Identity Politics of Black Lives Matter

"Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) made a statement — while jurors in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin were not yet sequestered — which demanded street confrontations unless Chauvin were found guilty of murder. The trial judge correctly suggested that any conviction in the case might ultimately be thrown out on appeal, based on what Waters said. He condemned Waters' remarks in the strongest terms, but he did not have the courage to grant a defense motion for a mistrial. Had he done so, that almost certainly would have led to riots — which would have been blamed on the judge, not on Rep. Waters. So he left it to the court of appeals, months in the future, to grant a new trial -- which he should have granted."

Alan M. Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus, Harvard Law School

Pictured: National Guardsmen and other law enforcement officers stand guard outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, on April 20, 2021. (Photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

Two things of a certainty: The former police officer Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police, did, through his deliberate actions, take the life of a former felon, George Floyd, while attempting to arrest him for having passed a counterfeit $20 bill in the purchase of a pack of cigarettes. That Mr.Chauvin caused the death of Mr. Floyd is irrefutable. There are witnesses everywhere to the act, which was captured on video and repeatedly aired to great public dismay and anger. The man was in custody, had been subdued when he resisted arrest, and handcuffed in the prone position, and met his death when his oxygen supply was cut off.

 

Through the evidence of the video, more incriminating than any credible testimony, it was clear that Mr. Chauvin was the instrument of Mr. Floyd's death. There may well have been extenuating circumstances; Mr. Floyd was a drug user and had fentanyl in his system, and his health was compromised by a heart problem. Clearly, however, it was then-Officer Chauvin's knee pressed to Mr. Floyd's neck for over nine minutes of agony for Mr. Floyd who gasped for relief to enable him to breathe, that was the cause of  his death.

"They're a good family and they're calling for peace and tranquility, no matter what that verdict is."

"I'm praying the verdict is the right verdict, which is -- I think it's overwhelming in my view."

"I wouldn't say that unless the jury was sequestered now, [would] not hear me say that."

U.S.President Joe Biden, at the White House

Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, has been convicted on all charges in the death of George Floyd.   Pool

 

That would, of course, be viewed as the President of the United States interfering with the justice system had the jurors not been sequestered. It was obvious enough that he expressed the opinion that the jury of twelve women and men, black and white, needed to find the defendant guilty as charged. Some, like Professor Dershowitz, feel the state overstepped itself in declaring the death of George Floyd a murder and not a case of manslaughter. Murder is usually premeditated, while Mr. Floyd's death was a miscalculation and a heartless oblivion to his suffering.

 

This was a case fraught with danger for society in general and peace and stability in particular. Black Lives Matter adherents, passionate in their rage over past injustices against the black community in America see their purpose as forcefully reminding the majority white communities in the country of their past and current responsibilities in having enslaved a people, forcing their labour for profit, and over the course of the years manifestly believing in the inferiority of blacks while committing grave human rights crimes against them.

 

The BLM movement has been influential both in the U.S. and abroad for the outrage it invokes that is credible and deserving. But it, like the Minneapolis police officer who committed a black man to death in an age-old manner, has transgressed the boundaries of civil behaviour, committing serious offences of their own in the process. Posturing, threatening, and committing violence against others, both black and white, destroying public and private property, creating chaos in their wake. Defying law and order.

 

Many now view the finding of guilty in the criminal trial of Mr. Chauvin just and deserving. During the course of his professional duties, after all, he committed the cardinal sin of overstating his public duty and in the process of disabling a struggling man, applying continual undue force resulting in his tortured death. Now, Mr. Chauvin is the one in handcuffs and Mr. Floyd's memory as a handcuffed and subdued arrestee has filed the final chapter in the sad and sorry event that transformed a nation into a BLM-revenge-fearing country.

 

Chauvin pressed his knee into the back of Mr Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes.  EPA

 

Having pleaded not guilty to the charges of second-degree unintentional murder involving "intentional infliction of bodily harm", third-degree unintentional "depraved mind" murder involving an "act eminently dangerous to others", and second-degree manslaughter involving a death caused by "culpable negligence", former Minneapolis police officer Chauvin has been declared guilty on all counts. And now faces a likely prison sentence of at least ten years, as a first-time criminal offender. Longer, if "aggravating factors" are proven.

 

There were four police officers in total at that scene where George Floyd died. One, at least, was an ethnic minority. The three officers other than Mr. Chauvin were fired by the Minneapolis Police Department when Mr. Chauvin as the perpetrator of Mr. Floyd's death, was fired. All others are due to face trial as the year progresses on charges of aiding-and-abetting in Mr. Floyd's death. None appeared to have made an effort to intervene, to persuade Mr. Chauvin to release Mr. Floyd from the excruciating pain of impending death.  

There is another story here. The story of hardcore animosity between black and white. Guilt on the part of the white community, accusations that cannot be denied from the black community. And a deadly rage that promised to unleash mayhem and even murder along with looting and destruction should Mr. Chauvin not be found guilty. Witnesses who testified for Mr. Chauvin have received threats and a general aura of violent intimidation hung on the air in anticipation of a verdict that could not have been other than it was.

The reasons twofold; that guilt was indeed his, as the evidence clearly demonstrated, though the charges might have been different; and the fear of violence once again erupting on a scale that might dwarf those that were mounted last year in the wake of the death of Mr. Floyd would be repeated. And may yet still be. The BLM movement appears to be addicted to the rage of violence and defiance of the law which nothing seems to appease.

 

People gathered in Minneapolis to celebrate the verdict and pay tribute to George Floyd   Getty Images