Lady Justice is a tough old broad and she reaffirmed today that she’s still in the game and her system works. The justice system works. That may seem like a strange lede, but in a day and age where we’re seeing democracy itself strained to the bursting point, it is indeed a grand day to find out that decency and common sense can triumph over systemic racism, and that’s what we saw with the conviction of Derek Chauvin on all counts. Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

The defense put up a great case of smoke and mirrors and even tried to get a mistrial declared based on Maxine Waters’ commentary about staying in the streets. I would want Eric Nelson defending me if I ever found myself in such a position. I particularly liked, “If you can talk, you can breathe,” and how criminals in custody always feign medical emergencies. That didn’t work this time. Nice try and I’m sure it’s worked in the past, but it didn’t work this time. “There is absolutely no evidence that Officer Chauvin intentionally, purposefully applied unlawful force,” Nelson said in his closing argument. Right.

My governor, the Governor of Nevada, Steve Sisolak, issued this statement and it pretty much says it all.

This is emblematic of a national commitment to police reform, at least that is my read on it at this moment. I am sure that Joe Biden will have much more to say along these lines.

Chauvin doesn’t know what hit him. I guess he figured he’d get off because so many others before him had abused or killed people under color of authority and he figured now it was his turn.

It must be a tremendous reckoning to go from thinking you’ll walk to wondering if you’re going to die in prison for sure, or maybe get out in your eighties. And Donald Trump’s not in office to issue an effed up pardon, there’s that, too.

Amen.

 

 

 

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5 COMMENTS

    • Truly a better day than any of us had any right to expect. As was put in one of my favorite games Starcraft, “Never know what hit ’em.”

  4. “You can tell by his eyes that he can’t believe what just happened”

    Two words. Daniel Holtzclaw.

    That, ladies and gentlemen, is police privilege. It goes beyond white privilege. (Ron DeSantis in FLorida just signed a bill giving it to anyone who wants to kill a peaceful protester.) They truly cannot believe it.

    As someone who was brough up on “Noblesse oblige,” IOW the theory that the more advantages you have the more you owe to society and, in particular, those with fewer advantages, it truly sickens me. Come to think of it, there’s something in the Bible about that – that Bible that RWNJs think they own. The Parable of the Talents. Matthew 25:14–30

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