The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN last Monday, May 25

[nebo113]

If you're not getting through to them, talk about lynchings.

Tucker Carlson already did.  Derek done been lynched by the media.....

[Diogenes]

Guilty on all counts! Facing 40 years in prison.

[Wahoo Redux]

Justice will be served if he gets all 40 years and the other murders are also convicted.

[Parasaurolophus]

Good. May he spend the rest of his life behind bars, where I hope he'll be unable to inflict his execrable self on others.

[Descartes]

Let's just be real here for a second regarding sentencing.

MN, like my state, both defaults to sentencing a person on the most serious charge they are convicted of AND concurrent sentences,  not consecutive except as deemed necessary to protect the public.

I have seen - many times - defendants with rather extensive criminal records and particularly outrageous conduct whom judges have declined to depart from this norm for.  If justice is blind and Chauvin is treated like anyone else,  he should only be looking at 10 - 15 years in prison,  2/3 of it in prison and the rest on parole - OR even judicial/shock release even sooner owing to his completely clean criminal record and the fact that he certainly didn't set out to commit some robberies or burglaries and killed someone in the process.  Anyone else would be treated that way.  After all,  prison is to rehabilitate,  not punish vindictively ...... right?

Let's see if the judge sticks to fairness or caves in to community outrage.

[Parasaurolophus]

He was convicted of second-degree murder, which is unintentional murdering in  the commission of another crime--in this case, intentional felony assault.

As for his criminal record, I believe he has 9 tax evasion charges hanging over his head. That won't factor into this sentencing, but it will help to keep this menace off the streets a while longer.

[ergative]

As for his criminal record, I believe he has 9 tax evasion charges hanging over his head.

Cripes, what a loser.

[mahagonny]

Now that's it's over, despite what President Biden says, I don't see it bring America together. Not that we should expect unity, but it would be nice if we could stop the war of words a little.

What it means going forward is where we are anything but united.  Some people see it as a victory for anti-racism and wanted that. Some people see it as a victory for 'anti-racism' and didn't want that (me).
Even if you believe Chauvin acted out of racial animus, the mere mention of the word 'systemic' encourages us to think we need to start seeing police as individually racist. It's escalating rhetoric. I won't do that any more than I will believe comedians are sexual predators because of what I found out about Louis C K.
Police are in the catching bad guys business. As long as they can make it look like that's what they're dedicated to, they're winning. When they abuse their power, we need to say 'hold on a minute. You're not gonna be doing that, long as we pay your salary.' That's all.
The police killing people they didn't need to kill and getting away with it is an American problem that affects all races. 'Black Lives Matter' could be an ally in fighting that if they could admit that. The thing about the protesters is not just that some are violent. It's that many are massively ignorant.
Yes, the jurors could easily have feared for their safety. Maxine Waters said what a lot of people are thinking. Whether or not they heard about her antics is almost immaterial.
In my mind, Floyd was a big time bullshit artist who knew his way around police confrontations. That was old stuff for him. When the police first approached him he did a little dance with his hands. On the steering wheel, off the wheel, in the air, at his side. He knew the cops wanted his hands on the wheel. They said it in plain English.  The purpose was likely to create a distraction so his friend could dispose of the rest of the drugs without being noticed. And the feigned hysteria 'I'm not that kind of guy' etc.
You can't talk about Floyd, his behavior, his history, out of respect for the dead? If you'll pardon the expression, WTF? I pay people to maintain law and order. I read about people like Floyd in the local police log.

[mamselle]

I believe the charge and sentencing are within the realm of what is fair and reasonable.

But I cannot celebrate the situation as justice.

True justice would have been served if Floyd--with all his faults, errors, and stumblings through life--were still alive.

The loss of justice happened when Chauvin--with all his own errors and stumblings--took it upon himself to act as judge, jury, and executioner, without apparent consideration for the humanity of his victim.

Prayers for all their families. None of this was necessary.

M.

[nebo113]

In my mind, Floyd was a big time bullshit artist who knew his way around police confrontations.

Guess he deserved to die, then.

[marshwiggle]

In my mind, Floyd was a big time bullshit artist who knew his way around police confrontations.

Guess he deserved to die, then.

Saying someone's choices contributed to their undesired or tragic outcomes is a long way from saying they "deserved" them. Do smokers "deserve" lung cancer?

When Wile E. Coyote steps off a cliff and suffers the effects of gravity, it's not a question of whether he "deserved" it; the fact is that the outcome was highly predictable based on his choices.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Now that the verdict is in, the question becomes: Will police be more careful now that they see someone facing consequences for using excessive and deadly force?

[mahagonny]

In my mind, Floyd was a big time bullshit artist who knew his way around police confrontations.

Guess he deserved to die, then.

Saying someone's choices contributed to their undesired or tragic outcomes is a long way from saying they "deserved" them. Do smokers "deserve" lung cancer?

When Wile E. Coyote steps off a cliff and suffers the effects of gravity, it's not a question of whether he "deserved" it; the fact is that the outcome was highly predictable based on his choices.

Obviously the law does not say you deserve to die at the hands of another human, certainly not in this case. And in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter if I shed a tear for him or not. Who cares? What seems odd to me is that in less than year, media Floyd has gone from someone we don't know to John Doe with some criminal exploits and incarcerations to Fred MacMurray on My Three Sons.
Candace Owens may overstate things a bit, but she may have a point when she says 'black people are the only demographic in the USA who take the dregs among them and make heroes out of them.' Or as Thomas Sowell would say, someone's given us the idea that black redneck culture is 'the real redneck culture.' White people play along out of guilt.

[RatGuy]

In my mind, Floyd was a big time bullshit artist who knew his way around police confrontations.

Guess he deserved to die, then.

Saying someone's choices contributed to their undesired or tragic outcomes is a long way from saying they "deserved" them. Do smokers "deserve" lung cancer?

When Wile E. Coyote steps off a cliff and suffers the effects of gravity, it's not a question of whether he "deserved" it; the fact is that the outcome was highly predictable based on his choices.

I find this a faulty metaphor. After all, police aren't natural forces like gravity or cancer. They're human that make decisions -- often flawed decisions. By that logic, if you're a crap person who says crap things in a public forum, then someone beating the everloving snot out of you is a predictable outcome based on your bad decisions.

[Sun_Worshiper]

In my mind, Floyd was a big time bullshit artist who knew his way around police confrontations.

Guess he deserved to die, then.

Saying someone's choices contributed to their undesired or tragic outcomes is a long way from saying they "deserved" them. Do smokers "deserve" lung cancer?

When Wile E. Coyote steps off a cliff and suffers the effects of gravity, it's not a question of whether he "deserved" it; the fact is that the outcome was highly predictable based on his choices.

Obviously the law does not say you deserve to die at the hands of another human, certainly not in this case. And in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter if I shed a tear for him or not. Who cares? What seems odd to me is that in less than year, media Floyd has gone from someone we don't know to John Doe with some criminal exploits and incarcerations to Fred MacMurray on My Three Sons.
Candace Owens may overstate things a bit, but she may have a point when she says 'black people are the only demographic in the USA who take the dregs among them and make heroes out of them.' Or as Thomas Sowell would say, someone's given us the idea that black redneck culture is 'the real redneck culture.' White people play along out of guilt.

You seem to think that people are upset about Floyd's death because they believe he is a flawless human being or a hero, but I have never heard anyone say those things about him. Rather, the incident in which Floyd was killed has become symbolic of a wider tendency of police to use excessive and deadly force against people of color while facing few consequences. The excessiveness of the force was obvious and egregious, and the incident was filmed, and so there was great public interest in the incident and in the trial.