Biden's systematic racism meme

 Jack Cashill:

Although he made up his mind before jury did, President Joe Biden quickly went public once he learned that the Minneapolis jury had, in fact, convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin on all charges.

“It was a murder in the full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism the vice president just referred to — the systemic racism that is a stain on our nation’s soul.” So said the only president to have given a eulogy at the funeral of an Exalted Klan Cyclops, and that just 10 years before Floyd’s death.

The comments by Biden, endorsed by the media, frame the Overton window on George Floyd’s death and Derek Chauvin’s verdict. The only acceptable public opinion is that Chauvin intentionally caused Floyd’s death. If proof were needed, former NFL great Brett Favre was tarred and feathered on Twitter for haplessly suggesting otherwise.

The only question for debate really is whether Chauvin was a bad apple or a symptom of a rotten barrel. Ignoring the fact that three of Chauvin’s fellow officers will soon face trial for the same death, Biden, Harris, and their media allies came down firmly on the side of systemic rottenness. To confirm their suspicions, the White House sent Attorney General Merrick Garland to Minnesota to root out the rot.

Before weighing in further on the issue, however, Biden and his ventriloquists need to ask themselves one fundamental question: How exactly did a city with a liberal mayor and a black police chief in a state with a liberal governor and a black liberal attorney general breed a crew of racist killers, three of whom are non-white?

In the way of background, sometime in mid-May 2020 I heard screams outside my urban office. Going out to check, I saw a male cop kneeling on the shoulder/neck area of a prone, handcuffed woman. He was white. She was too, thank God. This story had no news value. Our city was spared.

After about 10 minutes of her struggling and screaming, backup arrived. I did not see what the woman had done to deserve her predicament, but the arriving officers promptly placed a Hannibal the Cannibal mask over her head. I presumed the offense must have been serious.

A week or so later, when I saw the George Floyd tape, I was not shocked. I had seen in person the same restraint applied to a woman. It does look awful. Given what I had seen on my street, I chose not to prejudge the officers. I needed the prosecutors to convince me “beyond a reasonable doubt” of the two facts they would have to prove to the jury.


The first, as defense attorney Eric Nelson phrased it, was that Chauvin had “an intent to purposefully use unlawful force.” The second, just as important, was that “the defendant’s actions caused the death of Mr. Floyd.”

For the record, Chauvin had nothing to do with Floyd’s passing of a counterfeit $20 bill. Two rookie cops, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, were summoned to the scene by the store manager. They pulled in at 8:08 p.m. At about 8:16, Park Police Officer Peter Chang arrived.

After receiving a call that officers needed assistance, Chauvin and his partner, Tou Thao, arrived at 8:17. Chang pointed to the car where Kueng and Lane were struggling with Floyd. “Go over there,” said Chang. “They need your help.” Floyd — 6 feet 4 and 223 pounds at the time of his autopsy — was aggressively resisting arrest. The two rookie officers could not get him into the police car.

At the request of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers, Chang was monitoring the scene. The crowd was “very aggressive, aggressive toward the officers,” he testified. Unlike the other four officers, Chang was not charged.

After assessing the situation for about one minute, Chauvin joined in the struggle to get the handcuffed Floyd seated. He did not use any racial slurs. Nor did he curse Floyd or call him names. Although authorized to use higher levels of force — including punches, kicks, elbows, or Taser — he chose not to. He heard Floyd repeat the refrain “I can’t breathe” and saw the foam around his mouth, suggesting a drug overdose. He engaged Floyd in a conversation:

Chauvin: You need to take a seat right now.

Floyd: And I just had COVID, man. I don’t want to go through that. 

Chauvin: Okay. I’ll roll the windows down. Hey, listen. You need to take a seat right now. 

Floyd: Dang, man. 

Chauvin: Listen. 

Floyd: I’m not that kind of guy.

Chauvin: I’ll roll the windows down if you put your legs in, all right? I’ll put the air on.

Roughly six or seven minutes before Floyd took his last breath, Chauvin had shown no signs of racism or brutality, let alone the potential for murder. To this point in the interaction, he had been polite, professional, and, if anything, too patient. “I’ll put the air on” — are those the words of a racist killer, Joe?

As Chauvin understood, attempting to subdue a drugged suspect a half a foot taller than he and 80 pounds heavier was not going to be easy. Finally acknowledging the futility of their collective efforts, Chauvin let Floyd leave the car at 8:19. “Thank you. Thank you,” said Floyd. When ordered to hit the ground, he sighed, “I want to lay on the ground, I want to lay on the ground. I’m going down, I’m going down. I’m going down.”

Rejecting the more aggressive but legal hobble restraint — cuffed hands and legs connected behind the suspect — Chauvin used the same restraint I saw applied on the sidewalk outside my office: knee on the area where the shoulder meets the neck. In addition to the officers’ body cams, Chauvin could see bystanders recording the scene. If he were intentionally violating the law, he knew he would be found out.
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There is more.  I do not recall any evidence that Chauvin's actions were racially motivated being introduced at the trial.  If such evidence existed I think it would have been produced because of the racially charged atmosphere surrounding the trial.  I did not hear any evidence that Chauvin indicated an intent to kill Floyd.  Obviously, the prosecution implied that from what happened to Floyd but they did not produce evidence of an intent to kill.  You put that together with the report that supports the theory that Floyd died from an overdose of dangerous drugs and it looks like the verdict was an injustice based on a fear of a mob reaction to an acquittal.