Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
People shouldn't be defending Chauvin here. The guy had a bad disciplinary record BEFORE this incident, and shouldn't have been on the force when this occurred.
Interestingly, Amy Klobuchar was accused of failing to charge Chauvin when she was DA in 2006, but it seems that she wasn't actually the one in charge of that case.
I watched the entire video. You can see that Floyd, who was both claustrophobic and on fentanyl (but only admitted the former), was freaking out about being put in the squad car. However, Chauvin told him that he'd open the window for him, which usually alleviates a lot of the claustrophobia people experienced when handcuffed and put in a squad car. (Being in handcuffs can actually bring on claustrophobia for people who normally don't experience it, and can be really unnerving for people who do regularly experience it.)
The open window offer was important because it shows that Chauvin wasn't approaching the matter in a cruel or brutal fashion. He could have been a dick and refused to open the car's windows, citing safety concerns. He didn't. He was willing to open the windows!
Unfortunately, Floyd freaked out anyway, and tried to wiggle out of the car once put in, and it all went downhill from there.
Now, at that point, Chauvin fucked up. When a guy keeps saying he can't breathe, you need to find another way to handle the situation, even if he physically can breathe. Between the fact that Floyd was able to easily talk while he "couldn't breathe" (which wouldn't be possible), and the autopsy's findings, it doesn't seem that Chauvin murdered him by cutting off his air. However, Floyd PERCEIVED he couldn't breathe, and between the fentanyl, his claustrophobia, and his anxiety about the situation, Floyd had a heart attack.
His official cause of death was "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression", which basically means that he had a heart attack because he either couldn't breathe or perceived he couldn't breathe.
Anyway, Chauvin should have seen that Floyd wasn't right in the head, and should have dealt with Floyd in some other way than the knee-on-neck method he used, or even called for more assistance to handle the situation properly. To have your knee on the guy's neck when he's repeatedly saying he can't breathe, when he hasn't directly attacked anyone, is pretty bad. Chauvin was just sick of dealing with Floyd's craziness, and basically said "Fuck him, I don't care if he panics, I'm doing what I need to do to fully restrain him."
Was this police brutality? Yes.
Was it manslaughter? In my opinion, yes.
Was it murder? I don't believe so. It definitely wasn't first degree murder or second degree murder, as it's clear Chauvin never intended to kill him. Third degree murder is defined as, "The unintentional killing of another through an eminently dangerous act committed with a depraved mind and without regard for human life." On the surface, it might seem like Chauvin committed an 'eminently dangerous act' with the knee-on-neck hold, but that's not what this charge is for. This charge is for things such as setting a building on fire without knowing if it was occupied or not, dropping a brick off a freeway overpass on a random passing car's windshield, or firing a gun randomly into a crowd. In these cases, while you didn't intentionally target a victim, you clearly did something which you obviously knew at the time had a high chance of killing someone. Chauvin thought he was performing a hold on a panicky and difficult suspect who was avoiding being put in the squad car. It wasn't obvious that it would kill Floyd, and in fact probably wouldn't have if Floyd wasn't on fentanyl at the time.
Was it racist? I don't believe so. Chauvin was just an asshole cop with a power complex, who had been in trouble before for brutality. He would have behaved the same way with a large white man acting like Floyd did. It just happened in this case that Floyd was black. There is zero evidence that this was a racist killing.
I would convict him of police brutality and manslaughter, but not murder.
My take isn't popular on either side. Many (though not all) on the right want to defend Chauvin and claim he wasn't guilty of anything. Almost all on the left believe it was a murder by a racist cop. Both of these beliefs are incorrect, from what I can see.
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