The Derek Chauvin Trial

My jaw dropped when I saw this video. I mean, the guy was threatening cops with a visible gun, and they were still asking him to PLEASE comply.

They wouldn’t even have had a conversation with a black man exhibiting a fraction of this belligerence.

Dead. With MULTIPLE holes in him.

The disparity is just sickening.

I sat on a murder trial in Houston, TX about 40 years ago. It was obvious the guy was guilty, but 2 jurors felt he was justified. Huston was the murder capital of the world back then. This type of murder was called "misdemeanor murder".

The judge was getting tired of our convening and was just about ready to call a mistrial. Then we finally convinced them. We told them that he would probably get 15 years for the crime, he had been in jail for a year awaiting trial and that he would get 9 years for the 1 he had already served. They agreed, found him guilty and he got six years after time served with the possibility of an early out for good behavior! Texas jails were very crowded.

Our trial was a woman sexually harassed and generally discriminated against for being a woman cop by the other cops, also in Houston. The most flagrant abuser was never brought into court. The one holdout for acquittal called her a punk employee. "If you don't like a situation, quit and move on," he said. However, he did not want to come back to continue deliberating another day. There were two separate settlements being considered. He said the first settlement must be just one dollar if I vote guilty. Since the second settlement was substantially more, we agreed and she won her case.

Once again, the minority wins. I have never been able to figure this part out Edgar. The Democratic party is a party of minorities but the Republican party is the minority party. Life goes on!

The local Fox news is usually smart enough to slip in the propaganda in ways that make it seem they are community boosters, not Republican shills. This morning I put it on because it was the only local news on and I wanted the weather report. I tuned in to a detailed explanation of how Chauvin is being railroaded. The commentator said it's perfectly obvious that Floyd's drug use killed him, but that public pressure would result in a guilty verdict. I hope he is correct about the verdict, but he was wrong about everything else, so we will have to wait and see.

Some people make you wonder if there is ANYTHING the cops could do that they wouldn’t defend.

Well, here we go - closing arguments.
I just heard a pundit say that closings are basically just for form - the jury had already made up their mind.

The juries I have been on always knew the verdict before closing, except the one dude I described in an earlier post.

Severed PIG'S HEAD is left outside former home of Chauvin defense witness who said George Floyd's death was 'accidental'

Vandals struck early on Saturday at Barry Brodd's former home in Santa Rosa, California
They smeared animal blood all over the door and garage doors and left severed pig's head on the stoop
Brodd has not lived there for several years, but it appears he was the target, after he testified for the defense in Derek Chauvin's trial in Minnesota
Brodd claimed police were justified in pinning George Floyd while handcuffed

Vandals have struck the former home of an expert witness who testified in Derek Chavin's defense, smearing it in blood and leaving a severed pig's head on the doorstep, days after he took the stand in the George Floyd trial.

The group of vandals struck at around 3am on Saturday, wiping animal blood on the front door and garage of the residence in Santa Rosa, California, where use-of-force expert Barry Brodd once lived.

Police said the hoodlums, dressed entirely in black, tossed the pig's head onto the front porch and fled on foot as the resident called 911.

Soon afterwards, a similar looking group splattered animal blood on a statue of a hand in a nearby shopping mall, leaving a sign with a picture of a pig and the words 'Oink Oink'.





'Mr. Brodd has not lived at the residence for a number of years and is no longer a resident of California. Because Mr. Brodd no longer lives in the city of Santa Rosa, it appears the victim was falsely targeted,' police said in a statement.

Brodd, who had a long career in law enforcement including with the Santa Rosa Police department, is now a consultant who serves as an expert witness on police procedures and tactics.

Floyd died in Minneapolis last May after Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes while he was handcuffed. Chauvin is charged with manslaughter and murder, and the case is expected to go to the jury this week.

Last week, Brodd testified police were justified in keeping Floyd pinned because he kept struggling instead of 'resting comfortably.'

That sparked a lectern-pounding response from prosecutor Steve Schleicher: 'Did you say 'resting comfortably'?' he asked incredulously.

'Or laying comfortably,' replied Brodd, whose testimony contradicted that of authorities from inside and outside the Minneapolis Police Department who said Chauvin violated his training.

'Resting comfortably on the pavement?' Schleicher asked again. Brodd responded: 'Yes.'

Following Brodd's testimony in Chauvin's defense, Santa Rosa Police Chief Rainer Navarro issued a statement disavowing Brodd's view on the case.

'Mr. Brodd has not been employed by the department since 2004. His comments do not reflect the values and beliefs of the Santa Rosa Police Department,' Chief Rainer said.

Cops said that the damage to Brodd's former home exceeded $400, making the crime a felony.

The other target in the vandalism spree was a large statue of a hand, carved from marble, that rests outside Santa Rosa Plaza shopping mall.

The perpetrators who targeted the hand were seen fleeing the area and matched the descriptions of the suspects who vandalized the house.

The statue, titled 'Agraria' by artist Larry Kirkland, does not appear to have any political significance that would make it a target.

Kirkland has said he intended the sculpture as a tribute to immigrant agricultural workers in Santa Rosa, the county seat of fertile Sonoma County.

The sculpture is a well-known landmark for tourists visiting Sonoma's wine country, and visitors often pose with the giant hand for photos.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9485085/Vandals-target-former-home-Derek-Chauvin-expert-witness-Barry-Brodd-severed-PIGS-HEAD.html

I am not really listening to the defense. Just got home about twenty minutes ago. How do you guys think the closing arguments are so far? Did the prosecution do a good job or not? How is the defense doing? He gets on my nerves so my opinion is judged from that perspective.

Yeah he gets on my nerves too so I’m not perfectly objective about the job they’re doing. But I think the case the defense has to make is ridiculous. There’s just no reason to doubt that the knee on the neck was at least partially responsible for the death.

I think the prosecution was very thorough in summarizing their case in closing.
The defense is still talking.

I think the prosecution has done a very thorough job and the defence has proven extremely weak. I have great hopes for the outcome.

I’m cautiously optimistic- very cautiously.

Unfortunately, as most of us know, the entire legal system is pretty much tilted in the police's favor. I heard on the radio today that the only policeman convicted in the state, ever, was a black officer convicted of killing a white woman. Were it not for the nine minute video (regardless of all the eyewitnesses), I wouldn't have any hope at all.

I understand why you feel that way. But I think a big change was his superiors and the expert witness (female) who said his reactions were over the top. That censure cracked the blue line a bit and for that reason I have hope.

The defense is still going on. I have it on mute. I hope he is not getting anywhere. I caught up with the prosecution's argument, and he did he pretty good job. I think the other one would have done better, he would have had more emotion.

In fact I changed the channel, can't take it. My heart is already feeling pressure today, my blood pressure was up when I was at the doctor. plus I just got second COVID test. Don't want to get myself all het up.

I hear you. A lot of people are saying that this was the first time that ‘blue wall of silence’ had been so strongly breached.
Did you see it when the Minneapolis Chief of Police was asked what he would say to Chauvin if he was alone in a room with him? He said
he wouldn’t want to be alone in a room with him.

Is that why Floyd's family received $27 million dollars? How about Breonna Taylor's family receiving $12million? How about police resigning in droves over the course of the past year because they are not allowed to do their jobs, and are being told to stand down as black criminals burn and loot cities?



Where did you hear that? Let me guess? NPR?

Those civil settlements have zero to do with police being held legally responsible for accidentally killing innocent people. FFS, it's not like the cops have to pay the settlement themselves.


It was well-covered at the time (2019). And it's pertinent in this case because the dead woman's family received twenty million dollars, which had been the largest settlement of its kind until now. You mean you never heard about it on Fox or OneAmerica?