The Derek Chauvin Trial

I doubt this compares, but I tried changing ingrained habits that I had since childhood - the most ingrained onces took over 15 years to change - but the most subtle ones are the same for me (I still have lapses). That is to say, any improvements are an achievement, but the more you improve and the more difficult the change - the greater the achievement. A setback here and there is small besides the actual scale of the achievements.

My symptoms were:
selective mutism
fear to meet strangers
mind going blank when confronted by authoritative figures
fear to be seen by others while walking in public ---
aggravated by a bullying stepfather and extreme poverty

Before I left home I had to work for relatives because of fear to work with anyone else

Only desperation could make a person like that just leave. But for the kindness of some strangers, I likely wouldn't have made it.

I like your current signature. Couldn't agree with any statement more!

I would just add two words:

Sentencing in four days...

I can feel my throat tightening up.

My gut feeling is that there will be a fairly stern sentence here.
I’m more afraid of what people will take that to mean. I hope they don’t read it as “See? The system is fixed! We can all go back to not worrying about injustice or police brutality now, because it’s all under control.”

This from Shaun King today

Biden didn’t even fight for the voting rights bill to pass. As 48 states all have bills to pull back voting rights, Democrats will regret the day they didn’t fight back with everything they had on this. Also, that headline is from CNN for those of you that only believe stuff when white folk say it on the mainstream news.

My first reaction was to wonder why this was in the Chauvin thread and not the Biden one. But so it goes...

Sean King (and people who tend to adhere to whatever comes out of his mouth) is very often needlessly and uselessly antagonistic and provocative. Needless. Useless.

Think not? Well then kindly flesh out Sean King’s breathless accusation of Biden for not “fighting hard enough”.
What precisely could Biden have done? If all 50 Democratic senators were with him, and all the Republican senators are under Mitch McConnells thrall, what actions do you think Biden should take to get voting rights passed? Invite McConnell to tea? Maybe to a boxing match? Rant and rave on every channel and medium about why voting rights is good, and opposing it is bad? What?

There is one thing about which I would jump on the bandwagon with King and other left wing loudmouths. That is, Biden and all the democrats need to nuke the damn filibuster. All the arguments for keeping it seem to me tantamount to saying “We’d better not use our power to get what we want, because when the republicans get back in power we’ll be sorry!” I think that’s stupid and cowardly. But that’s for another time.

The bully pulpit can be used to pressure legislators. It's not guaranteed to work, but it is one thing that a president might do.



Well, not all arguments against the filibuster say that.

But let's see if you still disagree with that particular argument once the Republicans are back in power.

Well if you think it belongs in the other thread I won't pursue it. I just believe that without voting rights every advance made for ending white supremacy and the other related ills will be reversed very shortly when only conservatives have a say who gets to vote.

Jesus Ed - that’s just more puffery.
It’s fine to shake our fists in the air and talk about what policies we SHOULD get passed. But please answer the question -
If you agree with Sean King, that Biden’s not fighting hard enough for voting rights...
What SPECIFICALLY do you think Biden should be doing differently?

Tomorrow!!!!

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/24/derek-chauvin-to-be-sentenced-for-murder-of-george-floyd

So he could get 30 years... or even 40, which is doubtful. But the question is - what will his life be like (if anyone cares) behind bars for that long as a former police officer? Already everyone in there hates you, but as a police office guilty of at least manslaughter on a black person in a prison with a majority of blacks? Boggles the mind.

They're wanting him to go to a federal prison because they have more money than state prisons.

The judge apparently already doesn't like him. And the article mentions him whacking a 14 year old in the head multiple times in prior days. Who or what even does that?

He should end up in a prison for nonviolent inmates. I can't see any cause for sending him to a place that deals with violent inmates.

My 1st thought is 20, could be even 15. But this judge has been pretty disgusted with this person and his continued violence toward the black community. With aggravating circumstances (this act was performed in front of children); and its cruelty, I'm leaning towards 40 years as an action towards policemen everywhere that they are the guardians of their communities! He should be placed in whatever prisoner anyone else would be placed in and in the general population. If anyone here doesn't believe the white population has as "tough" a group as the black population is deluded. He did the crime and deserves the time!

There are violent people everywhere, lol Someone with a beef or a grievance, c'mon! The Federal prisons are what his lawyer wants is because they have more money and therefore more access.

All I ask is... how would I spend the next 30+years in a federal institution, eating whatever they serve me, wearing their clothing (?), exercising when they tell me to, doing whatever they say, my guard hating me, my fellow convicts out for me ... and I'm sure over time it gets easier or better (people get married, have conjugal rights), but really... to KNOW you're going to be there until you're 70+...? Yeah, that's why people take their lives.

I have zero experience with prisons (either as a guard or as an inmate or as the family of an inmate), but my understanding is that they put the violent inmates in high security prisons and the nonviolent inmates in low security prisons.

I doubt that the guards will hate him or that his fellow convicts will be out for him.

My (admittedly limited) understanding is that inmates in low security nonviolent prisons have some degree of freedom what they do all day.

Anybody else watching the sentencing?

Yes

22.5 years
Minus 190 days time served comes to about 22 even.