I will never understand this at all. Listening to NPR talk about the case this morning and similarly summarizing... I just tried to understand the sentence that could possibly go from A to B to death. I mean, yes - people die from heart disease and complications from drug use ALL THE TIME... but that's like saying I could shoot a cancer patient and be like "not my fault - he had cancer and he used to smoke meth". I was shocked that they even tried that defense.The defence also attempted to claim that Chauvin’s actions had nothing to do with Floyd’s death, and that he died from a cardiac arrest caused by an enlarged and diseased heart, and exacerbated by drug use.
Before everything was on film this is exactly the kind of defense that would have worked. Total deference has been the norm. If not filmed we would have heard about how this giant of a man, crazed on drugs assaulted these poor officers and killed hiself with his exertions. It probably wouldn't have even made to a grand jury.
I see it as the defense had no choice but to grasp at even the flimsiest of defenses. I’m surprised that there has been little mention of Chauvin resting his knee on a man’s neck so casually that he’s got one hand buried in his pocket. In absolutely no way does this smug jackoff appear to be in need of kneeling on another man’s neck. At no time is there even the slightest chance that. George Floyd might do a Hulk Smash! toss aside four officers and two squad cars and tear up Minneapolis. Chauvin was protecting no one, he was soothing his Napoleon complex by dominating a larger person. In what world can we even begin to believe that Chauvin is not in complete control of the end of another man’s life? Chauvin is now responsible for abusing his power as an officer of the law and this will set a precedent for similar situations. We can hope that this, at least. Damn Steve, I’ve been surviving breaking cancer for just over nine years now. I’d hopethat the next traffic cop to pull me over won’t work me over with a baton claiming, “This dude’s brain was in bad shape to begin with!”,so it’s cool.
The original police information release on the incident was true to form. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EzdPQzeXMAUiPPX?format=jpg&name=medium
It’s amazing that some one put their actual fingers on an actual keyboard and typed that and then clicked a button to publish it. I get that they’re doing their job and that they’re likely pretty removed from it. But I can’t imagine what they thought when they saw the footage. That’s a short film I’d like to make.
There's a whole book about this. It's 60 years old.
Does anyone know if this is a British thing, or just an error? It's from the copypasta'd source, not steve. The defense also tried to argue that, hey, since Chauvin and Floyd were near a running cop car, maybe Floyd died of carbon monoxide poisoning since his mouth was held at the ground level. Sorry, why does it matter how Chauvin murdered Floyd? There was no defending what Chauvin did. We've all seen the footage. It's so weird to see people feel the need to excuse away an obvious murder, or even side with Chauvin. "Weird" being "racist" just about 100% of the time. Consider White America's opioid "crisis", litigated with class action lawsuits, and treated as "just tragic" vs. "Well, I guess Floyd had it coming. Deserved it, really". This time, justice prevailed. Maybe it requires this level of national scrutiny to, um, incentivize the jury to put their biases aside. Hopefully not.The defence
You are now aware that Noah Webster decided British spelling was bullshit and set about to make American less phonetically tortuous: As to the meat of your observations: Because extenuating circumstances impact what crimes Chauvin was charged with and what he could be convicted of. Meanwhile, the American legal system is predicated on every defendant being able to avail themselves of a vigorous defense. Which leads to the following observation: Right - which means a "vigorous defense" is reliant on some pretty left-field jiggery pokery in order to instill a "reasonable doubt." I mean, mental exercise: you have to defend Derek Chauvin in a court of law. He is not pleading. He's either going to be an example for the Left for the next 10 years or an example for the Right for the next 20. You swore an oath. Your professional and ethical obligation is to do your level fuckin' best to get Derek Chauvin acquitted. What's your play? If that's not Kobayashi Maru enough for you, let's presume you're a thinking, feeling human being with an awareness of the stakes, of the emotions, of the symbolism and of the importance of this trial. That vigorous defense you're presenting - can you do it in such a way that you're not going to inflame things further? You defend Derek Chauvin in just the wrong direction and he's suddenly Stacey Koon. I've seen a number of people point out what a horrific thing it is that such an obvious verdict was ever in doubt. As it is, things didn't get worse today, which is about the best we could hope for, I think.Does anyone know if this is a British thing, or just an error? It's from the copypasta'd source, not steve.
Noah Webster was struck by the inconsistencies of English spelling and the obstacles it presented to learners (young and old alike) and resented that American classrooms were filled only with British textbooks. The spelling reform featured in his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, was based on the author's combined vision of logic and aesthetics. He changed the –ce in words like defence, offence, and pretence to –se; abandoned the second, silent "l" in verbs such as travel and cancel when forming the past tense; dropped the "u" from words such as humour and colour; and dropped the "k" from words such as publick and musick. The "publick" readily accepted many of these changes and just as readily rejected some of the others.
Sorry, why does it matter how Chauvin murdered Floyd?
There was no defending what Chauvin did. We've all seen the footage.
Halfway to embarrassed about that. Scalia couldn't die soon enough. My only defense is that my memory is highly contextual and that the ornate machinations necessary to make a ridiculous legal gambit into a strategy triggered whatever neuronal pathways my Scalia references dwell within.
For shame, about the Noah Webster stuff. If you would stop being better than Google, I would ask you less questions. (don't stop) But yeh, any agreement between the American judicial system and the not-too-radical sects of the social justice movement is also fine by me.