ARRGH!

 We understand that everyone wants former officer Chauvin to be convicted, tarred, feathered, dragged through every street in the United States and be incarcerated until the sun implodes into a white dwarf. 

But where is the defense attorney??

Does Minnesota have a rule of criminal procedure that says "the rule against leading questions is suspended when prosecutors conduct redirect questioning in cases where a white police officer killed an African American Man that are televised nationwide?"

If we had a dollar for every leading question asked on redirect in this case we could buy that beach front property in Maine we have our eye on. 

And how about this exchange- as an older man is testifying and breaks down crying after seeing the video of George Floyd being arrested and killed, the prosecutor asks "what are you feeling right now?" as the witness sobs uncontrollably and then testifies that his mother recently died, as if that has anything on earth to do with this case. 

And the defense? 

Nary a peep. No objection to the "how are you feeling right now" question as the man was uncontrollably sobbing. 

CHAUVIN TRIAL BEGINS

 The trial of former Minnesota Police Officer charged in the killing of George Floyd has begun.  Opening statements were given.  Can anyone explain to us how Mr. Chauvin will receive a fair trial? There are protests calling for his conviction. The prosecution has every possible lesser included as a charge. There is a spoken belief that an acquittal will cause the state and the country to erupt in flames. Jurors are under pressure. So is the Judge.  

Do not talk to us about what Mr. Chauvin did and how he deserves to be convicted. If that was our thought process then we would be a prosecutor. We are not prosecutors. We stand for those who no one else will stand for. KKK members. Nazi sympathizers who want to march in Jewish neighborhoods. Terrorists, Islamic, white supremacists, whatever. The more offensive the conduct, the more we need to be on guard and insist that the constitution be scrupulously followed.  

Outside of our job, which is really a life calling, we deplore violent police officers. We have had way too many clients whose noses were broken, eyes swollen shut, and were told they fell down or repeatedly hit their head on the cell bars. Query: How many city of Miami or Miami Beach police officers does it take to throw a defendant down a flight of stairs? Answer- None, he fell on his own. 

So do not talk to us about right and wrong. Talk to us about how Mr. Chauvin has a snowball's chance in the Suez Canal of getting a fair trial? Because we do not see it. 

And speaking of the Suez Canal, the Ever Whatever was floated and is now being moved. Hurray! 

ATLANTA SHOOTING 2.0

UPDATE: The DA of Atlanta announced tonight that there are three possible charges. First degree murder; Felony murder- the felony being aggravated assault; or manslaughter. Let us say this- one of the worst pandemics to hit the African American community is the felony murder rule. There are countless minority people serving life sentences for a murder they never committed. Filing a felony murder charge would be a total cop-out; an abandonment of the prosecutor's powers to bring charges. It's either first degree murder or manslaughter. 

Ralph Waldo Emmerson wrote that "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds", which is why- like the 11th circuit when they rule for the defendant and the government files a motion to reconsider- we are willing to reconsider  our positions  when we are wrong.

So here are our thoughts about the Atlanta shooting. 
First, from the perspective of the police, the Monday Morning quarterbacking we are seeing is nauseating. You cannot judge a police officer until you have been in his or her shoes. Until you know what it is like to leave your home every day for work with two infant children, hoping nothing happens that day and you can be there to raise them until adulthood. So when the officer is running in the parking lot and Rayshard Brooks turns and fires at him,  fear and training and instinct take over.

But we are willing to consider this deeper. And here is what we know. Brooks was intoxicated. Brooks was searched and no weapon was found. Brooks resisted arrest and disarmed the officer of his taser and fled. The Monday morning QB say that the officer overreacted and should have just let him run and in a moment Brooks would have stopped, winded and being intoxicated, surrendered. 

So the next question is whether this is a matter of race? Was Brooks being properly arrested? Yes. He was passed out, in a car, in a drive-through and apparently his breath alcohol as measured, was over the legal limit. 
So Brooks should have been arrested regardless of his race.

Next question: If Brooks was a white man, would he have been shot? 
Based on what we saw here, with the police officer reacting and over-reacting based on being attacked and having his taser taken-  yes, we think when that officer went after Brooks he was not thinking about Brooks being black. Does that mean that the inherent prejudices that arise with black men did not in some way affect the officer's decision to shoot? There is no way of knowing.

 Now, we have to take a moment and define our terms. Various social movements are highlighting the prejudices that arise simply from a man being black in America in 2020. The differences between the way the police treat a black man being stopped in a car and a white man being stopped in a car. Black parents have to speak to their teenage sons about the dangers of a traffic stop. White parents do not. This is what we mean by the term "inherent prejudice"- the simple and wrong action of judging someone as more dangerous simply because they are a black male.  

We have to disagree with our conclusion yesterday. The shooting is not so clear cut justified. 

But to take it a step further we have to engage in Monday Morning Quarterbacking. We have to say that the officer could have let Brooks run a bit more after Brooks discharged the taser at the officer. We have to say that the officer should not have actively chased Brooks and just remained a distance back and let him run himself out. These are all things that it is easy for us to do from the safety of our voluntary home confinement. Just like it is easy for us to decry how black men are treated differently by the police although we have never experienced such violent treatment. 

What we want to say is that this is not a matter of race. And yet...George Floyd couldn't breathe when a white officer used his knee to end his life. And yet Arthur McDuffie in Miami was shot and killed and the officers acquitted. And yet there are literally hundreds of instances of black men like Trayvon Martin being killed by white men. In 2009 Oscar Grant, a black teenager, was shot in the back and killed by white officers in San Francisco. In November 2019, Ariane McCray was shot and killed by white officers in South Carolina after being stopped for shoplifting at a Walmart. Terrance Franklin, a 22 year old black man was shot and killed in 2013b with his hands in air by Minneapolis SWAT officers responding to a burglary complaint. The list goes on and on and on and on. It is why people are taking to the streets. They have had enough. And we- the wealthy, successful ruling class of America have not listened closely enough. We have shaken our heads in sadness until the next black man was shot and killed or choked to death and then we have shaken our heads again. 

The time for just shaking our heads has run out. That is why people are protesting and burning things and attacking police stations. 
 So how can we say this is not a matter of race when time and time again race factors into an officer's decision to use force and deadly force? 

We are confounded. We do not want this to be about race. And yet....