Floyd's neck might be the biggest tailgater.
-
Kevin Molino, well done on showing a recognition of social responsibility in touching this issue - particularly as a Minnesota-based player. :applause:
-
The looting started....Just like Bob Marley's song Burning and ah lootin tonite
-
China Reminds America About Their Human Rights Hypocrisy: "I Can't Breathe"
https://socamusictv.blogspot.com/2020/05/china-reminds-america-about-their-human.html
-
(https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/s960x960/100673576_10221962907082417_5560212554858364928_o.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=1480c5&_nc_ohc=eKBXRofgPgIAX_nVjlC&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&_nc_tp=7&oh=a444dc870cc456f5244737993e017478&oe=5EF8776E)
-
Curious to see how FIFA will treat players who render individual protests in support of prosecuting the police officers.
-
Curious to see how FIFA will treat players who render individual protests in support of prosecuting the police officers.
If FIFA don't give the players the freedom in this instance it will be a very bad PR move and will show they're complicit. The NFL is looking very bad right now. Roger Godell posted a message and almost everyone viewed it as hypocrisy, FIFA should let the players express themselves.
-
Curious to see how FIFA will treat players who render individual protests in support of prosecuting the police officers.
If FIFA don't give the players the freedom in this instance it will be a very bad PR move and will show they're complicit. The NFL is looking very bad right now. Roger Godell posted a message and almost everyone viewed it as hypocrisy, FIFA should let the players express themselves.
Agreed! Of course within the leagues is where support or condemnation start ... but it would be to be seriously tone deaf for FIFA or its agents to frown "out loud".
Your comment on Goodell brought me to Joe Lockhart (Bill Clinton's press secretary). It's a roadmap of plantation slavery in professional sport - informed by the "benign" views and self-congratulation of an overseer.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/opinions/now-is-the-moment-to-sign-colin-kaepernick-lockhart/index.html
According to Lockhart:
"Though Kaepernick didn't get his job back, I thought we had all done a righteous job, considering.
I was wrong. I think the teams were wrong for not signing him. Watching what's going on in Minnesota, I understand how badly wrong we were."
-
Curious to see how FIFA will treat players who render individual protests in support of prosecuting the police officers.
If FIFA don't give the players the freedom in this instance it will be a very bad PR move and will show they're complicit. The NFL is looking very bad right now. Roger Godell posted a message and almost everyone viewed it as hypocrisy, FIFA should let the players express themselves.
Agreed! Of course within the leagues is where support or condemnation start ... but it would be to be seriously tone deaf for FIFA or its agents to frown "out loud".
Your comment on Goodell brought me to Joe Lockhart (Bill Clinton's press secretary). It's a roadmap of plantation slavery in professional sport - informed by the "benign" views and self-congratulation of an overseer.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/opinions/now-is-the-moment-to-sign-colin-kaepernick-lockhart/index.html
According to Lockhart:
"Though Kaepernick didn't get his job back, I thought we had all done a righteous job, considering.
I was wrong. I think the teams were wrong for not signing him. Watching what's going on in Minnesota, I understand how badly wrong we were."
I noticed the Premier League issued a statement today giving players and teams the opportunity to express themselves against racism without penalty so that was well done on their part. The NFL owes Kaepernick an apology imo before they should consider issuing any statements in regards to this at this time. I've been noticing a few white people have been forthcoming and acknowledging they need to educate themselves more, listen and do better. I think the NFL owners should follow suit.
-
Curious to see how FIFA will treat players who render individual protests in support of prosecuting the police officers.
If FIFA don't give the players the freedom in this instance it will be a very bad PR move and will show they're complicit. The NFL is looking very bad right now. Roger Godell posted a message and almost everyone viewed it as hypocrisy, FIFA should let the players express themselves.
Agreed! Of course within the leagues is where support or condemnation start ... but it would be to be seriously tone deaf for FIFA or its agents to frown "out loud".
Your comment on Goodell brought me to Joe Lockhart (Bill Clinton's press secretary). It's a roadmap of plantation slavery in professional sport - informed by the "benign" views and self-congratulation of an overseer.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/opinions/now-is-the-moment-to-sign-colin-kaepernick-lockhart/index.html
According to Lockhart:
"Though Kaepernick didn't get his job back, I thought we had all done a righteous job, considering.
I was wrong. I think the teams were wrong for not signing him. Watching what's going on in Minnesota, I understand how badly wrong we were."
I noticed the Premier League issued a statement today giving players and teams the opportunity to express themselves against racism without penalty so that was well done on their part. The NFL owes Kaepernick an apology imo before they should consider issuing any statements in regards to this at this time. I've been noticing a few white people have been forthcoming and acknowledging they need to educate themselves more, listen and do better. I think the NFL owners should follow suit.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZgTl1rXkAAim1n?format=jpg&name=small)
'H' for humans and humanity. Maybe the message will reach the Bundesliga.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11998952/george-floyd-death-fifa-tells-fas-to-use-common-sense-over-player-protests
-
Amy Klobuchar must think she's the Attorney-General of Minnesota. It's not her place to scoop Keith Ellison's announcement of whether the other officers are to be charged. I hope Biden steers clear of her naked self-promotion.
-
https://www.youtube.com/v/zPNSDOaxq4w
https://www.youtube.com/v/GngVb956YbE
https://www.youtube.com/v/A3LFvaAD2-Y
https://www.youtube.com/v/bm3zhgsqr8I
-
https://www.youtube.com/v/Zpe2zHk0m4s
https://www.youtube.com/v/R_3vZA3g4G8
https://www.youtube.com/v/wBQb2tX5fws
https://www.youtube.com/v/6tEYqfLnK08
-
https://www.youtube.com/v/WVEs81wea1o
https://www.youtube.com/v/bNp_JVaKun8
https://www.youtube.com/v/VhQ4f2KEBIA
https://www.youtube.com/v/-6Oo-U59oIY
-
https://www.youtube.com/v/zfeJTkJlKUc
https://www.youtube.com/v/UXyKB5uH0Nw
https://www.youtube.com/v/lwMNgbEl3io
https://www.youtube.com/v/S7DbU4NkjA0
-
https://www.youtube.com/v/tBx3kUL-fQs
https://www.youtube.com/v/5XS1yb39gNQ
-
https://www.youtube.com/v/0Q7SCTOSmt4
https://www.youtube.com/v/C00kS7A79UA
https://www.youtube.com/v/dXuQBeDs4mQ
https://www.youtube.com/v/a8tzX1bc9hk
-
Minority jail officers were barred from guarding ex-cop charged with George Floyd's murder: Complaint
BILL HUTCHINSON (ABC News
Eight Minnesota correctional officers of color have filed a discrimination complaint alleging they were barred from guarding the white former police officer charged with murdering George Floyd, a Black man.
The eight minority officers assigned to the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center in St. Paul complained to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights that the decision to segregate them and keep them away from fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, and the entire floor he was being housed on at the jail, was based solely on the color of their skin.
"I am not aware of a similar situation where white officers were segregated from an inmate," reads a statement in the complaint from a Black officer that was anonymously filed on Friday with the Department of Human Rights through his lawyer.
The employee called his superintendent's order "the most overtly discriminatory act that has occurred during my employment" and that it left some of his colleagues of color in tears and demoralized that their superiors thought they couldn't professionally carry out their duties because of their race.
"My fellow officers of color and I were, and continue to be, deeply humiliated, distressed, and negatively impacted by the segregation order," the officer wrote in the complaint. "The order and Ramsey County's failure to adequately address it have caused a hostile work environment for officers of color at Ramsey County Correctional Facility -- Adult Detention Unit."
Another minority officer, who described herself as Hispanic, said she and other officers of color were reassigned to the third floor of the jail once Chauvin was brought to the fifth floor of the facility, and that they were instructed to remain there even when an all-hands emergency response was called.
"When we arrived on the 3rd floor, we realized that the facility's employees of color were all on that floor, and that we had been segregated from the 5th floor," the Hispanic officer said in a statement contained in the complaint. "During the same afternoon, an 'A-Team Response' was called, which normally means there is an emergency and correctional officers are to drop what they are doing in order to assist the affected inmate and help transport the inmate to the 5th floor. Several officers of color responded to the call, but were prohibited from taking the inmate to the 5th floor due to the order to segregate."
Bonnie Smith, a Minneapolis attorney representing the eight officers, said during a news conference on Sunday outside the jail that her clients have chosen to remain anonymous for "fear of retaliation."
The incident occurred on May 29 when Chauvin was brought to the jail's fifth floor to be processed after he was initially arrested on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd's death. The murder charge against Chauvin was later upped to second-degree murder and he has since been moved to the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Oak Park Heights, where he is being held on $1.25 million bail. He has not yet entered a plea.
Chauvin was captured in a citizen cell-phone video on May 25 kneeling on the back of Floyd's neck as he lay in a prone position with his face to the pavement, calling out for his dead mother and repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" until he became unresponsive. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital, setting off protests and acts of violence in Minneapolis and in cities throughout the nation.
Three other Minneapolis police officers involved in the fatal encounter with Floyd have also been fired from the police department and criminally charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
Jail Superintendent Steve Lydon admitted issuing the order to keep minority officers from Chauvin after he was given 10 minutes notice by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that Chauvin would be arriving at the facility, according to a statement he gave investigators that was provided to ABC News on Sunday by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office.
"Recognizing that the murder of George Floyd was likely to create particularly acute racialized trauma, I felt I had an immediate duty to protect and support employees who may have been traumatized and may have heightened ongoing trauma by having to deal with Chauvin," Lydon's statement reads. "Out of care and concern, and without the comfort of time, I made the decision to limit exposure to employees of color to a murder suspect who could potentially aggravate those feelings."
The sheriff's office claims three minority officers were reassigned to different posts at the jail prior to Chauvin's arrival and that the order was only in effect for 45 minutes, according to a statement from the sheriff's office.
Lydon, in his statement to investigators, said he realized he'd made an error and reversed the order after staff members expressed concern.
"I then met with the individuals that were working at the time and explained to them what my thought process was at the time and assured them that the decision was made out of concern for them and was in no way related to a concern regarding their professionalism or Chauvin's safety," Lydon statement reads. "I realized that I had erred in judgment and issued an apology to the affected employees."
Asked if Lydon has been disciplined, Roy Magnuson, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher is reviewing the matter "to determine if any additional action is necessary."
Fletcher met with the complaining officers on June 4 and plans to hold an additional meeting with them following the investigation, Magnuson said.
Smith alleged that instead of immediately offering her clients a formal apology, the sheriff's department issued a false statement to the Reuters news agency over a week ago insisting there was no truth to the employees' claims of the segregation order.
"Superintendent Lydon's action created lack of trust and respect for minority officers," Smith said. "Ramsey County's segregation order caused immediate and long-lasting damage. It has made going to work difficult for the affected employees."
Smith said Lydon remains employed by Ramsey County "and in the same building as my clients, despite promises that he would be reassigned from the jail."
"To address the harm they've faced, these eight officers are asking for the removal of Superintendent Lydon and swift discipline of any other leadership who were involved or complicit in this action," Smith said.
She said the officers are also demanding a retraction of the statement the sheriff's office gave Reuters, that comprehensive in-person diversity and anti-bias training to instituted for all jail staff, and that a concrete plan be developed "to ensure that this discriminatory behavior never happens again at Ramsey County."
Smith said her clients are also asking for a formal apology from the sheriff's office and compensation for their emotional stress and lost earnings, adding that some of the officers have had to take time off or give up overtime and promotions due to their distress.
While a sheriff's office spokesperson said on Sunday a chief deputy with the agency is conducting a probe, Smith said none of her clients have yet to be interviewed for the investigation.
ABC News Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
(https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/GoPNOnL_.29JGI_OOZIY8g--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTM5Ni41NjI1/https://s.abcnews.com/images/International/chauvin-mugshot-flt-ht-rc-200531_hpMain_16x9_608.jpg)
PHOTO: Derek Chauvin was booked into the Hennepin County Jail after being transferred from the Ramsey County Jail. (Hennepin County Jail )
-
'Do you feel any remorse?': Officer charged in killing of George Floyd confronted while buying groceries in Minnesota
Richard Hall
The Independent
One of the four officers charged in the killing of George Floyd was confronted by a shopper while buying groceries on Saturday in Minnesota.
J. Alexander Keung, 26, was released from Hennepin County Jail on Friday night on a $750,000 bond. He was approached by a woman while shopping at a Cub Foods grocery store the next day.
“So you’re out of prison and you’re comfortably shopping in Cub Foods. As if you didn’t do anything,” said the woman who confronted him and filmed the incident.
“Did you think that people weren’t going to recognise you?” she added. “You killed somebody in cold blood. You don’t have the right to be here.”
Keung responds: “I understand. I’ll get my stuff paid for.”
To which the woman replies: “No we don’t want you to get your stuff, we want you to be locked up.”
Keung is facing charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder for his part in Mr Floyd’s death. According to court documents, Keung helped to hold Mr Floyd down on the ground during an attempted arrest over the alleged use of a counterfeit $20 bill.
During the fatal incident, another officer, Derek Chauvin, held his knee on Floyd’s neck despite constant pleas that he couldn’t breathe.
“Do you feel any remorse for what you did?” she asks him.
The video was posted to Twitter by a user named Josiah, who wrote: "look who my sister caught at Cub Foods in Plymouth. J. Alexander Keung, one of the officers who lynched #GeorgeFloyd in cold blood."
It has since been shared tens of thousands of times.
Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck, is facing charges of second-degree murder. Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and Kueng were charged with aiding and abetting murder earlier this month. All of the officers were fired from their jobs.
The killing of Mr Floyd on 25 May sparked global protests against police brutality and racial injustice that continue to this day.
(https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/QhkBwN2D5t_mrM1kVYpzNQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNQ--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_independent_635/480babe29554201cb92494feeed0448c)
-
Backlash to Asian American wife in Floyd case reveals disturbing truth
Kimmy Yam
NBC News
As more details around the death of George Floyd are revealed, other developments, including that the ex-officer charged with murder in the case was married to a Hmong American woman, have prompted discussion. It's also led to a spate of hateful online remarks in the Asian American community around interracial relationships.
The ex-officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired the day after Floyd's death and now faces murder and manslaughter charges. The day after his arrest last month, his wife, Kellie, filed for divorce, citing "an irretrievable breakdown" in the marriage. She also indicated her intention to change her name.
The Chauvins’ interracial marriage has stirred up strong feelings toward Kellie Chauvin among many, including Asian American men, over her relationship with a white man, including accusations of self-loathing and complicity with white supremacy.
Some on the internet have labeled her a “self-hating Asian.” Others have concluded her marriage was a tool to gain social standing in the U.S., and several social media users on Asian American message boards dominated by men have dubbed her a “Lu,” a slang term often used to describe Asian women who are in relationships with white men as a form of white worship.
Many experts feel the reaction is symptomatic of attitudes that many in the community, especially certain men, have held toward women in interracial relationships, particularly with white men. It’s the unfortunate result of a complicated, layered web spun from the historical emasculation of Asian men, fetishization of Asian women and the collision of sexism and racism in the U.S.
Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the nonprofit National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, told NBC Asian America that by passing judgment on Asian women's interracial relationships without context or details essentially removes their independence.
“The assumption is that an Asian woman who is married to a white man, she's living some sort of stereotype of a submissive Asian woman, who’s internalizing racism and wanting to be white or being closer to white or whatever,” she said.
That belief, Choimorrow added, “just goes with the whole idea that somehow we don't have a right to live our lives the way we want to.”
Little about the Chauvins’ marriage has been revealed to the public. Kellie, who came to the U.S. as a refugee, mentioned a few details in a 2018 interview with The Twin Cities Pioneer Press before becoming United States Of America's Mrs. Minnesota. She explained she had previously been in an arranged marriage in which she endured domestic abuse. She met Chauvin while she was working in the emergency room of Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
Kellie Chauvin is hardly the only Asian woman who has been the target of these comments. In 2018, “Fresh Off the Boat” actress Constance Wu opened up about the anger she received from Asian men — specifically “MRAsians,” an Asian American play on the term “men’s rights activists" — for having dated a white man. Wu, who also starred in the culturally influential Asian American rom-com “Crazy Rich Asians,” was included in a widely circulated meme that, in part, attacked the female cast members for relationships with white men.
Experts pointed out that the underlying rhetoric isn’t confined to message boards or solely the darker corners of the internet. It’s rife throughout Asian American communities, and Asian women have long endured judgment and harassment for their relationship choices. Choimorrow notes it’s become a sort of "locker room talk" among many men in the racial group.
"It's not [just] incel, Reddit conversations,” Choimorrow said. “I'm hearing this amongst people daily.”
But sociologist Nancy Wang Yuen, a scholar focused on Asian American media representation, pointed out that the origins of such anger have some validity. The roots lie in the emasculation of Asian American men, a practice whose history dates back to the 1800s and early 1900s in what is referred to today as the “bachelor society,” Yuen said. That time period marked some of the first waves of immigration from Asia to the U.S. as Chinese workers were recruited to build the transcontinental railroad. One of the preliminary immigrant groups of Filipinos, dubbed the “manong generation,” also arrived in the country a few decades later.
While Asian men made their way stateside, women largely remained in Asia. Yuen noted that simultaneously, limits on Asian female immigration were instituted via the Page Act of 1875, which banned the importation of women “for the purpose of prostitution.” According to research published in The Modern American, the legislation may have been meant to cut off prostitution, but it was often weaponized to keep any Asian woman from entering the country, as it granted immigration officers the authority to determine whether a woman was of “high moral character.”
Moreover, antimiscegenation laws, or bans on interracial unions, kept Asian men from marrying other races, Yuen noted. It wasn’t until the 1967 case, Loving v. Virginia, that such legislation was declared unconstitutional.
“Americans thought of [Asian men] as emasculated,” she said. “They’re not perceived as virile because there’s no women. Because of immigration laws, there was a whole bachelor society … and so you have all these different kinds of Asian men in the United States who did not have partners.”
As the image of Asian men was once, in part, the architecture of racist legislation, the sexless, undesirable trope was further confirmed by Hollywood depictions of the race. Even heartthrob Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa, who did experience appeal from white women, was used to show Asian men as sexual threats during a period of rising anti-Japanese sentiment.
Often, these portrayals of both men and women evolved with war, Yuen added. For example, the sexualization of Asian women on screen was heightened after the Vietnam War due to prostitution and sex trafficking that American military men often took part in. Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 film “Full Metal Jacket” infamously perpetuates the stereotype of women as sexual deviants with a scene featuring a Vietnamese sex worker exclaiming, “Me so horny.”
Asian women were seen as "the spoils of war and Asian men were seen as threats,” she said. “So always seeing them as either an enemy to be conquered or an enemy to be feared, all that has to do with the stereotypes of Asian men and women.”
Yuen is quick to point out that Asian women, who possessed very little decision-making power throughout U.S. history, were neither behind the legislation nor the narratives in the American entertainment industry.
The historical emasculation of Asian men stings to this day. A study from OkCupid found that Asian men were ranked least desirable among all demographics. Another study found that the majority of its Asian American female respondents reported their attraction, from a young age, was overwhelmingly to European American boys.
Pawan Dhingra, a sociologist and a professor of American studies at Amherst College, said this is in part due to the fact that Asian American women were not only consumers of Western media that perpetuated such stereotypes about Asian men while romanticizing the sensitive, “masculine” white man, they also internalized some cultural baggage from the often-patriarchal societies of their heritages.
“It comes from a set of assumptions we internalize ourselves. We see immigrant parents, or relationships between men and women in the homeland, that might be more traditional gender roles,” Dhingra said. “We assume that it applies to all people of our background, even no matter where they grew up.”
However, directing anger toward Asian women for their interracial relationships uncovers a host of problematic underlying beliefs, experts said. Some of the vitriol stems from erroneous assumptions that because women are seen as more sexually desirable, they are therefore more privileged. Anthony Ocampo — a sociologist who focuses on race, immigration and LGBTQ issues — bluntly referred to that particular argument as “unbelievably stupid.”
“Privilege is the ability to navigate the social world and experience social mobility without your identity hampering your journey. In what world do you see Asian women getting frontrunners for public office, being tapped to be CEOs of companies, to be considered for leads in Hollywood movies?” the scholar said. “Sure, Asian men aren't being tapped for these opportunities either, but Asian women aren't the problem — white gatekeepers are.”
Moreover, Choimorrow said the idea that Asian women are more privileged ignores the dangerous byproducts of their fetishization. This includes not only the dehumanization of these women, but also the susceptibility to harassment and violence due to the submissive stereotype.
From "21 to 55 percent of Asian women in the U.S. report experiencing intimate physical and/or sexual violence during their lifetime," the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence reported. The range is based on a compilation of studies of disaggregated samples of Asian ethnicities in local communities. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center reported that about 1 in 5 women in the U.S. overall have experienced completed or attempted rape during her lifetime.
“I just hate this whole Olympics of the oppressed,” Choimorrow said. “I just think it’s such a short-sighted approach. Dude, you don't walk out every day worrying about your physical safety. For women, that’s exactly what we worry about when we walk out our door.”
Yuen echoed her thoughts, adding, “Just because Asian women don't share the same kinds of challenges as Asian men doesn't mean that they should be held to a different standard or at their struggle within the racial sexual politics of the United States. It isn’t any less valid.”
Dhingra also acknowledged that there lies a double standard when it comes to Asian women, leading the group to be judged more harshly than their male peers. He explained that it comes down to a uniquely racialized brand of sexism. Being in relationships with other Asian Americans has been seen as a sort of litmus test for how “committed” one is to the race. Additionally, because of the existing stereotype of Asian women as submissive, particularly to white men, the sight of an Asian woman in an interracial relationship can trigger the idea that she is perpetuating existing stereotypes. He explained that there’s a perception that Asian women are reproducing racism toward Asian men and affirming the idea that they’re not worth dating.
He said the collision of sexism and racism has made it so that there’s a stricter, more unfair dynamic placed on Asian American women.
The burden placed on Asian American women to date within their own race also presents another problematic idea: that women are still thought of as property, Choimorrow noted. It’s just another form of toxic masculinity, she said, as the expectation that Asian women date Asian men means there is no agency in their dating choices. It’s a mentality that has been inherited through our heritages, she said.
“Even in Korea, as a woman, your value isn't so much as you are marriageable,” she said. “So many of our cultures have these things very deeply ingrained in the way we value and think about women.”
Little has changed, Choimorrow believes. Even as many Asian Americans continue to fight for racial justice, some ideas have been slow to evolve.
“Especially in the progressive circles, they're focused on their oppression as a racial minority, that they often don't think about what they're perpetuating as men,” she said.
The undue pressure toward Asian American women to “fix” the existing structures is not productive in helping mend the reductive perceptions of Asian men, Ocampo said.
Simply put, “You don't need to subjugate women, including Asian women, to feel sexy. That's just f------ lame.”
Dhingra is adamant that no assumptions should be made about any couple’s racial dynamic, particularly if there’s no personal connection to the couple. But he also emphasized that people need to push back on the perpetuation of the problematic ideas in society that devalue Asian Americans while upholding whiteness.
Ocampo had similar thoughts, explaining that more people should be demanding more complicated Asian male characters on screen, rather than those who fit “some perfectly chiseled IG model aesthetic,” he said, referencing carefully curated photos from models on Instagram.
While there are many social reasons for why we value whiteness that Dhingra said are “pretty messed up,” Asian Americans should seek to dismantle them and thus “get to the point where we have more confidence when people do form interracial relationships, because we actually care about that particular individual as a person.”
(https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/L6Vfae8mID7Vh4Ub1ZzOdQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTY3NS41NDIyNTM1MjExMjY4/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/KmMgUSABgZVh0GbBLCUDtQ--~B/aD0yMDQxO3c9MjEzMDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--/https://media.zenfs.com/en-US/nbc_news_122/6792c747554b7ac9fa4c6e1b1d90b607)
Kellie Chauvin in 2018 when she was vying for the title of Mrs. Minnesota America. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press via AP file)
-
Welcome to the club
-
Cue the band again. No one is a sub; everyone is a player.
Big up to Bob Costas for speaking unequivocally about race, politics, sport and willful ignorance.
"2020" x "7 in the back".
-
Officer charged in George Floyd's death argues drug overdose killed him, not knee on neck
BILL HUTCHINSON (ABCNEWS)
A defense attorney for the fired Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in connection with the death of George Floyd is asking a judge to drop all charges, arguing the 46-year-old man's death was allegedly from a drug overdose and not caused by the officer planting his knee in the back of Floyd's neck.
Defense attorney Eric J. Nelson filed the motion in Hennepin County, Minnesota, District Court on Friday, claiming prosecutors have failed to show probable cause for charging Derek Chauvin with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Nelson contends Chauvin acted on his training from the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) in the use of a "Maximal Restraint Technique" and did so out of concern that Floyd might harm himself or the officers struggling to arrest him.
The Minneapolis Police Department policy on "Maximal Restraint Technique" says it "shall only be used in situations where handcuffed subjects are combative and still pose a threat to themselves, officers or others, or could cause significant damage to property if not properly restrained."
MORE: Newly released video show onlookers' reaction to George Floyd's death
Nelson also included Minneapolis Police Department training materials on the proper use of the "Maximal Restraint Technique," in which photos show demonstrations of officers simulating putting their knee on a handcuffed subject's neck. Nelson argued the training material appeared to contradict a statement made shortly after the incident by Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo that he had not seen "anything that says you place your knee on someone's neck when they're facedown, handcuffed."
"Thus, any risk created by Mr. Chauvin's conduct lies largely with those who train MPD officers and those who approve such training," Nelson wrote in the motion filed on Friday.
Nelson also cited the autopsy conducted on Floyd that found fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, a combination of drugs Nelson says is known as a speedball. He noted that the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's post-mortem report showed Floyd had arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease, hypertension and sickle cell trait. Floyd also purportedly told the officers that he had contracted COVID-19 and was still positive for the virus at the time of his death, a claim confirmed by his autopsy.
"Put simply, Mr. Floyd could not breathe because he had ingested a lethal dose of fentanyl and, possibly, a speedball. Combined with sickle cell trait, his pre-existing heart conditions, Mr. Floyd's use of fentanyl and methamphetamine most likely killed him," Nelson argued. "Adding fentanyl and methamphetamine to Mr. Floyd's existing health issues was tantamount to lighting a fuse on a bomb."
Nelson added a footnote quoting Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker saying, "If [Mr. Floyd] were found dead at home alone and no other apparent causes, this could be acceptable to call an OD."
A Sept. 11 court hearing before Judge Peter Cahill has been scheduled on the motion filed by Nelson.
The attorney for Floyd's family, Benjamin Crump, did not respond to an ABC News request for comment on the motions. Previously, Crump stated regarding the drugs in Floyd's system, "The cause of death was that he was starving for air. It was lack of oxygen. And so everything else is a red herring to try to throw us off."
An independent autopsy ordered by Floyd's family found his death was a "homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain."
A viral cellphone video of Floyd's fatal arrest on May 25 showed Chauvin with his knee on the back of Floyd's neck while he was handcuffed and prone on the ground next to a police patrol vehicle. Two other officers, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, are seen in the footage helping Chauvin restrain Floyd, whom they initially confronted when they responded to a 911 complaint that Floyd had allegedly used a phony $20 bill to purchase cigarettes at the Cup Foods store in Minneapolis.
The footage of Floyd's arrest showed him repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" and calling out for his dead mother before his body went listless. Floyd was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Floyd's death sparked nationwide outcry and massive protests across the U.S. and around the world against racial injustice. The episode, the latest in a string of police killings of unarmed Black people in the United States, has become a rallying cry against police brutality and part of a call to defund law enforcement agencies.
Lane, Kueng and Officer Tou Thao, who arrived at the scene with Chauvin when back-up was requested, have all been terminated from the Minneapolis Police Department and charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder in the death of Floyd.
Lane, Kueng, and Thao have not yet entered pleas -- in court documents, attorneys for Thao and Kueng said their clients intend to plead not guilty to the charges.
Attorneys for Lane, Kueng and Thao have also asked that charges against them be dropped. Cahill has yet to render a decision on those motions.
Prosecutors in the case filed a notice on Friday saying they intend to seek an "upward sentencing departure" from state judicial guidelines if the defendants are found guilty at trial, tentatively scheduled for March 2021.
"Mr. Floyd was treated with particular cruelty," prosecutors wrote in their notice. "Despite Mr. Floyd's pleas that he could not breathe and was going to die, as well as the pleas of eyewitnesses to get off Mr. Floyd and help him, Defendant and his co-defendants continued to restrain Mr. Floyd."
But Nelson argued in court papers that Chauvin and the other officers were trying to protect Floyd, who he alleged was acting erratically and resisting arrest, from injuring himself by "falling and hitting his head on the sidewalk, being struck by an oncoming vehicle, or in his struggles, injuring himself against the squad car."
"Mr. Chauvin demonstrated a concern for Mr. Floyd's well-being -- not an intent to inflict harm," Nelson wrote in the motion.
He said Chauvin was "clearly being cautious about the amount of pressure he used to restrain Mr. Floyd" and pointed out that in the video Floyd was able to raise his head several times while he was prone on the ground.
"If Mr. Chauvin's knee had been on the structure of Mr. Floyd's neck, he would not have been able to lift his head," Nelson wrote.
He also claimed that as the officers were restraining Floyd they requested a "code 3" response from emergency medical services requiring an ambulance responding to the scene to use lights and sirens, and that the officers together decided against the using a hobble restraint device on Floyd "which would have significantly delayed the transfer of Mr. Floyd into the ambulance and also have required an MPD sergeant to respond to the scene."
Nelson again cited the autopsy report that found no bruising or evidence of trauma on the back of Floyd's neck, his neck muscles or his back.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office ruled Floyd's death a homicide, finding he perished as the result of "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression."
Floyd's death has been roundly condemned by law enforcement, politicians and protesters nationwide and has been held up as an exhibit of excessive use of force by police.
Just days after the incident, President Donald Trump expressed the "nation's deepest condolences and most heartfelt sympathies to the family of George Floyd."
"Terrible, terrible thing that happened," Trump said on May 29, adding that he had asked the U.S. Department of Justice to expedite a federal investigation into the death. "We all saw what we saw and it's very hard to even conceive of anything other than what we did see. It should never happen. It should never be allowed to happen, a thing like that. But we're determined that justice be served."
(https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/l8M4858yXNqay0sYIX5Qyg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/us.abcnews.go.com/6959d74f9a33cbd0cf590d1352dbff23)
PHOTO: In an image made from video posted to Facebook, a Minneapolis police officer kneels on the neck of a man identified by a family attorney as George Floyd, May 25, 2020. Floyd died shortly after the incident. (Darnella Frazier via Storyful)
-
'Don't Kill Me': Others Tell of Abuse by Officer Who Knelt on George Floyd
Jamiles Lartey and Abbie VanSickle
NY Times
Nearly three years before Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd as he cried out that he couldn’t breathe last May, Zoya Code found herself in a similar position: handcuffed facedown on the ground, with Chauvin’s knee on her.
The officer had answered a call of a domestic dispute at her home, and Code said he forced her down when she tried to pull away.
“He just stayed on my neck,” Code said, ignoring her desperate pleas to get off. Frustrated and upset, she challenged him to press harder. “Then he did. Just to shut me up,” she said.
Last week, a judge in Minnesota ruled that prosecutors could present the details of her 2017 arrest in their case against the former officer, who was charged with second-degree unintentional murder in Floyd’s death.
Code’s case was one of six arrests as far back as 2015 that the Minnesota attorney general’s office sought to introduce, arguing that they showed how Chauvin was using excessive force when he restrained people — by their necks or by kneeling on top of them — just as he did in arresting Floyd. Police records show that Chauvin was never formally reprimanded for any of these incidents, even though at least two of those arrested said they had filed formal complaints.
Of the six people arrested, two were Black, one was Latino and one was Native American. The race of two others was not included in the arrest reports that reporters examined.
Discussing the encounters publicly for the first time in interviews with The Marshall Project, three people who were arrested by Chauvin and a witness in a fourth incident described him as an unusually rough officer who was quick to use force and callous about their pain.
The interviews provide new insight into the history of a police officer whose handling of Floyd’s arrest, captured on video, was seen around the world and sparked months of protests in dozens of cities.
Chauvin, who was fired, has said through his attorney that his handling of Floyd’s arrest was a reasonable use of authorized force. But he was the subject of at least 22 complaints or internal investigations during his more than 19 years at the department, only one of which resulted in discipline. These new interviews show not only that he may have used excessive force in the past, but that he had used startlingly similar techniques.
All four people who told of their encounters with Chauvin had a history of run-ins with law enforcement, mostly for traffic and nonviolent offenses.
Code’s arrest occurred June 25, 2017. In a court filing, Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric J. Nelson, said the officer acted properly in the case, responding to “a violent crime in a volatile situation.” He said that “there was nothing unreasonable or unauthorized about Mr. Chauvin’s actions.”
Code’s mother had accused her of trying to choke her with an extension cord, according to the arrest report. Code said in an interview that her mother was swinging the cord around, and that she merely grabbed hold of it.
She said she had left the house to cool off after the fight and when she returned, Chauvin and his partner had arrived. In the prosecutors’ description, based on Chauvin’s report and body-camera video, Chauvin told Code she was under arrest and grabbed her arm. When she pulled away, he pulled her to the ground face first and knelt on her. The two officers then picked her up and carried her outside the house, facedown.
There, prosecutors said, Chauvin knelt on the back of the handcuffed woman “even though she was offering no physical resistance at all.”
Code, in an interview, said she began pleading: “Don’t kill me.”
At that point, according to the prosecutors’ account, Chauvin told his partner to restrain Code’s ankles as well, though she “was not being physically aggressive.”
As he tied her, she said, she told the other officer, “You’re learning from an animal. That man — that’s evilness right there.”
Misdemeanor domestic assault and disorderly conduct charges filed against Code were ultimately dropped.
‘You’re Choking Me’
The earliest incident in which prosecutors said Chauvin used excessive force took place Feb. 15, 2015, when he arrested Julian Hernandez — a carpenter who was on a road trip to Minneapolis to see a band at the El Nuevo Rodeo nightclub. Chauvin worked as an off-duty security officer there for almost 17 years.
The arrest report filed by Chauvin said Hernandez tried to leave the club through the wrong door, and Chauvin stopped him and escorted him down a stairwell. Hernandez said in an interview that he had been drinking, but felt like Chauvin was pushing him down the stairs.
Outside, Hernandez said, “things escalated.”
Chauvin’s report said that Hernandez tried to turn around as he was preparing to handcuff him, so he pushed him away “by applying pressure toward his lingual artery” at the top of the neck.
Hernandez said the officer told him “you just need to leave,” and he remembered thinking that he was trying to leave but was not being allowed to do so. As Chauvin pushed him into a wall and grabbed him by the throat, Hernandez recalled thinking, “You’re choking me.”
Hernandez said he tried to sue the department, but no lawyer would take his case. He was charged with disorderly conduct, but under a court agreement he avoided punishment by staying out of trouble for a year, records show.
Nelson, the officer’s lawyer, said in a court filing that there was no evidence that Chauvin acted improperly in “dealing with a resistant, aggressive arrestee by himself.”
Under the judge’s order, only Code’s arrest, among the six cases showing what may have been excessive force, can be used at Chauvin’s trial. Prosecutors also sought to include two additional cases they said showed just the opposite — that Chauvin knew how to use reasonable force to properly restrain a person.
The judge’s order will allow them to use one of those cases: an incident in which the police department commended Chauvin and other officers for taking lifesaving steps in placing a restrained, suicidal man on his side so he could breathe. Chauvin even rode with the man to the hospital, according to prosecutors.
According to the attorney general’s office, the arrest showed that he knew how important it was to avoid breathing problems in detainees. When he did not put Floyd in a similar side position, prosecutors contend, he understood that it could jeopardize his life.
Chauvin’s lawyer objected to any of the previous arrests being admitted at his trial, which is set to begin in March. He argued that Chauvin’s actions “were not crimes,” but rather part of Chauvin’s job as an officer, and that a police supervisor at each arrest scene reviewed his use of force and concluded that it comported with department standards.
The Minneapolis Police Department did not respond to queries about past complaints against Chauvin. Critics say the department has a long history of accusations of abuse, but never fully put in place federal recommendations to implement a better system of tracking complaints and punishing officers. Only a handful over the years have faced firing or serious punishment.
‘I Can’t Breathe,’ the Man Said
In another case prosecutors highlighted to try to establish a pattern of excessive force, a man said he landed in the hospital overnight after an encounter with Chauvin. The man, Jimmy Bostic, had made a purchase at the Midtown Global Market in April 2016 and was waiting for a ride when private security guards asked him to leave. A different shop owner had accused him of panhandling, the arrest report said. Bostic argued, and Chauvin was called in.
Chauvin escorted Bostic outside, writing in the arrest report that Bostic had threatened to spit on the owner.
“I closed distance with” Bostic, Chauvin wrote, “and secured his neck/head area with my hands.”
Bostic said in an interview that as Chauvin and the private security guards attempted to put him in cuffs, he yanked his arm back.
“The next thing I felt was arms just wrapped around my neck,” he said. “I started telling him, ‘Let go, I’m having trouble breathing. I have asthma. I can’t breathe.’”
Chauvin’s lawyer, in a court filing, said the officer “acted reasonably” and followed police policy in restraining Bostic, who he said was refusing orders and making threats.
After he was released from police custody at the scene, Bostic said, emergency medical workers took him to a hospital. Suffering from an asthma attack, he said, he stayed for over a day. A disorderly conduct charge against him was ultimately dropped.
“Looking back on Mr. Floyd, that could have been me,” said Bostic, who is now in state prison on an unrelated burglary conviction. “And I would no longer be alive right now to even tell my story.”
Monroe Skinaway, a 74-year-old Minneapolis resident, was a chance witness to another incident prosecutors cited that occurred in March 2019. He said in an interview that he had called the police after he spotted his grandson’s stolen car parked at a South Minneapolis gas station.
As he answered police questions about the car, Skinaway said, he saw a young man wandering nearby, asking officers to give him a ride. Skinaway said the man seemed “off.”
The man, named in the arrest report as Sir Rilee Peet, 26, followed one officer to his squad car. After Peet refused to take his hands out of his pockets, the officer tried to grab him, and they scuffled, the police report said.
That is when the other officer, identified in the report as Chauvin, sprayed Peet with Mace. Chauvin restrained him by the neck and pinned him facedown on the ground by kneeling on his lower back, according to the prosecutors’ description of body-camera video.
Skinaway said he remembers seeing the officer on top of Peet, but also something not mentioned in Chauvin’s account in the arrest report. Skinaway said the officer put Peet’s head, facedown, in a rain puddle. Other officers were present as well, he said.
“He said, ‘I can’t breathe — can I just put my head up?’” Skinaway said. “And they just held his face in the water, and I couldn’t see a purpose for that.”
Skinaway said he was about 7 feet away as he watched Peet struggle for air, bubbles surfacing as he tried to breathe. He estimated that the officer kept Peet in the puddle for two to three minutes. Whenever Peet managed to turn his head for air, Skinaway said, the officer grabbed him by his long hair and put his head back in the water.
When he spoke by phone with a reporter, Skinaway said he did not know the officer’s name or that there was a connection with the Floyd case, but the details he described match those noted in the police report and prosecutors’ account.
Chauvin’s lawyer, Nelson, said in a court filing that the officer had acted according to police policy. “It was after midnight in South Minneapolis, and a man who refused to remove his hands from his pockets repeatedly approached the officers after being told not to,” he said. The filing said Peet’s actions had created concern for the officers’ safety.
Peet was charged with misdemeanor obstruction of the legal process and disorderly conduct, but it is unclear from court records what happened to the charges. The records show Peet has a history of court-ordered treatment for mental illness. In a phone call, Peet told a reporter that he did not recall the encounter.
Some of those whom Chauvin arrested said that learning the same officer had been involved in Floyd’s death made them regret they had not pushed harder to hold the officer and the department accountable.
“I don’t have nothing against cops, I got relatives that are cops,” said Hernandez, the carpenter arrested at the nightclub. “But he should have never been on the force that long.”
-
Minority officers were barred from guarding Derek Chauvin in jail, lawsuit alleges
By Minyvonne Burke
NBC NEWS
Eight minority correctional officers at a Minnesota county jail filed a racial discrimination lawsuit claiming they were barred from guarding the former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death.
The suit, filed Tuesday in state district court, alleges that a superintendent at the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center, or ADC, in St. Paul reassigned officers of color to another floor when the former officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested on murder charges in May.
The suit says the officers — who identify as African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander and mixed-race — were "segregated and prevented from doing their jobs by defendant solely because of the color of their skin."
The officers also claim that Chauvin received special treatment from a white lieutenant.
"When Officer Chauvin arrived, they were prepared to do the jobs they had done every single day up to that point, until, that is, Superintendent Lydon's order prevented them from doing so," the officers' attorney, Lucas Kaster, said at a news conference Tuesday, referring to jail Supt. Steve Lydon.
"The impact on our clients has been immense. They're deeply humiliated and distressed, and the bonds necessary within the high-stress and high-pressure environment of the ADC have been broken," he said.
Chauvin was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter four days after video recorded on May 25 showed him kneeling on Floyd's neck for about nine minutes as Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe.
The lawsuit says the correctional officers were performing their regular duties at the jail when they were informed that they would be reassigned because of Chauvin's arrival.
The suit claims that Lydon ordered that all minority officers were not allowed to guard Chauvin or interact with him or to even be on the fifth floor, where Chauvin was held.
The officers were "extremely upset and offended," the lawsuit says.
One of the plaintiffs, Devin Sullivan, regularly processes and books high-profile inmates. The suit alleges that he was in the middle of patting down Chauvin when Lydon told him to stop and replaced him with a white officer.
The suit also says two other officers saw on security cameras that a white lieutenant "was granted special access" to Chauvin. The lieutenant was allowed access to Chauvin's cell unit, sat on his bed, patted his back "while appearing to comfort him" and let Chauvin use a cellphone.
Several of the minority officers asked to speak with Lydon, who "denied he was racist and defended his decision."
The Ramsey County Sheriff's Office did not return a request for comment Tuesday, and Lydon could not be reached at numbers listed for him.
In June, the plaintiffs filed discrimination charges with the state Department of Human Rights. Kaster told the Star Tribune newspaper of Minneapolis that the case never gained traction, so attorneys requested that it be closed so they could pursue legal action.
Kaster said at Tuesday's news conference that his clients sued to hold Lydon and Ramsey County "responsible for the discrimination that occurred under their watch."
According to the Star Tribune, a spokesman for the sheriff's office initially denied the officers' claims but later acknowledged Lydon's order and said Lydon had been temporarily demoted while the department conducted an internal investigation. The outcome of the investigation was not clear.
In a statement that he gave during the investigation and that the sheriff's office provided to the Star Tribune, Lydon said he was trying to "protect and support" minority employees by shielding them from Chauvin.
Kaster said Tuesday that Lydon's explanation was never given to his clients and that it was provided only after the fact.
-
AG Barr quashed plea deal by fired officer in George Floyd death
Pete Williams and Janelle Griffith
NBC NEWS
The fired Minneapolis police officer who held his knee to George Floyd's neck agreed to plead guilty to third-degree murder days after Floyd's death, but then-Attorney General William Barr rejected the deal.
Derek Chauvin and the three other officers involved were fired days after Floyd's death on May 25 and later arrested. Chauvin faces second-degree murder charges and is scheduled for trial in March. The other three are charged with aiding and abetting and are to be tried together in the summer.
The details of the failed deal were first reported by The New York Times.
A former Justice Department official confirmed the failed deal to NBC News, saying that both politically appointed and career Department of Justice officials had rejected the idea.
"His lawyers were trying to rush us, and we didn't want to be rushed," the official said.
Chauvin's lawyer, Eric Nelson, declined to comment Thursday.
A spokesperson for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is leading the prosecution, said he could not comment because it covers a period before Ellison was assigned to the case.
Lacey Severins, a spokeswoman for the Hennepin County attorney's office, which was handling the case at the time, said: "As is typical in many cases, early negotiations can occur between all relevant parties involved. Many times, a defendant will explore their options with a negotiation. It is also common for these types of discussions to happen in the beginning of a case and then have no agreed upon negotiations develop. This case was no different. Negotiations were discussed, nothing developed."
Floyd's death sparked nationwide protests and renewed calls for an end to police brutality and racial inequities.
"As part of the deal, officials now say, he was willing to go to prison for more than 10 years," the Times reported. "Local officials, scrambling to end the community's swelling anger, scheduled a news conference to announce the deal."
But the deal fell apart, the Times reported, citing three law enforcement officials, because Barr worried that it was too early in the investigation and would be perceived as too lenient. Barr also wanted to allow state officials taking over the case time to make their own decisions, the Times reported.
Chauvin had asked to serve his time in a federal prison, and the deal was contingent on the federal government's approval because Chauvin wanted assurance he would not face federal civil rights charges, the Times reported.
It would be highly unusual for the Justice Department to agree in advance to stop a civil rights investigation and forgo any possible federal prosecution before state proceedings have fully played out.
The incident involving Floyd was recorded by a bystander and widely shared on social media. Police were investigating whether he used a counterfeit $20 bill at a nearby store.
The video shows Floyd begging, "Please, please, please, I can't breathe. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Please, please. I can't breathe," before he went silent.
-
Minneapolis scraps plans to pay social media influencers to spread information during Chauvin trial
CATHERINE THORBECKE
ABC NEWS
Minneapolis has scrapped plans to pay social media influencers to share information during the upcoming trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd.
In an email sent to city elected officials and obtained by ABC News, Minneapolis' Director of Communications Greta Bergstrom and Director of Neighborhood and Community Relations David Rubedor confirmed plans to cancel the initiative.
"We would like to take a moment to address the recommendation to use social media 'influencers' as part of the Joint Information System information sharing strategies," the email stated. The initiative, according to the email, came about because "we have heard repeatedly that many residents are not connected to the city's traditional routes of sharing information."
"While we believe in and support the intention of this recommendation, we have seen the impact has caused harm. We are sorry and acknowledge that we will have to work to repair the harm that has been caused," the email added. "At this point, we will NOT move forward with this strategy."
The initial plans were for Minneapolis to have paid partnerships with "community members who are considered trusted messengers and have large social media presence to share City generated and approved messages," according to the city's website.
The proposal was first reported by the local outlet the Minnesota Reformer last Friday, which stated that the budget for this project was $12,000, with $2,000 paid to each influencer to share information during the trials, citing a city spokeswoman.
The embattled plans immediately courted controversy from many residents of Minneapolis, who questioned the move and the city's motives.
“If you go through lengths and measures to buy a narrative, what does that say about the leadership and trust that has been eroded in the past few years?” Toussaint Morrison, a community activist in Minneapolis, told ABC Minneapolis affiliate KTSP-TV.
"You buy people to tell you that your emotions aren't valid, or that you should stay home and not protest, or that certain things are more important than justice," Morrison added. "So I really feel that them trying to buy the narrative from social media influencers is really disappointing."
The trial of Chauvin, which is set to begin on March 8 with jury selection, looms large over Minneapolis.
The white police officer, who pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for almost eight minutes in a video that horrified the nation -- as well as galvanized communities across the country to demand change -- faces second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
Minneapolis scraps plans to pay social media influencers to spread information during Chauvin trial originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
-
Prosecutors: Officer was on Floyd's neck for about 9 minutes
AMY FORLITI
Yahoo News
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As the trial approaches for a white Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, prosecutors are putting the time Derek Chauvin’s knee was on the Black man's neck at about nine minutes.
The time has fluctuated before. It was recorded as 8 minutes, 46 seconds in an initial criminal complaint — a figure that became symbolic to many in the weeks after Floyd’s death — before a math error was corrected to make it 7:46. But filings since then, citing time-stamped police body-camera video, now make it at least nine minutes.
The fact that the figure has evolved probably won't matter at Chauvin’s trial, which begins Monday with jury selection. One former prosecutor says it’s common for such details to be fine-tuned as prosecutors build a case. A support group for victims of police violence says the discrepancies won't have any impact.
“He was obviously on there enough time to think about what he was doing. He heard the man pleading that he couldn’t breathe,” said Toshira Garraway, founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence. “If it was two minutes or if it was five minutes or if it was 10 minutes, he was fully aware … Once he said, ‘I cannot breathe’ … he was supposed to remove his knee.”
Floyd died May 25. He had been handcuffed and was pleading that he couldn't breathe, but Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck even after he stopped moving and speaking.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other officers — Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao — are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter and are scheduled for trial in August.
The narrative in the initial complaint filed May 29 by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office says Chauvin held his knee to Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds. But the time stamps cited in that charging document indicate it was actually 7 minutes, 46 seconds.
The Associated Press began asking about the error the day after the initial charges were filed, but prosecutors repeatedly declined to address it. The 8:46 detail was repeated in an amended complaint filed days later by the Attorney General’s Office.
In the weeks that followed Floyd’s death, some demonstrators staged “die-ins” that lasted 8 minutes, 46 seconds, some lawmakers knelt for that amount of time in the U.S. Senate, and mourners at a memorial service for Floyd stood in silence for 8:46 to reflect on the final moments of his life.
In mid-June, prosecutors acknowledged the one-minute error, but said it would have no impact on the case.
Documents filed by prosecutors in September and October changed the timing yet again. These documents contain the most detailed picture of what happened, citing time stamps from Lane, Keung and Thao's body camera videos.
The documents don’t list an exact time for when Chauvin began kneeling on Floyd, but instead provide a narrative for when Floyd was first pressed to the ground. Time stamps on video from Lane’s body camera — recorded in 24-hour-clock format — show that began at some point from 20:19:14 to 20:19:45, meaning from 14 to 45 seconds after 8:19 p.m.
But the documents cite a clear moment when Chauvin removed his knee, when a stretcher was ready to take Floyd away. Lane’s body camera time-stamp read 20:28:45.
This means Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck for at least nine minutes flat, but possibly for as long as 9 minutes, 31 seconds. Documents filed by prosecutors characterize the timing as “approximately nine minutes,” though in at least one document it is characterized as “more than nine minutes and twenty seconds.”
John Stiles, the spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said the length of time of Chauvin’s restraint will be evidence presented at trial. He declined further comment.
Tom Heffelfinger, a former U.S. attorney for Minnesota who is not connected to this case, said it’s normal for prosecutors to fine-tune details as they build a case and that the length of Chauvin’s restraint won’t become essential until a prosecutor presents it to the jury.
But at trial, he said, the timing will become extremely relevant as both sides argue about Floyd’s cause of death. Heffelfinger also said it points to Chauvin’s state of mind and can be used by prosecutors to show willfulness, and that Chauvin had Floyd under his control and held his position for too long.
“You can see from the bystander video, Chauvin had Floyd under control for that entire period,” Heffelfinger said. “He didn’t need to have his knee to the neck in order to maintain that … control.”
-
3rd-degree murder count could be reinstated in Floyd's death
STEVE KARNOWSKI (AP)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Friday ordered a judge to reconsider adding a third-degree murder charge against a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death, handing a potential victory to prosecutors, but setting up a possible delay to a trial set to start next week.
A three-judge panel said Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill erred last fall when he rejected a prosecution motion to reinstate the third-degree murder charge against Derek Chauvin. The panel said Cahill should have followed the precedent set by the appeals court last month when it affirmed the third-degree murder conviction of former officer Mohamed Noor in the 2017 shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. The unarmed Australian woman had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault.
The appeals court sent the case back to Cahill for a ruling consistent with its ruling in the Noor case, giving the judge some leeway to consider other arguments that the defense might make against reinstating the charge.
"This court’s precedential opinion in Noor became binding authority on the date it was filed. The district court therefore erred by concluding that it was not bound by the principles of law set forth in Noor and by denying the state’s motion to reinstate the charge of third-degree murder on that basis," the appeals court wrote.
It was not immediately clear if Friday's ruling would force a delay in jury selection for Chauvin’s case, which is due to start Monday. He's currently charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Prosecutors did not immediately return a message seeking comment on whether they would seek a delay. Chauvin’s attorney had no comment.
Chauvin has the option of appealing the ruling to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which would force Cahill to delay the trial, said Ted Sampsell-Jones, a criminal law expert at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. But if Chauvin decides not to appeal, the professor added, “then Judge Cahill will almost certainly reinstate the third-degree charge.”
And if Chauvin decides not to appeal, Sampsell-Jones said, Cahill could still begin jury selection Monday, then decide in the next three weeks — before opening arguments — whether to reinstate the charge.
A reinstated third-degree murder count could increase the prosecution’s odds of getting a murder conviction.
“We believe the Court of Appeals decided this matter correctly," Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement. "We believe the charge of 3rd-degree murder, in addition to manslaughter and felony murder, reflects the gravity of the allegations against Mr. Chauvin. Adding this charge is an important step forward in the path toward justice. We look forward to presenting all charges to the jury in Hennepin County.”
Floyd, who was Black, died May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck while he was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn’t breathe. In the wake of his death, civil unrest spiraled into violence locally. Protests spread worldwide and forced a painful reckoning on racial justice in the U.S.
With tensions growing over the looming trial, authorities have already surrounded the courthouse and nearby buildings in downtown Minneapolis with tall barriers of chain-link fencing and razor wire in case protests anticipated before, during and after the trial turn violent.
Cahill ruled last October that third-degree murder under Minnesota law requires proof that someone’s conduct was “eminently dangerous to others,” plural, not just to Floyd. Cahill said there was no evidence that Chauvin endangered anyone else and threw out the charge. But the Court of Appeals rejected similar legal reasoning in Noor’s case, ruling that a third-degree murder conviction can be sustained even if the action that caused a victim’s death was directed at just one person.
The appeals court rejected the argument by Chauvin's attorney that the Noor ruling shouldn't have the force of law unless and until it’s affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments in Noor’s appeal in June. Cahill used similar reasoning last month when he rejected the state's initial motion to restore the third-degree murder count, prompting prosecutors to ask the Court of Appeals to intervene.
Three other former officers — Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao — are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter. They’re scheduled for trial in August. Prosecutors want to add charges of aiding and abetting third-degree murder against them, but that question will be resolved later.
-
Minnesota Supreme Court rejects Derek Chauvin appeal, opening door for another murder charge in George Floyd's death
By Tami Abdollah, USA TODAY
The Minnesota Supreme Court rejected an appeal by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on Wednesday, which could result in him facing an additional murder charge in the death of George Floyd.
Chauvin, 44, is accused of killing George Floyd, 46, by pressing his knee against Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes as he was handcuffed and pinned face-down on the street last May.
The former cop is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other former officers, charged with aiding and abetting, are to be tried in August.
Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill announced the ruling during jury selection Wednesday. Cahill said he would consider the ramifications of the ruling Thursday morning before selection continues. Five jurors have been chosen.
Wednesday's ruling means Cahill may reinstate a third-degree murder charge. Legal observers said that would give the jury more options as it considers Chauvin's culpability in Floyd's death.
"Cahill almost certainly will reinstate the (third-degree) charge," said Ted Sampsell-Jones, a professor for Mitchell Hamline School of Law in nearby St. Paul.
The unusual, expedited decision by the state’s high court enables jury selection to continue with just a hiccup in the proceedings rather than a delay of weeks or months while it considered an appeal.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office is prosecuting Chauvin, praised Wednesday's decision in a written statement. "We believe the charge of third-degree murder is fair and appropriate," he said. "We look forward to putting it before the jury" along with the other charges.
Benjamin Crump, an attorney who represents the Floyd family, said they are gratified that the court has "cleared the way for the trial to proceed and for Chauvin to face this additional charge."
Crump added: "The trial is very painful and the family needs closure. We’re hopeful that the trial will move forward expeditiously and that every possible criminal charge will be presented to the jury."
Friday, an appeals court ruled that Cahill should not have thrown out the third-degree murder charge last fall. The ruling delayed the start of jury selection Monday because the defense and prosecution disagreed over how that would affect the trial.
"It's very rare for the parties and the judge, frankly, not to know what the charges are when you are scheduled to start your trial," said Mary Moriarty, former Hennepin County chief public defender.
Ruling in separate case affects Chauvin charges
According to Minnesota law, third-degree murder involves "perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind."
Last fall, Cahill ruled that charge didn't fit the circumstances of Chauvin's case because his actions were focused on Floyd and no one else. That is consistent with how the law has been interpreted in other cases.
But in February, an appeals court upheld the third-degree murder conviction of ex-Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, who fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond in 2017. Noor's actions were focused only on Damond.
Based on the ruling in the Noor case, prosecutors in Chauvin's case asked Cahill to bring back the third-degree murder charge. He refused.
Prosecutors went to the Minnesota Court of Appeals to ask it to uphold its interpretation of the law and reinstate the additional charge.
Friday, the appeals court said Cahill should not have tossed out the third-degree murder charge because the Noor ruling, which upheld it, was the precedent.The appeals court said Cahill can hear other arguments from Chauvin's defense attorney about reinstating the charge, but his decision must be consistent with the Noor precedent.
The state Supreme Court agreed to review the Noor case in June. If Chauvin is convicted of only the third-degree murder charge and the court overturns Noor, then Chauvin could go free, Moriarty said.
"The problem for Chauvin," she said, "is that if he gets convicted of it, he can appeal, but he would probably be sitting in jail until that happens."
-
Derek Chauvin’s Lawyer Requests Delay of Trial After Announcement of $27 Million Settlement Awarded to George Floyd's Family
Ishena Robinson (The Root)
The murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd is gearing up to be quite a protracted one. In other words—the process of winning criminal accountability for the heinous killing of 46-year-old Floyd, whose neck Chauvin knelt on for nearly nine minutes last May, is unlikely to be smooth or simple, but did we expect it to be?
Following Friday’s announcement that the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to award Floyd’s family a record $27 million to settle their wrongful death civil lawsuit, Chauvin’s defense lawyer Eric Nelson is now asking that the cop’s trial be delayed due to what he described as the “suspicious timing” of the settlement, reports the Washington Post.
Nelson has also requested that the court call back jurors who have already been selected for the trial to see if they heard news of the settlement and whether this has impacted their ability to be impartial. The judge presiding over the trial says he will grant this request from the defense.
From CNN:
In a hearing Monday, Nelson said he is “gravely concerned” by the announcement, calling it “incredibly prejudicial.”
“It’s amazing to me, they had a press conference on Friday, where the mayor of Minneapolis, on stage with city council, and they’re using very, what I would say, very well-designed terminology. ‘The unanimous decision of the city council,’ for example. It just goes straight to the heart of the dangers of pretrial publicity,” Nelson said.
The defense said a delay of the trial or more questioning of jurors would be among the appropriate remedies.
The prosecution acknowledged that the timing of the settlement was “unfortunate” but pushed back against the defense’s proposed remedies.
Judge Peter Cahill, who is overseeing the trial, said he would call the seven jurors already selected in the case back and question them about the settlement. He said he would take the defense motion for a delay under advisement.
Nelson is also asking that the trial be moved out of Hennepin County, Minnesota, an option that the presiding judge had floated last year when he warned attorneys in the case to refrain from making public comments that could prejudice a jury. Cahill has yet to rule on this request.
Cahill did say he wished the city hadn’t announced the $27 million settlement while jury selection in Chauvin’s trial is underway but added that he doesn’t sense “any evil intent in the timing.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey joined the Floyd family and their attorney Ben Crump at a press conference on Friday to announce the historic settlement from the city. The $27 million is the largest payout for police misconduct Minneapolis has ever made. According to the Post, the $20 million settlement from the city to the family of Justine Damond—a woman who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2017—was not announced until 2019, after the cop had been convicted.
The Root has reached out to Crump for a comment on the charge that the announcement may taint the jury pool for Chauvin’s trial, which could ultimately make it harder for a fair case to be tried against the former officer in the pursuit of criminal justice for Floyd’s death.
During jury selection on Monday, Cahill excused one potential juror for cause after she admitted to hearing about the settlement and said that she could not be impartial in light of the city’s choice to settle.
Seven jurors have already been seated in the trial, which is set to begin with opening statements on March 29. However, since Cahill has agreed to call back jurors and question them about their views on the settlement, the start of arguments in the trial may very well end up being delayed anyway.
Chauvin is facing charges of second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter and third-degree murder in the death of Floyd. The trial of three other former Minneapolis officers—J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas K. Lane and Tou Thao—for their role in Floyd’s death, is scheduled to take place in August.
-
2 jurors dropped from Chauvin trial after $27M settlement
STEVE KARNOWSKI and AMY FORLITI - AP
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A judge on Wednesday dismissed two jurors who had been seated for the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer accused in George Floyd’s death over concerns they had been tainted by the city’s announcement of a $27 million settlement with Floyd’s family.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill recalled seven jurors who were seated before the settlement was announced last week, and questioned each about what they knew of the settlement and whether it would affect their ability to serve. Former officer Derek Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, had requested the recall.
The dismissal of only two jurors suggested the impact of the settlement on the jury pool was less than feared, likely reducing the chance of Cahill granting a defense request to delay the trial.
Cahill was careful to ask jurors if they had heard the news of the settlement without giving details, saying only that there had been “extensive media coverage about developments in a civil suit between the city of Minneapolis and the family of George Floyd” and asking if they were exposed to it.
The first dismissed juror, a white man in his 30s, said he had heard about the settlement. “I think it will be hard to be impartial,” he said.
“That sticker price obviously shocked me,” the second juror dismissed said. The Hispanic man in his 20s said he thought he could set the news aside, but wasn’t sure, and after a long pause, Cahill dismissed him.
Cahill retained five other jurors, including a Black man in his 30s who told Cahill he heard about the settlement on the radio Friday evening but could put it aside and decide the case only on evidence presented in the courtroom.
“It hasn’t affected me at all because I don’t know the details,” he said.
Jury selection had been proceeding faster than expected, with opening statements tentatively expected March 29 at the earliest, but the two dismissals could imperil that start date. Nine people had been selected for the jury before Wednesday’s dismissals; 14 are needed.
Nelson called the timing of the announcement in the middle of jury selection “profoundly disturbing" and “not fair.”
Seven jurors remain, including four men and three women. Four are white, one is multiracial and two are Black, and their ages range from 20s to 50s. Fourteen people, including two alternates, are needed.
As questioning of potential jurors resumed Wednesday morning, two were excused: A man who said he would tend to believe a police officer’s version of events over that of a citizen, and a Black man who expressed negative views about the Minneapolis Police Department.
He said Floyd was an example of another Black man “killed” or “murdered” by police. He said he used to live in the area near Floyd’s arrest and had seen Minneapolis police sometimes ride through the area and antagonize residents if someone had been shot or jailed.
On the possibility of serving on the jury, he said: “Me, as a Black man, you see a lot of Black people get killed and no one is held accountable for it, and you wonder why. … So with this, maybe I’ll be in the room to know why.”
Chauvin is charged with murder and manslaughter in the May 25 death of Floyd, a Black man who was declared dead after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death, captured on a widely seen bystander video, set off weeks of sometimes-violent protests across the country and led to a national reckoning on racial justice.
The judge said he will rule Friday on Nelson's request to delay or move the trial and another to admit evidence of Floyd's 2019 arrest in Minneapolis. Cahill previously rejected that request, but said he would reconsider after Nelson argued that new evidence makes it admissible: Drugs were found in December that year during a second search of the car Floyd was in, and were found in a January 2020 search of the squad car into which the four officers attempted to put Floyd.
During the first arrest, several opioid pills and cocaine were found. An autopsy showed Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system when he died.
Prosecutor Matthew Frank argued that evidence from the 2019 arrest was prejudicial and an attempt to smear Floyd's character.
Three other former officers face an August trial in Floyd’s death on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.
The judge opened court Wednesday by threatening to remove a media pool and shut down a media center over some reporting on the case. Cahill was visibly angry as he described a pool report that included a reporter’s attempts to read notepads at the defense and prosecution tables, as well as describing security on the courthouse floor where the trial is taking place.
Cahill said any media that have posted details about security on the floor should take them down, and that failure to do so could result in them being kicked out of the media center. He did not name any reporters or media organizations.
-
EXPLAINER: Chauvin's lawyer is outnumbered, but has help
AP
As trial approaches for a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death, the early proceedings suggest it’s not exactly a fair fight. No fewer than four attorneys have appeared for the prosecution so far, compared to a single attorney to defend Derek Chauvin. Many other lawyers are working for the prosecution behind the scenes.
It’s an apparent mismatch that results from the state’s takeover of the prosecution, but defense attorney Eric Nelson is getting some help.
WHO ARE THE KEY PLAYERS FOR THE PROSECUTION?
Floyd, who was Black, was declared dead May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck while Floyd was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn’t breathe. Days later, amid massive protests over Floyd's death, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz directed Attorney General Keith Ellison to take the case.
Ellison, Minnesota’s first African American elected attorney general, is in court but Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank is leading the prosecution. Frank heads the state's criminal division.
The prosecution is bolstered by outside attorneys working for free. They include former U.S. acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal; former federal prosecutor Steven Schleicher; and Jerry Blackwell, who last year won a posthumous pardon for a man wrongly convicted of rape in connection with the Duluth lynchings of 1920, and is a founder of the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers.
In addition to Katyal, the prosecution has received court approval for at least six other out-of-state attorneys to serve as co-counsels, according to court records.
DOES THE PROSECUTION HAVE DEEPER POCKETS?
Almost certainly. This is one of the most significant court cases in recent history and it is clear the state will spare no expense. That point was driven home by Ellison as soon as he took over, when he vowed to “bring to bear all the resources necessary to achieve justice in this case.”
Conversely, the defense is funded through the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association's legal defense fund. The MPPOA is a police advocacy organization made up of local police unions from across the state. Though he was fired soon after Floyd's death, Chauvin earned the right to representation through his years as a member of his local union, the Minneapolis Police Federation.
MPPOA Executive Director Brian Peters said supporters of Chauvin have asked to donate to his defense, but no donations are accepted. Instead, those people are directed to the National Center for Police Defense. Donations to the center aren't used for legal purposes, Peters said, but rather for living expenses for Chauvin and the three other officers accused in Floyd's death, all of whom lost their jobs. Peters said he did not know how much has been donated on behalf of the officers.
HOW WAS NELSON SELECTED AS CHAUVIN’S ATTORNEY?
Peters said the MPPOA works with a group of 12 defense attorneys who take turns handling cases as they come up. Originally, Chauvin’s defense was assigned to attorney Tom Kelly, but Kelly retired and Nelson replaced him.
WHAT IS NELSON'S BACKGROUND?
Nelson is an attorney with the Minneapolis firm Halberg Criminal Defense. His biography on the firm’s website says his experience includes cases involving “homicide, sex offenses, drug offenses, assaults and hundreds of DWI and alcohol-related traffic offenses." He's enough of an expert on driving while intoxicated that he frequently lectures on the topic and often contributes to a DWI sourcebook for Minnesota attorneys, his biography says.
“I saw a couple of reports of, ‘The MPPOA selected a DWI lawyer to represent Chauvin,'" Peters said. ”To be on our panel of attorneys is not very easy. You are vetted very aggressively, we’ll just say. That’s why we have 12 of the best defense attorneys on our panel.”
One of his most prominent cases involved Amy Senser, the wife of former Minnesota Vikings tight end Joe Senser, who was convicted in the 2011 hit-and-run death of a Minneapolis chef. Though Nelson argued for probation, Senser received a sentence of 41 months in prison.
He's had success in previous murder cases. He helped win an acquittal for a Minnesota man who was charged with fatally shooting his unarmed neighbor in 2017. He also won an acquittal for a Wisconsin man who testified that he feared for his safety when he fatally stabbed a man who confronted him in 2015.
IS NELSON WORKING ALONE?
Only on the surface, Peters said.
Different attorneys were assigned to each of the four officers. Those four attorneys have worked together behind the scenes from the outset, Peters said, and Nelson continues to consult with them.
Nelson also has access to the other eight attorneys who are part of the MPPOA's 12-attorney rotation.
The MPPOA also provides consultants on topics such as use-of-force and medical issues, “and Eric has been working very closely with those consultants,” Peters said. Expert witnesses also are available if Nelson chooses to use them.
“It may appear that it's just Eric, but that is very far from the truth,” Peters said.
-
Derek Chauvin's attorney says the murder trial 'is not about race.' His own line of questioning suggests otherwise.
N'dea Yancey-Bragg and Grace Hauck
USA Today
MINNEAPOLIS – In his effort to find an impartial jury, the lead defense attorney in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police Derek Chauvin has spent the past two weeks questioning potential jurors about their views on racism, discrimination, policing of communities of color and Black Lives Matter.
But on Thursday, Eric Nelson told a prospective juror that the trial is "not about race."
The response to George Floyd's death suggests many people believe otherwise. For weeks, thousands of people in all 50 states protested systemic racism and police brutality, spurred by the sight of a Black man dying under the knee of a white police officer after centuries of white supremacist violence against Black people.
"We’re at an interesting point in society where people are telling us what is and what is not about race. I’m not sure that the defense attorney in this case gets to make that decision," said Samuel R. Sommers, a social psychology professor at Tufts University who studies the effect of race on the legal system. "It's a tragedy, but it's become a racially charged instance as well because of what else is going on our society."
Chauvin is not charged with crimes related to racial bias. But experts say race is at play not only in Floyd's death but in the courtroom during jury selection. And it will likely have an influence on deliberations and the verdict.
"Nothing magical happens to individuals who show up for jury duty that makes them somehow immune to racial biases," Sommers said.
Jurors who believe race affects the legal system are 'absolutely right'
Nelson's comment bears similarities to previous law enforcement denials that systemic racism is a factor in recent high-profile police killings of Black people.
In October, Louisville Police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of the officers who fired weapons in a failed drug raid that took the life of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black medical worker in Kentucky, said the incident was “not a race thing like people try to make it to be.”
When asked why a 17-year-old white teenager accused of killing two protesters and injuring a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was arrested but Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot several times in the back, former Attorney General William Barr told CNN in September that he doesn't believe there are "two justice systems."
"I think the narrative that the police are on some, you know, epidemic of shooting unarmed Black men is simply a false narrative and also the narrative that that's based on race," Barr told CNN. "The fact of the matter is very rare for an unarmed African American to be shot by a white police officer."
And on Tuesday, after eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed in three shootings at Atlanta-area spas before police arrested and charged a white man, officials investigating the case said it was too soon to call the incident a hate crime. "We are just not there as of yet," Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said in a news conference.
Many people of color and others disagreed, viewing it as a crescendo of a year-long wave of racist violence – particularly after a recent spike in anti-Asian violence that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and that many believe was fomented by the rhetoric of the Trump administration.
Multiple studies and the lived experience of many Black people, in particular, suggest systemic racism is a factor in police killings.
An analysis of data from The Washington Post published in 2019 found that while Black Americans comprise just 13% of the U.S. population, they account for 36% of unarmed police shooting victims. Black Americans are 3.23 times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police, according to a study of nearly 5,500 police-related deaths between 2013 and 2017 published by Harvard researchers in June 2020.
"The data are very clear. Any prospective juror who says 'Yes, I believe race has the potential to influence how individuals are treated' is absolutely right," Sommers said. "If that’s going to be grounds for removing someone from the jury, that's a problem."
The jury's racial makeup will likely will be more varied than Minnesota
Thirteen jurors, five men and eight women, have been selected so far for Chauvin's trial. Seven of the jurors identify as white, two as multiracial and four as Black, according to the court. The court plans to seat at least one more juror.
The racial makeup of the jury probably will be more varied than the Minnesota as a whole, Hennepin County or Minneapolis. According to mid-2019 U.S. Census data, Hennepin County is 74.2% white, Minneapolis is 63.6% white and Minnesota is 83.8% white.
Months ago, the court sent a 13-page questionnaire to people in the jury pool asking their opinions on various subjects, including whether police officers are more likely to use force against people of color, whether people of color receive equal treatment in the criminal justice system, whether police in their community make them feel safe, and how they feel about the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements.
Attorneys for the defense and prosecution have prodded potential jurors to expand on their answers and explain their reasoning. That has spurred some lengthy conversations about their experiences with police and discrimination.
On Thursday afternoon, one man said he didn’t believe Black and white people are treated equally in the criminal justice system. Nelson asked if the man believed an incident in which police stop a person of color is more likely to end "tragically." The man said yes.
He also said he would not believe a police officer's testimony. The judge excused him from the jury.
Another juror, executive director of a youth organization, wrote in his questionnaire that he “somewhat disagreed” that police treat Black people and white people equally and that he “strongly agreed” media reports on police brutality against racial minorities are only the tip of the iceberg.
He said he thought he could still serve as an impartial juror. The defense used a peremptory challenge against him.
If attorneys want to eliminate a juror, the judge must approve their reason, or lawyers can use what’s known as a “peremptory challenge” to cut someone without providing a reason.
A veteran who appeared to be Black told the court he experiences racism on a daily basis. On his questionnaire, he “strongly agreed” Black people and white people aren’t equally treated by the criminal justice system and “strongly agreed” the Minneapolis Police Department is more likely to use force against Black people.
He told the court the fairness of the criminal justice system “depends on your colors.”
“If you’re Black ... we get the things where you have to go to jail,” he said.
He said he could set aside his opinions to serve on the jury. The defense used a peremptory strike against him.
Andrew Gordon, deputy director for community legal services at the Legal Rights Center in Minnesota, said the experiences juror described are inextricably connected to him being a Black man. "To strike him for those reasons is tantamount to striking him because he is Black," he said.
"You are eliminating opportunities to have individuals on that jury who have an appreciation of race and law enforcement interactions with race that could help inform truth-seeking," Gordon said.
Jurors who react strongly to George Floyd video are 'systematically struck'
Most, if not all, of the potential jurors who told the court they had a strong, emotional reaction to seeing the video of Floyd's death were not seated on the jury, and most were dismissed by the judge because they said they couldn't be impartial or because it would cause them trauma. Most people seated on the jury said they had seen at least portions of a video of the incident but could remain impartial.
One juror who appeared to be a young Black woman, a single mother, told the court she “cried hearing him call for his mother during his last moments of life.”
“I can’t unsee the video, so I’m not able to set that part aside,” she said. “It’s still going to be traumatizing to me.”
She said she could not remain impartial, and the judge dismissed her.
Another woman, who appeared to be a person of color, said she had a strong emotional response to the video of Floyd's death and struggled to speak in the courtroom Friday morning. She said the incident was "so close to home."
"I think it’s too much," she said. She said she could not remain impartial, and the judge dismissed her.
The video of Floyd's death is upsetting for almost everyone who watches, but it is acutely traumatic for people of color – Black people in particular – because of the cumulative nature of trauma resulting from racism, said Monnica Williams, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada, who studies African American mental health.
"You already have a layer of stress built into your genetic makeup," she said. "The more of these sorts of things that we’re exposed to the more likely a person is to have a traumatic reaction or full-blown PTSD."
Gordon said people who had a strong reaction to Floyd's death are among those being "systematically struck." That perpetuates the idea that jurors who identify with the fact that Floyd was killed by a white police officer because of their own racial identity can't determine truth.
"Our common sense tells us we are able as human beings to decipher truth even in the presence of bias," he said. "That legal fiction reinforces a lot of the stereotypes, reinforces a lot of the racial animus, reinforces a lot of the indifference that you see built into the legal system."
At least one juror who had a strong emotional reaction to the video, however, was seated on the jury. A white woman in her 50s who works in health care told the court she couldn’t watch the video in its entirety because it was disturbing.
“I think they could have handled it differently,” she wrote on the questionnaire.
The woman told the judge she could set her previous opinions aside to serve as an impartial juror, and she was seated on the jury.
'Do you want people on your jury that don’t think Black lives matter?'
In questioning, lawyers for the defense and prosecution often asked potential jurors to offer their thoughts on Black Lives Matter as an organization, the greater movement and the notion that Black lives matter in general.
One potential juror, a former musician who identifies as Hispanic, told the court he has a favorable view of the Black Lives Matter movement because it “continues on the tradition of the civil rights movement.”
The man said he thought he could still be impartial, but the defense used a peremptory challenge against him. The state followed with a Batson challenge, which claims a potential juror has been eliminated on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity or religion. The judge denied the challenge, saying there was a non-race-based rational for striking the juror, including the fact that his wife attended a protest in the wake of Floyd's death.
Experts said it's fairly easy to come up with a race-neutral answer to a Batson challenge, even if the strike is motivated in part by race.
"That’s pretty hard to enforce," Sommers said. "It's a problem the legal system has wrestled with for very long time and continues to wrestle with."
Another juror, a white woman in her 50s who works at a nonprofit and has interacted with the Minnesota attorney general, wrote on the questionnaire that she is “somewhat favorable” of Black Lives Matter.
“Excessive force against Blacks must stop, but not everyone working in the system is bad,” she told the court. “I think there’s inherent bias in the system.”
She was seated on the jury.
One juror, a Black woman in her 60s who used to work in marketing and has grandchildren, said that she was not very familiar with Black Lives Matter as an organization but that she supports the idea that Black lives matter.
“I am Black and my life matters,” she said. She was also seated on the jury.
Attorneys for both sides and the judge asked all potential jurors if they could put their opinions aside and impartially judge the case based solely on the evidence presented in court. Sommers said the key question becomes whether the judge believes them and why.
"When is it that the judge is willing to take their statement at face value and when is the judge not willing?" Sommers asked.
-
'Treated with particular cruelty': Minnesota attorney general requests severe sentence for Derek Chauvin in George Floyd killing
Michael James, USA TODAY
Minnesota's attorney general filed paperwork Friday asking that Derek Chauvin be given a more severe prison sentence in the killing of George Floyd, arguing that the former Minneapolis police officer inflicted torturous deadly methods as Floyd pleaded for his life.
Chauvin, who is scheduled to be sentenced in June for second-degree murder and other charges, abused his power as a police officer in full view of the public and while Floyd was handcuffed and crying out for his mother, state Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a legal brief filed in Minnesota's Hennepin County District Court.
“Mr. Floyd was treated with particular cruelty . . . Defendant continued to maintain his position atop Mr. Floyd even as Mr. Floyd cried out that he was in pain, even as Mr. Floyd exclaimed 27 times that he could not breathe, and even as Mr. Floyd said that Defendant’s actions were killing him,” Ellison said. He added that Chauvin stayed in position as Floyd cried out for his mother, stopped speaking and lost consciousness.
Prosecutors also wrote that Chauvin's actions "inflicted gratuitous pain" and psychological distress not just on Floyd, but the civilian bystanders who they argued will be haunted by the memory of what they saw.
Four of the people in the crowd watching Floyd die were minors, the court filing said.
“Defendant thus did not just inflict physical pain. He caused Mr. Floyd psychological distress during the final moments of his life, leaving Mr. Floyd helpless as he squeezed the last vestiges of life out of Mr. Floyd’s body,” the filing says.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson is opposing a tougher sentence, saying the state has failed to prove that those aggravating factors, among others, existed when Chauvin arrested Floyd on May 25.
Nelson also said Floyd was not treated with particular cruelty, saying that there is no evidence that the assault perpetrated by Chauvin involved gratuitous pain that’s not usually associated with second-degree murder.
“The assault of Mr. Floyd occurred in the course of a very short time, involved no threats or taunting, such as putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger … and ended when EMS finally responded to officers’ calls,” Nelson wrote.
Chauvin, who is white, was convicted last week of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for 91/2 minutes as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe and went motionless.
Even though he was found guilty of three counts, under Minnesota statutes he’ll only be sentenced on the most serious one – second-degree murder. While that count carries a maximum sentence of 40 years, experts say he won’t get that much.
Prosecutors did not specify how much time they would seek for Chauvin.
Under Minnesota sentencing guidelines, the presumptive sentence for second-degree unintentional murder for someone with no criminal record like Chauvin would be 12 and a half years. Judges can sentence someone to as little as 10 years and eight months or as much as 15 years and still be within the advisory guideline range. To go above that, Judge Peter Cahill would have to find that there were “aggravating factors,” and even if those are found, legal experts have said Chauvin would likely not face more than 30 years.
Prosecutors said Friday that an upward departure from the sentencing guidelines is warranted because there are multiple aggravating factors in the case.