SHOW NOTES: Derek Chauvin Trial Opening Arguments
Courtney Kirchoff - March 29, 2021 at 09:44AM
It's day one of the Derek Chauvin trial, and the mainstream media can't be trusted to give you the facts. We'll tell you what they WON'T about George Floyd and give you the TRUTHS media likely won't cover.
VIDEODEREK CHAUVIN TRIAL LIVESTREAM: Opening Arguments! | Louder with Crowder youtu.be
KEY DETAILS
Chauvin's Defense: Eric Nelson
Prosecutors: Keith Ellison (Minnesota AG), Matthew Frank, Jerry Blackwell, Steven Schleicher
Judge: Peter Cahill
WHAT:
Chauvin has 3 charges against him: (1) second-degree manslaughter, (2) second degree unintentional murder and (3) third degree murder.
Judge Cahill had previously dropped the third degree murder charge, stating it did not apply. It was reinstated after a Minnesota Court applied third-degree murder to another case involving a cop accidentally shooting and killing a woman.
As defined by Minnesota law, a person is guilty of second-degree manslaughter when "by the person's culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another" SOURCE: Minnesota Legislature
Second-degree unintentional murder is any action that, SOURCE: Minnesota Legislature
"causes the death of a human being, without intent to effect the death of any person, while committing or attempting to commit a felony offense other than criminal sexual conduct in the first or second degree with force or violence or a drive-by shooting"
Third degree murder: SOURCE Minnesota Legislature
"Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree."
Earlier this month, the House passed the George Floyd Policing Bill, HR 1280. It includes: SOURCE: Congress.gov
Withholds funds from departments that do not ban chokeholds
Labels chokeholds "civil rights violations"
Bans racial profiling
Establishes a training program for law enforcement officers to cover racial profiling, implicit bias, and procedural justice
Limits less-lethal force
Ends qualified immunity/good faith clause
Redirects federal funds to "community-based" oversight organizations
National police misconduct registry available to the public
Requires states to send quarterly reports to the AG on misconduct
Noncompliance from state=10% decrease in funds
Floyd's toxicology report by Andrew Baker, Hennepin County's Chief Medical examiner:
The autopsy revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation."
"If Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors [the examiner] would conclude that it was an overdose death."
RAP SHEET
Floyd was arrested a total of 9 times, mostly for dealing cocaine, and did about 7.5 years in jail.
5 of those years were for robbing a mother with her toddler in the room and pointing a gun at her stomach. SOURCE: Snopes
The Minneapolis Police Department trained their officers to restrain suspects by putting their knee on their neck. SOURCE: Kare11
The officers were extremely accommodating of Floyd, and spent over 10 minutes trying to get him into the car. SOURCE: YouTube
CRIME STATS
African-Americans make up 53% of known homicide offenders in the U.S. and commit about 60% of robberies, but are only ~25% of those killed by police.
POLICE STATS
The police fatally shot 9 unarmed blacks and 19 unarmed whites in 2019. SOURCE: WSJ
One of the "unarmed" black men had a loaded gun in his car during a police chase. Since it wasn't on his body, he was "unarmed."
Multiple studies have found that police are no more likely to shoot blacks than whites. SOURCE: UMD.edu , NBER
An officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer. SOURCE: ManhattanInstitute
According to a 2011 report by the Obama administration, black males ages 14-24 commit homicide at 37x the rate of the normal population. SOURCE: BJS
BLM RIOT STATS
BLM: $2B in property damage just from May 26-June 8. SOURCE: Axios
At least 900 police officer casualties. SOURCE: LwC
112 Minneapolis PD officers filed disability claims due to PTSD. SOURCE: AP
Minneapolis then spent $6.4M to recruit new police officers. SOURCE: AP
GEORGE FLOYD AUTONOMOUS ZONE
During jury selection, Floyd's family received $27M from the city of Minneapolis.
$500k of the $27M was donated to businesses in the George Floyd Autonomous Zone, where police and press aren't allowed in and several bodies have been found. SOURCE: Twitter
The defense slammed the timing of the settlement, citing it's obvious prejudice. Judge Cahill asked the prosecutors to "stop talking about" the settlement. SOURCE: DailyMail
We sent our George Floyd Autonomous Zone Correspondent Thomas Finnegan to see how it's going.
ANTICIPATED CLAIMS
CLAIM: Chauvin is guilty of second-degree unintentional murder. The felony committed was assault.
Definition of second-degree unintentional murder: " causes the death of a human being, without intent to effect the death of any person, while committing or attempting to commit a felony offense other than criminal sexual conduct in the first or second degree with force or violence or a drive-by shooting"
Definition of assault: SOURCE: Minnesota Legislature
"an act done with intent to cause fear in another of immediate bodily harm or death; or (2) the intentional infliction of or attempt to inflict bodily harm upon another."
TRUTH: For this to be true, Chauvin would have had to both have committed a felony and caused Floyd's death.
The toxicology report suggests lethal amounts of drugs and an underlying heart condition killed Floyd, and the autopsy finds no evidence of strangulation or asphyxiation.
And Chauvin did not assault Floyd. He followed police training for the Maximum Restraint Technique.
CLAIM: Chauvin is guilty of third degree murder.
Definition of third-degree murder: "Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree."
TRUTH: Chauvin would have to have caused Floyd's death. The Hennepin County toxicology report and autopsy found,
"... no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation."
"If Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors he [the examiner] would conclude that it was an overdose death."
CLAIM: Chauvin is guilty of second-degree manslaughter.
Definition of second-degree manslaughter: "by the person's culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another,"
TRUTH: Chauvin would have to have displayed "culpable negligence."
He was actually just following Minneapolis Police Department protocol.
If there is negligence here, it lies in the police training-not in Chauvin's individual actions.
CLAIM: Chauvin killed Floyd by kneeling on his neck.
TRUTH: The Hennepin County toxicology report showed lethal amounts of fentanyl in Floyd's system, and concluded:
"The autopsy revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation."
"If Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors he [the examiner] would conclude that it was an overdose death."
CLAIM: Floyd said he couldn't breathe because of Chauvin's knee.
TRUTH: Floyd said he couldn't breathe before being restrained. SOURCE: YouTube
CLAIM: Chauvin intended to kill or harm Floyd by kneeling on his neck.
TRUTH 1: That restraint technique was part of the Minneapolis Police Department's training. SOURCE: Kare11
TRUTH 2: Chauvin's partner, Thomas Lane, was the one who suggested they use the technique. SOURCE: DailyBeast
WORTH NOTING
In the body cam footage, Chauvin continued to keep his knee Floyd for 4 minutes after an officer said "I think he passed out."
Lane also suggested Chauvin turn Floyd on his side twice. Chauvin said "no" the first time, and did not answer the second time.
CLAIM: Floyd was compliant.
TRUTH: The cops spent about 10 minutes trying to coax Floyd into the cop car. SOURCE: YouTube
from Steven Crowder Says