{"id":4183,"date":"2021-04-21T08:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T12:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=4183"},"modified":"2021-04-21T08:40:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T12:40:13","slug":"not-joy-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2021\/04\/21\/not-joy-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Joy \u2013 Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Verdict<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday, Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd.\u00a0\u00a0In less than twelve hours of deliberation, a jury of twelve citizens determined he was guilty on three charges:\u00a0\u00a0second degree murder, third degree murder, and manslaughter.\u00a0\u00a0The nation held its collective breath on that jury\u2019s decision.\u00a0\u00a0America was poised for upheaval.\u00a0\u00a0The National Guard is already in place in Minnesota, and out in cities nationwide as well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was one of the most well documented deaths in history.  Each of the four police officers directly involved was wearing a body camera.  Street cameras had a clear view of the event as well.  And outraged bystanders, helpless to prevent Floyd\u2019s unnecessary death under the knees of Chauvin, documented the murder on cell phone cameras.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trial was televised gavel to gavel.  So for many Americans, we were all in the jury box, all listening to the testimony and seeing the videos.  We listened to the carefully developed Prosecution case, and we heard the attempts of the defense to somehow create enough reasonable doubt to alter the verdict.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So why was the Nation so prepared to celebrate or protest the outcome of the trial? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither the death of one man, or the destruction of another man\u2019s life is cause for joy.  Yet there was cheering and parading at the announcement of this verdict.  It wasn\u2019t about joy; it was about justice.  Historically American courts give police officers wide latitude in performing their duties.  In some cases, that is justified.  The citizenry has placed the burdens of our society on those officers, asking them to make the difficult choices to control and protect us from crime and harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the defense of Derek Chauvin, the jury was asked to \u201cNot believe their lying eyes\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0They were told to ignore what we all saw from multiple angles:\u00a0\u00a0the \u201cdepraved indifference\u201d of nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds, as Chauvin snuffed out the life of George Floyd.\u00a0\u00a0And that failure of justice has happened so many times before.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Police officers kill about 1000 people a year in the United States (NYT<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0From 2005 to 2019, 104 police officers were arrested for murder or manslaughter for on-duty killings.\u00a0\u00a0Only 35 were convicted of a crime, and only 4 were convicted of murder (BGSU<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0Not every police killing is murder, and not every police officer charged is guilty.\u00a0\u00a0But holding police officers accountable in Court happens so rarely, that even the slow-motion suffocation of George Floyd was still in doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are issues of race and intent. This week, while the Chauvin trial ended and we waited for the verdict, a young Black man was killed in a Minneapolis suburb, and a fifteen year old Black girl was killed here in Columbus.\u00a0\u00a0The young man was killed \u201cunintentionally\u201d; the officer acted as if she was using her Taser but instead used her service weapon.\u00a0\u00a0And body camera footage here in Columbus seems to indicate that the officer was justified in shooting the young girl.\u00a0\u00a0She was attacking other young girls with a knife, and he was acting to protect them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It Takes Outrage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It is difficult to know if former officer Chauvin would have been held accountable without the national outrage the \u201cbystander video\u201d created.  The \u201cdefault position\u201d of the Minneapolis police was that the \u201cdeath was incidental\u201d to the arrest.  It was only in the marches and protests, and even the rioting and destruction, that the \u201cdefault\u201d action was reversed, and this first officer held accountable.  There remain three more also complicit in Floyd\u2019s death. We have yet to see what will happen to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And during that time the \u201cdefault position\u201d exonerated officers of the controversial death of Breona Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.  She went from being an innocent victim, killed in her own home, to \u201ccollateral damage\u201d of a misguided attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the National problem continues:  enforcement of the law somehow depends on race as much as actions.  Justice is not blind to color in the United States today, and until it is, then what should be the normal course of justice will remain a matter for celebration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Verdict Yesterday, Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd.\u00a0\u00a0In less than twelve hours of deliberation, a jury of twelve citizens determined he was guilty on three charges:\u00a0\u00a0second degree murder, third degree murder, and manslaughter.\u00a0\u00a0The nation held its collective breath on that jury\u2019s decision.\u00a0\u00a0America was poised for upheaval.\u00a0\u00a0The … Continue reading “Not Joy \u2013 Justice”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNot Joy \u2013 Justice : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The verdict came down in the George Floyd murder - guilty-guilty-guilty. 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