... is the way most of us should think of the trial in Minnesota. That is, we should know so little about it that we get the names confused. A rando thug died while overdosing as a rando cop held him down. If it had been either of my brothers, I'd have shrugged and moved on to the day's activities. I mean, it's not like this was a surprise. It wasn't going to end any other way. Drug addicts are like that.
KT's Summary of the George Floyd incident: Drug addicts come in all colors. Sometimes, drug addicts overdose. Drug addicts are very likely to encounter cops. Cops come in all colors. In this case, the overdose and the encounter happened simultaneously while the addict was black and the cop was white. BURN IT ALL DOWN!
It does at least provide an interesting problem in logic. Can you murder someone who is in the middle of killing themselves? If Floyd had a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, did Chuavin murder him if his bullet went through Floyd's skull first?
This case is even murkier than that. There's no indication that Chauvin intended to kill Floyd. There's certainly no indication that race was a factor. The question is really, "Can you accidentally murder someone who is in the act of committing suicide?" Of course, in a country where trees can be considered racist, it hardly matters what anyone's intent might have been. The race-crazed among us will do what they do. Wise people are even now preparing for the burning and looting.
On the right, it's an opportunity to attack the media for biased coverage. Also, we should note that the sun rose in the east this morning. I wrote that last fact down in my experimental journal. I'm beginning to see a pattern.
The death and the trial should be a distasteful non-event for the rest of us, not some kind of societal inflection point. The world is full of such things every day.
Going back to my summary above, it suggests our cities were doomed from the start. Given the size of the populations involved and a time frame of years, such an interaction was inevitable from a probabilistic point of view.
If you want to read an expert take on the trial, visit Powerline. Here's their latest.
On a much happier note, I found the excellent webcam below. When I work from home, I have my Citrix client open on one screen and a nature webcam on the other. I find it calming and cheerful. I like the aquatic ones the best, but they've been a bit murky lately, so this one is my go-to these days.
Enjoy!
Speaking of Webcams, the Great Horned Owl cam over in Hancock (about a half-mile from our house as the owl flies) is kind of peak-owl at the moment. The two chicks are almost full-sized, with just a bit of fluff left. They will probably be flying off in the next couple of weeks.
ReplyDeletehttps://video.nest.com/live/9fiHIDm83n
My .25: Chauvin has not received a fair trial from the start. The state chose the venue, and has nearly unlimited resources plus pro bono help from a few powerful law firms.
ReplyDeleteChauvin has one lawyer and his assistant.
That said, Chauvin's lawyer has done an incredible job on cross exam. He's done his job so well most of the states' witnesses testimony can be used for the defense. The prosecution was visibly distraught after one of their expert use of force witnesses stated he had restrained perps in a similar manner as Chauvin until the paramedics showed up.
The prosecution's best option is relying on emotion and keeping the trial focus in a vacuum of the infamous recording. When other factors come into play, their case seemingly breaks down.
added note: virtually everything originally reported about the incident last may was a complete fabrication. It's starting to remind me of the Zimmerman trial.
Tim, those are some huge owlets! I'll bet they've gotten to the eye-rolling, "What-EVER" stage with mom and dad. Thanks for the link.
ReplyDeletepsudrozz - The important thing is that we find some witches to burn.
ReplyDeleteA while back, I finally saw the preliminary video to the 9-minute knee on the neck part. It was eye-opening. Floyd is the size of an NFL linebacker and was totally out of control, clearly drugged out of his mind. The fact that the government powers had this footage, but didn't show it and allowed their cities to burn went a long way towards me concluding that our current leadership class has no idea how anything works.
They allowed their tax base to burn and their cops to leave so they could whip up a race frenzy in the hopes of getting out their voters. They took steps to destroy the very prize they were trying to win. Unbelievable.
Not just additional video was surpressed....the autopsy wasn't released until late October.
ReplyDeleteMinneapolis was rubble by the time we found out St. George had thrice the lethal amount of fentanyl in him combined with meth. We also found out from the autopsy he was covid positive, there were NO bruises on his neck, had severe heart issues including arteries blocked up to 75%.
And I think that is a huge issue for the prosecution. Because when their witnesses are introduced to the totality of evidence, the witness testimony backs the defense.
Will this be enough for one juror to doubt the ever changing prosecutions stance on what might have killed Floyd? Unknown. I think for both charges one has to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Chauvin's use of force was reckless and resulted in Floyd's death. Not "might have resulted" or "might have been reckless", but definitively.
The trial is simply the ignitor we happened to trigger. Given the level of ambient rage fed by the media, our schools and politicians, Minneapolis and other cities might well have burned with any number of other catalysts. When we were told to stop seeing each other as individuals, this was bound to happen eventually. That's what I was getting at with the probability take. It's like Wile E. Coyote locked in a room of explosives, striking matches for light.
ReplyDelete