by Joseph Klein
Throwing fuel on the Marxist fire.
The trial of Derek Chauvin, the white ex-police officer charged with killing black suspect George Floyd in the process of restraining Floyd during an arrest, has made Minnesota once again the epicenter of intense nationwide attention, nearly a year after Floyd’s death. Add to this the riots that erupted over the accidental police shooting in Brooklyn Center on April 11th of a young black man, Daunte Wright. The last thing Minnesota needed at this time was an outside provocateur to throw more fuel on the fire. However, that is exactly what happened when radical California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters dropped into Minnesota last Saturday to join a protest in Brooklyn Center demanding justice for Daunte Wright’s killing. In advance of jury deliberations over Chauvin’s fate, Waters used her response to a reporter’s question to call on protesters to "stay on the street" and "get more confrontational" if they don't like the jury’s verdict.
Waters’ reckless rhetoric came after nights of rioting and looting in Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis. She stoked the flames of mob rule. Not long after Waters delivered her remarks, some rioters engaged in a drive-by shooting at a security detail including National Guardsmen who were present to maintain the peace. Waters’ subsequent so-called “clarification” that she was only “talking about speaking up” and “about legislation” is laughable. So is her attempt to link her inflammatory rhetoric to the civil rights movement's nonviolent history. Waters’ claim that Republicans criticizing her remarks are delivering “a message to white supremacists” is contemptible.
Waters made it clear that nothing less than a verdict of “guilty of murder” would be acceptable. Waters got her wish for a murder conviction from the jury within 72 hours of her Brooklyn Center appearance (even if not for first-degree murder, which was not specifically charged).
Derek Chauvin was found guilty Tuesday on all three counts for which he was charged in the death of George Floyd, including second and third-degree murder. The jury decided its triple guilty verdict in under 11 hours. The jurors asked no questions of the presiding trial judge, Peter Cahill, nor did they request to view any of the evidence again while they were deliberating as far as we know. The jurors were not sequestered until they began their deliberations, which means that they were exposed to reports of protests breaking out for several days over the police killing of Daunte Wright in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. At least one of the jurors lives in Brooklyn Center where Waters exploited the Wright tragedy to demand a murder conviction in the Chauvin case.
The specific counts on which Chauvin was convicted were (1) second-degree unintentional murder while committing the felony of knowingly inflicting substantial bodily harm in an assault, (2) third-degree murder in which Chauvin caused Floyd's death by "perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life," and (3) second-degree manslaughter where Chauvin caused Floyd's death by "culpable negligence,” creating “an unreasonable risk” and consciously taking chances of “causing death or great bodily harm."
Sentencing will occur in approximately eight weeks, to be decided by the trial judge. Chauvin could receive up to 40 years of jail time on the first count of second-degree murder alone. The maximum sentence for third-degree murder is 25 years. The maximum sentence for second-degree manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. The actual sentence could be less than the statutory maximum, however, based on sentencing guidelines that take into account the defendant’s prior criminal history (Chauvin has none). Nevertheless, if the trial judge determines that there are aggravating factors, such as Chauvin’s abuse of police power or “particular cruelty” in the way that he handled Floyd, he could still throw the book at Chauvin. It is unclear whether Chauvin will receive concurrent or consecutive sentences on the three charges.
After the verdict, Maxine Waters told reporters, “You know, someone said it better than me: I’m not celebrating, I’m relieved.” But Waters’ “relief” may be premature. Her reckless antics in Brooklyn Center may have inadvertently helped Chauvin’s case on appeal. His attorneys can be expected to ask that the verdict be overturned because Chauvin did not receive a fair trial. Cahill, the trial judge, acknowledged that Waters’ remarks may have provided the defense grounds for “appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned.”
Chauvin’s appellate counsel will undoubtedly claim that Judge Cahill should have sequestered the jury, at least beginning after the Brooklyn Center shooting occurred, to insulate the jury members from being unduly influenced by outside events. Judge Cahill denied a defense motion for such sequestration. “I realize there’s civil unrest and some of the jurors did hear about that,” said Judge Cahill, but “this is a totally different case.”
The jury members were not only exposed to reports of the Brooklyn Center shooting and the mass protests that followed. It was just a couple of days before the jury members were finally sequestered to begin their deliberations that Waters uttered her inflammatory remarks in Brooklyn Center. These remarks received widespread publicity. One or more members of the jury may well have heard about what Waters said and felt intimidated by a senior congresswoman exhorting a mob to become more confrontational if the jury does not reach the verdict that she and the mob demand.
Judge Cahill denied the defense’s motion for an immediate mistrial but spared no words in condemning Waters’ “disrespectful” and “abhorrent” comments on the case. “I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that’s disrespectful to the rule of law, and to the judicial branch and our function,” Cahill said. “I think if they want to give their opinions, they should do so in a respectful — and in a manner that is consistent with their oath to the Constitution, to respect a co-equal branch of government.”
Crowds who gathered outside the courthouse cheered after they learned that Chauvin was found guilty on all counts. The mob got the "justice" they demanded in this case, but they are far from satisfied. Black Lives Matter and Antifa fascists want nothing less than the overthrow of America’s constitutional republic, including its judicial system. The social justice warriors marched in Minneapolis and other cities after the triple guilty verdict was announced, renewing their calls for revolution and defunding the police. Far left rioters in Portland wasted no time continuing to engage in what they know best -- acts of violence, including arson and assaulting a police officer.
President Biden and Vice President Harris fed into the social justice warriors’ demands during the remarks they delivered to the nation following the announcement of the Chauvin verdict.
Harris’s and Biden’s remarks embraced critical race theory. “America has a long history of systemic racism,” Harris said. “Black Americans — and Black men, in particular — have been treated, throughout the course of our history, as less than human.” Biden repeated this distortion of history in his own remarks. He also said that America is guilty of “systemic racism that is a stain [on] our nation’s soul.”
It’s as if America had accomplished nothing during its history to right the wrongs of slavery, eradicated after a bloody civil war over 155 years ago. It’s as if the court orders and federal civil rights legislation guaranteeing the right to vote and non-discrimination in housing, public accommodations and employment never happened. It’s as if Barack Obama, an African American, was never elected president in 2008 and re-elected in 2012 with millions of white votes.
Biden also praised the protests last summer that he claimed “unified people of every race and generation in peace and with purpose to say, 'Enough. Enough. Enough of the senseless killings.’” Biden either spent too much time hiding in his basement last summer or decided to just turn a blind eye to what actually happened. The physical violence and looting in cities across the country last summer divided the country. There were multiple casualties. People also lost their livelihoods as their businesses went up in smoke.
On April 20th, before the Chauvin verdict was announced, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked for comment on Maxine Waters’ call for protesters to get more confrontational on the streets if the jury did not reach an acceptable verdict. Psaki ducked the question, referring to Waters’ ludicrous “clarification.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was more direct the day before in rushing to her comrade’s defense. “Maxine talked about ‘confrontation’ in the manner of the Civil Rights movement,” Pelosi said. “No, I don’t think she should apologize.”
When Republican Rep. Lisa McClain spoke on the floor of the House to condemn Waters’ remarks and to note the drive-by shooting which occurred later that very same night, Pelosi shamelessly took aim at the messenger. “That woman on the floor should be apologizing for what she said,” Pelosi declared, referring to Rep. McClain.
Pelosi and her fellow Democrats rallying around Waters are hypocrites. They impeached former President Donald Trump for allegedly inciting an insurrection at the Capitol because of a speech he delivered over two miles away in which he said, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard." (Emphasis added) But these same Democrats see nothing wrong with a senior congresswoman inflaming mob emotions that were already raw and creating the real possibility of a declared mistrial in the Chauvin case on appeal.
Rather than even acknowledge Judge Cahill’s condemnation of Maxine Waters’ “abhorrent” remarks that failed to respect “a co-equal branch of government,” Democrats circled the wagons around her. They shot down a resolution introduced by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to censure Waters, by a partisan vote of 216-210. Her committee assignments, including her position as chair of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, are safe so long as the Democrats remain in power. Expect even more inflammatory rhetoric from Waters and other leftwing progressive politicians in the weeks to come as another summer of potential riots and mob justice approaches.
Joseph Klein
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/quick-guilty-verdict-chauvin-case-after-maxine-joseph-klein/
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