Unlike most people, I actually watched the Derek Chauvin trial.  I practiced law for 35 years, and although I did not act for clients charged with committing criminal offences (except early in my career), I believe my education and background give me more insight into judicial systems in Canada and the United States than the average person.  The trial and the verdict really bothered me.

What I am about to write is contrary to virtually all media pronouncements and those left-leaning members of society who are convinced that Black and Indigenous peoples are discriminated against by the White majority, that systemic racism is a reality that exists in all aspects of our lives, and poor George Floyd was a clear victim of racism. I have always thought that such allegations were piddle, but have been extensively relied upon by those who embrace the idea that they are destined to have less than other members of society.   After all, the systemic racism they have allegedly endured entitles them to whatever it is they now desire. And the White people consumed with guilt for whatever it was they did to improve the overall quality of their lives must now repent and never, ever object to whatever handouts the self-described oppressed demand from the rest of us.

All situations involving police officers shooting Blacks— and there are approximately a dozen recent incidents—those Blacks were in the process of committing a crime, and the officers involved were white and for the most part, doing what society was paying them to do.

The poster boy for the Black Lives Matter charade was a large bully by the name of Michael Brown.  Brown had just robbed a convenience store in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and when confronted by a police officer responding to the robbery, tried to wrestle the officer’s gun away from him, and in the process, Brown was shot and killed.  The Blacks of Ferguson quickly realized that they could not let this opportunity pass as they now had an excuse to riot, burn, loot, and destroy property.  This reaction was not confined to Ferguson but was repeated virtually throughout the United States as members of society’s underbelly realized they had a golden opportunity to commit crimes of various forms and do so with impunity and without the usual risk of being arrested.  Anarchy, which exists just below the surface in the United States, was unleashed with an unaccountable vengeance.  Liberals, and cowed police departments, simply stood by and watched as innocent business owners—usually hard-working immigrants—saw their businesses destroyed by mostly Black and naïve White thugs.  The perpetrators were allowed to commit mayhem and do so with impunity, as police cowered, afraid to intervene.  Police forces across the United States were bullied, terrified that their intervention would further inflame the situation.  This passive approach to law enforcement had the effect of giving the “green light” to and empowering the anarchists.  The mob was just waiting for an incident to further belittle and criticize police officers should they try and intervene to stop any form of illegality that was going on.  The mostly Black protesters thumbed their noses at authority as they grabbed bottles of booze, big-screen television sets, and brand-new pairs of Nikes, all the while being egged on by too many “woke” civic leaders and indirectly encouraged by passive chiefs of police simply afraid to intervene.

Following the Brown debacle, the phony chant rose up: “Hands up, don’t shoot” (even though Brown never raised his hands). That false narrative empowered thousands of Blacks to march, repeating those words over and over again along with “pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon,” a reference to police forces.  These “peaceful” protestors waited until dark to burn, riot, destroy and loot and as they did so, the sympathetic first Black president of the United States did little to stem the rioting except to send his Black Attorney General to Ferguson to, of all things, investigate its allegedly racist police department.  The Ferguson Police Department was deemed to be racist because a member of that force had the audacity to try and arrest a thug who had just committed a robbery and tried to disarm that police officer of his weapon.  A perfect definition of “police misconduct.” What a joke all of this has become, starting in Ferguson and ending most recently in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Columbus, Ohio.  In Columbus, a Black teenaged girl—a big Black teenaged girl—was in the act of stabbing another girl when a White officer arrived on the scene and shot the knife-wielding girl just an instant before she would have stabbed the other girl.  Of course, the result was predictable.  The media and dumb-ass sports personalities jumped into the fray. One basketball star with an IQ equal to his sweater number called the incident a “White cop killing an innocent teenaged Black girl,” and went so far as to tweet the name and picture of the young police officer who had just saved the life of another Black girl! 

All of this defies logic and foretells a society that none of us would want to live in.  Certain segments of our society have serious, inherent problems which they must solve before it is too late and do so without blaming their wretched lives on others.

The charlatans prominent in the Black community have fallen all over themselves to rush into the middle of any incident for which they can attach some form of blame to a White police officer.   From what I have observed, these Black lawyers have enriched themselves in the process of pretending to care one iota about their clients.  Lawsuits immediately follow these incidents as instantly the police officers are assumed to have done something wrong. Their employers do not have the guts to stand up and defend their officers or provide any semblance of due process.  These lawyers, who seem to me to have obtained their law degrees from a cereal package, rub their hands together in glee as they dream of the pot of gold their contingency fee share of a certain settlement will bring to their coffers.  This form of legalized blackmail is quickly paid by these various municipalities in the hopes that their communities will be spared by the rioting mob. Notwithstanding the fact that the mayor and chief of police are, in most cases, Black, they have no control over the anarchists as greed and lawlessness trumps civil obedience.

There have been, as noted above, other incidents of White police officers becoming involved in police shootings and the resulting death of people who are in the process of committing crimes or resisting arrest.  Whether or not the shootings are justified, riots ensue.  That is simply the way things are done these days.  The police are racist, end of story.  The perpetrators are innocent Blacks who in reality live a dangerous, concrete jungle lifestyle where criminal activity is commonplace.  Parental guidance is nonexistent as these mostly young men run wild where criminal lifestyles and violence have become the norm and a way of life.  But it is not their fault.  It is the fault of our “White” society and the systemic racism the poor young Black men must endure.  So, a White police officer enforcing the law has no right to interfere with whatever criminal activity may be going on at any given time because, in fact, those committing the crimes are the real, legitimate victims.  This kind of twisted thought process simply cannot endure without catastrophic results reverberating throughout an entire society.  White police officers will simply look the other way when a Black person is committing a crime.  Why in the world would any sensible person not do the same?  Enforce the law, get into a confrontation, the person committing the crime pulls a gun or another deadly weapon, and a police officer responds and a death results, the police officer’s life is now ruined but the surviving family members of the deceased criminal become independently wealthy through lawsuits which are quickly settled with more than generous payouts.  Everyone with a brain must realize that what has become the norm cannot continue without catastrophic consequences.  The White members of society will only go along with this form of abuse for so long before a backlash results, a backlash that will not be a pretty sight.

This brings me back to the Derek Chauvin, George Floyd matter.  Derek Chauvin’s life is ruined, and George Floyd’s life is lost.  Officer Chauvin was doing his job while responding to an incident involving George Floyd and joined two of his fellow officers in attempting to arrest Floyd and put him in the back seat of a police car.  Floyd resisted, and after a struggle that lasted several minutes, the officers were unable, given his size, to get Floyd to comply and get him into the police car.  In fact, Floyd went in one back door of the police car and out the other side where the officers restrained him in the prone position on the ground with the obvious intent of rendering Floyd unable to struggle or further fight the officers.  Two officers were located on the middle of Floyd’s torso and the other on his legs so he could not move or kick, and he was handcuffed.  Officer Chauvin restrained Floyd’s neck as his 16 years of police service and training had instructed him to do.

Bystanders saw fit to give their opinions to the police officers and some began videotaping the incident.  Floyd continued to struggle alleging that he could not breathe, a refrain he kept repeating even while the officers were attempting to arrest him and put him in the back seat of the police car.  The video that was recorded by the bystanders—many of whom started calling the officers, especially Officer Chauvin, vile names—clearly shows Officer Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s upper back and neck.  What the video is unable to show is the amount of force Officer Chauvin is applying to Floyd’s neck and back (the subsequent autopsy did not show any bruising in the areas where Officer Chauvin applied pressure).

In any event, the picture of Officer Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck was all that was needed for virtually every television pundit, politician, editor, and even the Minneapolis Chief of Police to convict Derek Chauvin on the spot.  The lad did not stand a chance.  The Black chief of police immediately fired all officers involved and did so without regard to due process, as Chauvin was guilty of murder and that was that!

The video upon which all these fair-minded folks relied could not and did not reveal the fact that Floyd was high on fentanyl and methamphetamine, that he was a career violent criminal, that he had reacted in a similar fashion when confronted by police in 2019, that he was 6 foot, 2 inches tall and was a fit 235 pounds. On the other hand, officer Chauvin was 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds.  Floyd had serious heart issues with one artery to his heart 95% blocked and another 75% blocked, and that he had an enlarged heart.  The video did not show that Floyd had a type of tumor that excretes adrenalin, a complicating factor for someone with a heart condition similar to Floyd’s.

All of that evidence was irrelevant.  Chauvin was guilty, so shut up!  Do not confuse the matter with facts.  Chauvin was a killer, so get on with putting him in jail for a long time.  He was a bad cop, a killer!  So shut up!  Do not even dare raise an argument in Officer Chauvin’s defence.  He’s guilty!  The picture proves it!

Chauvin is rushed to trial, but on the very eve of the trial commencing, the woke cowards in authority with Minneapolis announced that the city had settled with the George Floyd estate for a mere $27,000,000 (combine that with the $14,000,000 raised on a “Go-Fund-Me page” and the Floyd family received $41,000,000 less fees).  There was no point in waiting for due process; Derek Chauvin was guilty so why bother waiting for the criminal trial to conclude.  The result was a foregone conclusion. Chauvin was guilty. So, pay the money to Floyd’s family, or at least what was left over after his charlatan lawyers grabbed their pound of flesh.  And remember: the Jury was not sequestered so presumably they were aware of the settlement before the trial started.

With that atmosphere front and center, the Derek Chauvin trial began.  The state had at least 5 lawyers we could see, some of whom offered to prosecute Chauvin pro bono.  After all, the guy was guilty as hell.  Didn’t you see the video? 

Not only did some of the prosecutors offer their expertise to put Derek Chauvin in jail, several of their “expert witnesses” also came forward to offer their expert testimony free of charge and they did that solely based on the video.  At the time they volunteered to bury Chauvin, they had not had an opportunity to examine the evidence and arrive at an impartial conclusion.  They did not need to bother.  Chauvin was guilty!  Didn’t you see the video?  In fact, a trial was a waste of time, Chauvin is clearly guilty.  Were these experts, under these circumstances, impartial witnesses?  They took sides and aligned their testimony with the prosecution’s theories.

On the other side sat the lonely figure of Eric Nelson doing, in my view, a wonderful job representing a client that the entire country hated and denied the presumption of innocence.  After all, didn’t you see the video?  Were I ever in trouble with the law, I would welcome Eric Nelson in my corner any day of the week.  Nelson did an outstanding job providing Derek Chauvin the best defense he possibly could and did so with the deck firmly stacked against him.  I sure hope he does not take the guilty verdict as a criticism of the job he did defending his client.  In my view, Eric Nelson is an extremely good lawyer.  I was more than impressed.

The Chauvin trial was broadcast on HLN, complete with a panel of know-it-all experts, all of whom had, it was clear to me, found Chauvin guilty before the trial started.  Didn’t you see the video, for Christ’s sake!  These self-absorbed “experts” sat around the virtual studio with a dopy moderator drinking their own bathwater and had the nerve to play Monday morning quarterbacks by criticizing virtually every move Eric Nelson made.  These people were hell-bent on being on the right side of what they all knew was going to be a guilty verdict.  They didn’t even try to be a devil’s advocate.  They didn’t even try to give some credence of legitimacy to the defence’s theory that Floyd died of a heart attack.  After all, there was no video of the heart, tumor, blood vessels, or arteries. There was no video of Floyd ingesting illegal substances.  But there was the video that put Chauvin in the worst possible light. The HLN panel was a joke and the bias they showed was upsetting.  Shame on them!

As we all now know, this was a jury trial.  The fact that the trial was not moved to a venue other than Minneapolis and the jury was not sequestered further attacked the legitimacy of this so-called fair trial.  Of course, all potential members of the jury testified that they were totally impartial, had not seen the video and would carefully review the evidence before arriving at a verdict.  Yea, right!

People accused of committing a crime have, in most cases, the right to be tried by a jury of their peers, a theory that is altruistic but fraught with practical problems. The OJ Simpson trial was probably the textbook example of jury malfeasance.  Simpson was clearly guilty.  The evidence was overwhelming that he had killed his former wife and a lad by the name of Ron Goldman.  Notwithstanding, the jury acquitted Simpson.  Members of that jury were, to say the least, not very bright and got wrapped up in the celebrity status of Simpson and his so-called “dream team” of lawyers.  The “dream team” moniker was given these guys by the media, a group just slightly more stupid than members of the jury.

When the verdict was read, Black people all over the United States cheered with delight.  One of their own, a football hero, a movie star, had put one over the “man.”  It didn’t matter a hoot that Simpson was guilty of a double murder.  After all, the victims were White so let’s party!

A neighbor friend of mine was called for jury duty in Calgary, Alberta.  She had a master’s degree in education and is a very intelligent lady.  She was named forewoman of the jury and the trial proceeded.  Now, it is important for the reader to be aware that in Canada, people charged with a criminal offence have the indictment read “Regina (the Queen) vs. the accused.  Or, for example, REGINA VS. SMITH.  Anyway, the trial concluded, and the jury retired to deliberate when one of the female jurors called a halt to the proceedings and argued that they could not start deliberations because they had not as yet heard from “Regina.”  So, it is crystal clear that an accused has no control over the IQ of one of his or her “peers.” Trial by jury is, my friends, at best, a dice toss.

When I was watching the Chauvin trial, I kept thinking about the doctrine of reasonable doubt and how I thought the defence had raised a doubt as to how Floyd actually died.  Eric Nelson presented credible evidence that Floyd died as a result of a heart attack caused by the existing condition of his enlarged heart, blocked arteries, the fact that he had ingested a large quantity of illegal drugs and had exerted himself fighting with the police officers.

The doctrine of reasonable doubt is a hard concept for the average person to grasp.  It is especially hard to accept in the face of the oft-mentioned video.  However, I thought at least one of the jurors would be of the view that there was doubt, reasonable or otherwise, and not be afraid to cause a hung jury thereby requiring another trial on at least two of the more serious charges.  It would have been a very gutsy move as that juror knew full well that anything short of a conviction of Derek Chauvin, on all charges, would unleash the mob across the United States. What would happen if somehow the protesters found out the name and address of the person who caused the jury impasse?  A jury of Chauvin’s peers?  I do not think so—a jury of compliant individuals too afraid to do anything but comply with the mob’s demand to hold Derek Chauvin responsible for the death of citizen Floyd.  After all, the night before final arguments, while the jury was still not sequestered, Maxine Roberts, that incredibly stupid Congresswoman from California, actually flew to Minneapolis and joined the accumulating mob and proceeded to encourage them to be violent unless the jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of all charges.

Derek Chauvin was not the only one on trial.  The judicial system in the United States was also under a microscope and it was, in my view, guilty of being subject to the influence of external bodies such as the press, self-serving politicians, intimidated city fathers, and weak-kneed police departments which were only too ready to sacrifice one or more of their members to buy peace in their streets.  A mug’s game to be sure and one they will, I predict, live to regret.  In the interim, make sure you own at least one gun because, sooner or later, the emboldened mob will be coming for you, and the police in your community will be too afraid to come to your assistance.