Thursday, April 22, 2021

It Says an Awful Lot


It says an awful lot to me that there was this uncertainty that a person could be on video, quite obviously in control of a situation for nearly ten minutes while the life left the body of the man under him, in an attitude of almost nonchalant depravity, have a defense so weak that it boiled down to nonsense like "He was distracted into killing this man by all the bystanders shouting things like"You're killing him'" and we all still braced ourselves that something other than a "guilty" verdict would be returned.

It also says a lot to me that there are some people who no amount of obvious evidence would have persuaded--not that Chauvin killed George Floyd--but that this was actually wrong to do. And that the verdict, too, is treated like culture war. It tells us a lot about the culture involved.


4 comments:

Now Am Found! said...

yeah. me neither. but for once, if not justice, at least accountability for one murderous bad cop. but change the system? we'll see. very encouraging to see the diversity of the crowd of celebrators.

Jimmy T said...

I was somewhat worried about this, but the evidence offered by the prosecution was overwhelmingly clear. Mr Chavin murdered Mr Floyd in broad daylight with numerous witnesses who recorded the event. Even though too many people of color have been similarly murdered by police, this one instance provoked a response that sided with the murdered man even in places where murdering dark skinned citizens is deemed acceptable. I don't know how this moves forward, will it be a focused movement on justice for all or will it be a one off? I tend to see the former as the reasonable pathway, but then I may be just another optimist. But I hear the cracking of the timbers of a dam further upstream...

emjayay said...

Saturday Night Live got it a week before the verdict.

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/minnesota-news-cold-open/4342364

bt1138 said...

My thoughts exactly.

The fact that we were ALL worried that the guy who killed another guy on camera might not be convicted, while the people around him were shouting at him to not kill the guy for 10 minutes, really says a lot about the extent of the problems.

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