The Derek Chauvin Trial

I was stunned when I saw the You Tube video of George Floyd’s death. It was easy to see when he lost consciousness and I was certain that he died. I was angry, tearful, resentful and expected the worst. The worst is an understatement.

From an outsider’s perspective the establishment tends to delay investigation so that that any evidence of foul play is lost. It often seemed that no one was held responsible while weeks, months or years pass and everyone forgets and nothing ever happens. The first news from Milwaukee appeared to be the same old story all over again. I even wrote on Facebook “the fix is in.”

First no one was charged. Then Derek, Chauvin the most senior on scene police officer was charged. That alone was surprising.

I became immersed in the details of Covid-19 tracking and did not think too much about the case until the trial started and I decided to pay attention. Then I did the dumbest thing, I watched the trial. I also watched the OJ trial but that is another story elucidated elsewhere.

The trial of the decade isn’t going as expected!

Little did we know that 2020 would be such a traumatic year, especially for black people.

The apparent vigilante death of a Ahmaud Marquez Arbery, after being chased down by a mob (three white men) in Glynn County, Ga.

The March 13 senseless, irresponsible and incompetent homicide of Breonna Taylor a beautiful young paramedic in her own apartment because of an incompetent police raid.

The 16 Shots Special on pay TV documenting the 2014 shooting of 17 year old Laquan McDonald. The film name came from the sixteen times Mr. McDonald was shot, but only because the weapon used was limited to sixteen bullets.

There were other incidents but the three above were particularly traumatic for many watching. They bothered me because there was no excuse for any of these events. They weren’t just illegal, they were immoral and inexcusable.

Everyone was on edge because of the Covid-19 epidemic and the country was ripe for an explosion.

Powder keg

Minneapolis was particularly well primed for the George Floyd incident. The death of Jamar Clark, a significant precursor to the George Floyd shooting occurred nearly five years earlier on November 15, 2015. Nekelia Sharp and Mr. Clark’s girlfriend had an altercation at Ms. Sharp’s birthday-party in Minneapolis. Clark’s girlfriend was injured and an ambulance was called. There was a confrontation between Clark and ambulance personnel after his girlfriend was placed in the ambulance resulting in Clark’s arrest.

There were different accounts of the story. Police officers stated that before Clark could be arrested Clark took one officer’s gun and the other officer was forced to shot Mr. Clark in the head killing him. Many bystanders insisted that Mr. Clark was handcuffed and/or lying on the ground motionless when shot in the head.

DNA and other forensic evidence did not contradict the officer’s version of the story because forensics found Mr. Clark’s DNA on the gun, for what that’s worth.

The NAACP demanded an independent investigation. Mayor Betsy Hodges contacted the US Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice even though Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was working the incident.

Black Lives Matter activists protested for weeks for release of body cam and dash cam recordings.

Nov. 23, eight days after the Jamar Clark shooting a dozen BLM protesters chased four men away from their protest. During the chase one of the four men,Lawrence Scarsella turned and shot five BLM protesters. None had life threatening injuries. The courts sentenced Scarsella to fifteen years for assault and all four men were charged with rioting.

You can see how there was hate fodder for anyone with a chip on their shoulder. But note that it was the activist BLM group involved in a violent incident they wouldn’t let drop after their antagonists were leaving the area.

The intervening years did little to lower the city’s tension level.

The trial

Ten months after Mr. Floyd’s death the Derek Chauvin trial began. The trial was carried live on television and the Internet. The number one indication of a ‘show trial’ like Russia does is bring in the cameras. Why bother with cameras when only justice is on the docket?

Television commentary did not mention that the political future of a number of politicians was at stake, though insiders knew that the system was being manipulated. For example: The case was not assigned to County Attorney Michael O. Freeman as would normally be the case. The state’s Attorney General, Keith Ellison was assigned the case. My theory of a police white wash was quickly circling the drain. The city and county responsibilities were being high jacked by the state.

According to Bill Gertz this is a picture of Keith Ellison whom was the DNC deputy chairman whom said that the Antifa handbook should “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. It appears he happily sacrificed the Black dominant sections of Minneapolis to domestic terrorism, fire and looting solely to disadvantage President Trump.

The prosecution team consisted of Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank, Jerry W. Blackwell, Steven Schleicher and Erin Eldridge. Outside prosecutors were brought in from the Washington Law Firm of Hogan Lovells. Neal Katyal, a former acting US Solicitor General offered his services.

For some reason the mother of Eric Garner, a man whom died in New York City while in a policeman’s choke hold, was at the daily prosecutor meetings. The total cost of the prosecution team salaries alone was in the millions of dollars.

Mr Chauvin was fired soon after the initial event so the only attorney available to him was assigned by the Minneapolis Police and Peace Officers Association. They contracted Eric Nelson a single practitioner to represent Mr. Nelson. Mr. Nelson, the only defense lawyer, had a couple of non-attorney assistants. The defense’s budget was a fraction of the Prosecution budget and contained no high profile, nationally famous lawyers.

The deck was stacked against officer long before Mr. Chauvin came to court.

The facts

Previous publicized events mentioned above and the YouTube video firmly and totally convinced me that George Floyd’s treatment was unjust and inhumane. I commented on Facebook that I expected yet another cover up.

I had a lot to learn.

George Floyd

George Floyd was not a random black man terrorized by the Minneapolis Police. At 6′ 6″ tall, Mr. Floyd was a huge and imposing man. He played high school basketball and three years of college football and basketball at the highest level. He continued to play basketball until just before his death.

Mr. Floyd became an automotive customizer (cleaner) after he dropped out of college.

Texas authorities convicted Mr. Floyd of robbing a woman at gunpoint. The court sentenced him to five years in prison and he served over three years. Mr. Floyd served his sentence for the robbery. I only mention this to show that he had a background to manipulate the justice system.

Mr. Floyd was arrested a year earlier in Minnesota where he repeatedly used the phrase, “I can’t breath” a reference to what Eric Garner, a New York black man that died in police custody from a choke hold. Many, including myself considered the case yet another case of police incompetence because of poor training. Mr. Floyd evaded arrest with the tactic at that time. You can watch the video and make your own decisions regarding the stop’s legitimacy.

When Mr. Floyd was being arrested at Cup Foods a police dash camera video showed him using the same “I can’t breathe.” evasion tactics that he used to avoid arrest the previous year.

Mr. Floyd and Mr. Chauvin knew each other. A lot was made of George Floyd laying on the pavement at Cup Foods after officers tried to put him in the police car during his arrest. Mr. Chauvin may have let Mr. Floyd lay on the ground beside the police vehicle as a personal accommodation because he knew Mr. Floyd. They worked as bouncers at the El Nuevo Rodeo club in Minneapolis, MN. No good deed goes unpunished.

As recently as March 2020 George Floyd was an active drug addict. He was hospitalized for an overdose and and attended drug rehabilitation. I mention this because a rehabilitated addict loses their tolerance for drugs. Mr. Floyd was using drugs the day of his arrest and death and he was apparently taking as much as before his rehabilitation even though his tolerance was reduced due to his hospitalization.

During the trial Mr. Chauvin’s lawyer ask every appropriate medical authority, “If there were no YouTube video would you have called Mr. Floyd’s death an overdose.” Each one of the medical experts agreed that if Mr. Floyd were presented to them without allegations of police abuse, they would have classified his cause of death as a drug overdose.

The chronological events

Cup Foods is a neighborhood market in Minneapolis. Cup Foods management called police complaining that Mr. Floyd attempted to use a $20 counterfeit bill. Two inexperienced officers responded and found Mr. Floyd asleep out at the wheel of a Mercedes SUV with two other passengers in the vehicle.

The officers removed Mr. Floyd from the vehicle and separated him from the other passengers. The officers interviewed him and the passengers separately. One of the passengers was suspected of selling the drugs to Mr. Floyd, but the subject of their original call was counterfeit money and not drug use.

The officers isolated Mr. Floyd and questioned him about the bill he tried to spend in Cup Foods. There was little question that Mr. Floyd passed the bill so the officers arrested him. They then moved him from the location of the Mercedes SUV around the corner to the police vehicle, a small Ford SUV.

Officer Derek Chauvin and his partner arrived while the two original arresting officers were attempting to put Mr. Floyd in the police vehicle. Upon Mr. Chauvin’s arrival he was the senior officer on the scene. Mr. Chauvin was also a training officer with a responsibility to the two recently sworn police officers that made the initial arrest. Because of Mr. Floyd’s resistance during his arrest Mr. Chauvin was thrust into a situation where a very large, muscular man was resisting arrest. There was no opportunity for Mr. Chauvin to determine the charges, background or any other previous conditions. He only knew that his inexperienced officers were attempting to arrest a man with the physical size, strength and skills to be a successful college football and basketball player and professional bar bouncer with little success.

Before Mr. Chauvin arrived on the scene the original officers attempted to put Mr. Floyd in the police vehicle multiple times. Even after Mr. Chauvin and his partner arrived multiple body cameras show Mr. Floyd falling to the ground and kicking when all four officers unsuccessfully attempted to place him into the vehicle’s rear seat on the drivers side. Simply laying him on the back seat or floor of the vehicle wasn’t possible because of his height and strength.

After multiple attempts to put Mr. Floyd in the vehicle from the driver’s side of the vehicle one officer went to the passenger side of the vehicle in an attempt to set him up and pull him into the vehicle. Despite recently recovering from Covid-19 Mr. Floyd was still a large, strong and active athlete. Despite exceptional efforts the the officers couldn’t place him in the vehicle.

Mr. Floyd complained that he couldn’t breathe before and during the time the officers tried to put him into the police vehicle . When the officer opened the passenger side door in an attempted to pull Mr. Floyd into the back seat Mr. Floyd maneuvered himself to get out of the now open street side rear door. He got his head and shoulders outside despite the best efforts of four policemen. Because of Mr. Floyd’s complaints that he couldn’t breathe an ambulance was called.

Because of the struggle Mr. Floyd was now mostly outside the police vehicle on the street or passenger side, Mr. Chauvin relented and compromised allowing Mr. Floyd to lay beside the police vehicle on the pavement while waiting for the ambulance.

A crowd had assembled on the sidewalk by the time Mr. Floyd was allowed to wait for the ambulance outside the police vehicle . Some in the crowd had began harassing the policemen. At least one of the onlookers was continuously moving into the street in a threatening manner while shouting at the officers. This required one policeman to abandon the effort to control Mr. Floyd and assume crowd control responsibility. The observers quickly increased the intensity of their comments and feints.

The infamous YouTube video begins at about this time. Showing the video to the jury without the background information was an inflammatory deliberate and successful attempt to influence the jury that Mr. Floyd was bullied by the police. The facts, backed by body camera video and audio, told an entirely different story, but the jury’s opinions were already tainted.

The YouTube video only shows Mr. Chauvin restraining Mr. Floyd. However, the body cameras reveal the crowd’s increasing agitation including attempts to advance and verbal interference. Mr. Chauvin’s eyes rarely left the crowd during the YouTube video. The prosecution was careful to minimize the impact onlookers had on the tactical situation.

The prosecution painted the crowd as avenging angels. The truth is that the crowd was interfering and were probably a contributing factor in Mr. Floyd’s death.

Finally, the requested ambulance arrived and took Mr. Floyd to the hospital.

As the medical experts testified Mr. Floyd’s death would have been considered a drug overdose under any other conditions. If the officers didn’t have to deal with the interfering crowd the officers might have had the opportunity to administer Narcan to counteract the opioids in Mr. Floyd’s system allowing him to breathe. Without the crowd’s help Mr. Floyd might be breathing today.

The YouTube video was less than 10 minutes of much longer story. Since the video was the only information available, I was one of millions taken in by the abbreviated narrative presented by the YouTube video. When the trial began I was certain that at least Mr. Chauvin should go to jail.

I’ve always had this problem of allowing facts to sway my opinion.

Independent evaluation

Before the trial I expected Mr. Chauvin would be exonerated in a miscarriage of justice. Like almost everyone I had only seen the You Tube video and was convinced of Mr. Chauvin’s guilt. Yet, I was determined to keep an open mind.

I watched the trial on both television and the Internet. The EVIDENCE given at trial changed my mind.

Prosecution Strategy

One maxim of prosecution is to put your most convincing evidence last. In this case the prosecution put the cell phone video on first. If one is telling a story the most effective methods is to accurately tell a story is a chronological recounting of events. Recount the first event to explain why the second event happened. Then recount the second event to explain the third event and so forth, like I did above.

In my opinion, the prosecution put the cell phone footage on first to revive the original outrage to get the best possible story out while the public was still interested and set public opinion before their attention drifted to the mundane details of life.

I didn’t lose my interest.

When watching body camera video around the police vehicle the first thing I noticed in the video was the crowd’s agitation. It seemed in the video that two officers (one was hidden by the police vehicle) were on top of Mr. Floyd and another was running interference.

Later in the trial we learned that

1) Mr. Floyd was on the ground by his own actions and choice and

2) Officer Thao taken away from controlling the arrested man because there was a crowd that seemed to be getting out of control.

I believe the Defense Attorney’s greatest mistake was not emphasizing that the people taking the video bore a great deal of responsibility for Mr. Floyd’s death. I believe the prosecution put this on first in the hope that the jury (and TV audience) would forget about their contribution.

During the time Mr. Chauvin was on the ground in the YouTube video the look on Mr. Chauvin’s face was what we in the south call the ‘deer in the headlights’ look. Cable news pendents insisted it was arrogance and disregard for Mr. Floyd. It was concern for himself and the officers whom were looking to him for guidance and protection. I suspect that the judge ruled the argument that the crowd was complicit in the result was not allowed before the TV trial began.

I did not know until after the trial that Mr. Floyd spent three years of a five-year sentence in prison for robbing a woman at gunpoint. A man hardened enough to break into an apartment rob a woman at gunpoint and be sentenced to five years in prison can assume to be quite knowledgeable about how to manipulate the penal system and policemen.

I did not know about the incident where Eric Garner claimed “I can’t breathe” I did not realized the phrase had been used for years after the New York Eric Garner arrest to manipulate policemen into letting down their guard.

Because the trial’s video evidence showed Mr. Floyd passing the counterfeit bill, passing out at the wheel of the vehicle where he was arrested, claiming he couldn’t breathe in an arrest the previous year, the struggle that ensued during the effort to put Mr. Floyd in the police car, the timing of Mr. Chauvin’s arrival, the mood and actions of the crowd, the amount of drugs in Mr. Floyd’s system and the late arrival of the ambulance I changed my mind.

Anyone that watched all the evidence should have come to the same conclusion. The jury had more than the evidence to consider.

Much of the prosecution’s case was testimony from administrative officers whom were not at the scene, but seemed to protect their jobs and retirement. When the governor takes a case from local officials, assigns a significant portion of the states legal resources to a single case and issues statements of the officer’s guilt in advance of the trial a career officer would be a fool to testify in the officer’s behalf.

One problem with liberals is they have no faith in their constituents. When black hucksters such as BLM promise either their support in the polls (the carrot) or riots in the street (the stick) liberals will always follow the carrot. The governor owed his office to black support and was obviously more susceptible to voter opinion than appropriate police actions.

The city suffered devastating damage after George Floyd’s death. Because of constant questions about the city’s riots the summer of 2000 the jury had to constantly consider the deaths and damage that might have resulted if Mr. Chauvin was not convicted.

The prosecution used these not-so-subtle reminders of riots that could have been stopped immediately if Governor Walz had show the backbone to utilize the same National Guard from which he retired after 24 years.

The only information available to the public was highly tainted by reporters that didn’t have the background, expertise or inclination to challenge the information stream controlled by the governor’s office.

Mr. Floyd was a very large man. It was not possible for four officers to put him into the back seat of the police vehicle without extreme measures. Mr. Floyd was so high he couldn’t remain awake to flee after attempting to pass a counterfeit bill. Mr. Floyd’s thought process was that of an addict taking drugs at a rate too great for someone that had only recently returned to their abusive actions. Mr. Floyd was literally feeling no pain.

Some of the difficulty working with the suspected counterfeiter was due to the inexperience of the two original arresting officers. We know that Mr. Chauvin and Mr. George worked together as bouncers and knew each other. When Mr. George didn’t want to stay in the vehicle I believe letting him lay on the pavement was an accommodation to the subject.

So far, I contend that:

Floyd was a seasoned criminal aware of the tricks necessary to scam the judicial system.
Floyd was a very large man that the officer couldn’t place him in the police vehicle without taking extreme action.
Floyd desired to stay outside of the police vehicle.
Chauvin was familiar with Mr. Floyd though we don’t know to what extent and relented to leaving Mr. Floyd outside the vehicle.
Chauvin had first hand knowledge of Mr. Floyd’s physical capabilities.

Now you should have a much better understanding of why Mr. Floyd was in the position portrayed in the video. Once I learned why Mr. Floyd was there and why the police were treating him like a very large, very strong and very capable man in a street fight I was beginning to change my mind about his mistreatment during the ordeal.

The lies and misrepresentations

Usually we hear about guilty people being freed because of prosecutorial incompetence as was the case in the OJ Simpson trial. When the Prosecution lies make a defendant sound guilty it benefits the defendant and prosecutions are usually unsuccessful because of misrepresentations.

My perception is that the prosecution got away with the misrepresentations and lies in the Derek Chauvin trial.

Blood Oxygen Level

Either Mr. Tobin lied about his expert status, which I think should be investigated, or the statement that 98% of ALL gasses in Mr. Floyd’s body were oxygen. This is a stupid assertion.

The 98% oxygen level measured in blood is NOT in gaseous form, it is bound to hemoglobin a component of red blood cells. In fact if he were asphyxiated the oxygen content would be much less than 98%. If Mr. Floyd’s oxygen were 98% after death, it could only be because breathing and blood flow were artificially sustained. The fact is that as a matter of procedure Mr. Floyd was artificially resuscitated and given oxygen in the ambulance which raises blood oxygen to a level adequate to sustain life when a person is not breathing.

One of the prosecution misrepresentations was intentionally placing Martin Tobin on the stand to state that Mr. Floyd’s blood had an oxygen saturation level of 98%. Mr. Tobin, supposedly a pulmonologist, then proclaimed that all other blood gasses were less than 2%. I believe the point he was trying to make is that the CO (carbon monoxide) level was of no concern.

Whether it was intentional or ignorance this was a misrepresentation if not a lie. The 98% value indicates the percentage of NORMAL blood oxygen and doesn’t imply anything about carbon monoxide. The FACT is that low levels of carbon monoxide cause heart arrhythmia. This is discussed in the next section.

Either Mr. Tobin lied about his expert status, which I think should be investigated, or the statement that 98% of ALL gasses in Mr. Floyd’s body were oxygen. This is a stupid assertion from a ‘world renown pulmonologist.

Carbon monoxide

Changes in blood oxygen happen in seconds. If you’ve ever seen a person turn blue due to oxygen deprivation you have seen the lips begin returning to their natural red color in a couple of breaths.

CO (carbon monoxide) is not as active, which is why it is so dangerous. It can take much longer for CO to leave the blood system than Oxygen and/or CO2. CO replaces oxygen in the blood stream causing asphyxiation.

Mr. Floyd’s head was on the ground close to the police vehicle’s exhaust pipe after the officers allowed him to lie on the ground. The wind was calm without even a small breeze as evidenced by the lack of microphone wind sounds sounds on cell phones and lack of hair or clothes movement.

Quoting the National Institute of Health Carbon Monoxide Acute Exposure Guideline Levels (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK220007/) “It is acknowledged that apart from emergency situations, certain scenarios could result in CO concentrations that might cause serious effects in persons with cardiovascular diseases. These scenarios include extended exposure to traffic fume emissions (e.g., in tunnels or inside cars with defective car exhaust systems), charcoal or wood fire furnaces, and indoor air pollution from tobacco smoke.”

The statement that human blood CO (carbon monoxide) concentration up to 1.6% or 1,600 parts per million is not abnormal. The truth is that an atmospheric CO (carbon monoxide) level of 1.6% will kill an compromised man in 20 minutes. Under no circumstances, can a person’s blood concentration approach 1.6% if the atmospheric concentration is 1.6%. The fact that the maximum allowable atmospheric concentration of 0.5% CO is allowed by OSHA compounds the lie. I admit that I did not catch this at trial time, but I am not pulmonary specialist. However, I did work as a design engineer on a blood gas analyzer.

The prosecution also intimated that the vehicle was a hybrid model and therefore was not running. This was at best a misrepresentation. A stationary hybrid vehicle running the air conditioning must run the engine to recharge the high load (about 5 horsepower) air conditioner and air handler load. This is about the same amount the engine runs while traveling in city traffic. CO is slightly lighter than air meaning that it would loiter in the area at about the same level as it exits the vehicle. I also just happen to have been an air conditioner controls engineer for Delco/Delphi.

Catalytic converters will remove noxious gasses but only work when hot. A hybrid engine’s battery is rather small and because air conditioner loads are high the vehicles repeatedly starts the car to recharge the battery. This is absolutely necessary to continue vehicle cooling while in standby. The short run time for recharge will not warm the catalytic converter enough to allow efficient operation before the battery is charged enough to continue running the air conditioner.

Let me ask you this. Now that you know the extent of these lies how can you believe anything this man said? In my opinion so far the big lie of Dr. Tobin was that either about his qualifications to discuss the varied subjects on which he testified or his knowledgeable misstatement regarding lethal CO blood gas concentrations, oxygen blood gas concentrations after attempted resuscitation, hybrid engine operation or anything else he said or implied during questioning.

Dr. Tobin knew that George Floyd probably asphyxiated and he knew that fentanyl which was found in George Floyd’s blood was at a toxic level for an addict or recent narcotic use backslider.

Talking and breathing

Later in the trial the same Dr. Tobin, whom is supposedly a Medical Doctor stated a person does not have to breath to talk. I can assure you that a person must breathe quite deeply to talk. I am a heart attack survivor and talking is quite difficult when you can’t breathe. Crying out is impossible.

The vocal chords simply will not work without air flow in and out of the lungs. Anyone that ever had the breath knocked out of them must wait until the lungs fill again before they can tell you what is wrong. Anyone choking cannot tell others what the problem is and must point to their neck to get help.

That was a stupid lie. Notice that I did not put any qualifiers on that statement such as “in my opinion” or “it seems to me.” At that moment I knew that the fix was in, but not to exonerate the four officers but to crucify them for votes.

Asphyxiation

Eric Garner

I went back to look at the July 2014 death of Eric Garner was a choke, not a choke hold. A choke compresses the trachea stopping the flow of oxygen into the lungs. A chokehold compresses one or both of cartiod arteries stopping the flow of blood to the brain. The policeman’s forearm pressed on the Mr. Garner’s windpipe because of his neck diameter. When Mr. Garner said he couldn’t breathe it was true, he couldn’t breathe. He suffocated. He died because of a cop’s incompetence while four other officers watched.

Mr. Garner interceded to break up a fight. After the fight was ended the police stepped in and began harassing Mr. Garner. Truly, no good deed goes unpunished.

The NYC police department fired Officer Pantaleo more than five years later.

The video in that case was clear and definite. Ramsey Orta whom took the video was continually harassed. The harassment began when Mr. Orta was arrested a couple of weeks later. He was poisoned with rat poison (do you get it – rat) while in jail. That was definitely a message successfully delivered to Mr. Orta.

The “I can’t breathe!” claim was originated by a real man whom was killed by cops. It soon became a common complaint of persons being arrested. I believe that George Floyd couldn’t breathe, but it wasn’t necessarily Mr. Chauvin’s fault.

Breathing through a straw

Later in the trial, the same Dr. Tobin asserted that a person can’t breathe through a straw. In fact, that is not at all true. I mentioned that I’m a heart patient. I now lose my breath after a walk to the mailbox. However, I can breathe through a straw, I tried it. I also have a deviated septum, commonly known as a broken nose is about the same amount of air as a straw and I’ve worked, run and exercised while breathing through my straw sized septum (nose) for over six decades.

During the trial, Dr. Tobin asserted that pressure on the back of the neck or even the side of the neck can asphyxiate a person without breaking the neck or jawbone. Breaking a leg will not cause asphyxiation either. That is true but a stupid non-sequitur. To insinuate that an unbroken chin or jawbone means a person wasn’t asphyxiated is a damn lie by insinuation. The trachea is between the esophagus and spine. A reasonable question is whether pressing on the back of ones neck could asphyxiate without breaking the spine. The spine and chin create a support system to protect the neck. The first thing a boxer learns is to drop the chin to the chest and raise the left shoulder – the exact position in which George Floyd was laying. And since the chin against the chest creates a support system pressing the head or neck forward puts no pressure on the trachea.

You notice that I gave no qualifiers like it seems or I think. There are a number of reasons. You see, the coroner testified there was also no signs of subdural bruising in the neck muscles meaning unreasonable pressure was not exerted on the neck or back. Yet Dr. Tobin asserted that pressure on the back or sides of the neck or back of the neck or between the shoulder blades or on the shoulder blades will asphyxiate.

Get serious. If his testimony thousands of people would die sleeping on their sides. Thousands of spouses would be incarcerated for throwing their arms over their spouses while sleeping and so forth.

Mr. Floyd was an athlete still regularly playing basketball. His neck was quite strong and certainly capable of holding Mr. Chauvin’s weight. Another point is that Mr. Floyd was on his side until he collapsed. I saw that collapse the first time I saw the video. That is why I stated on Face book that night that, “I saw a man die.”

George Floyd did not die of manual (or knee) asphyxiation he died of drug overdose.

I believe the prosecution knew all this before eliciting Tobin’s testimony. Note that I left the Dr. off his name. I wouldn’t let him work on a cockroach I despised.

The video camera operator

The prosecution allowed Jena Scurry to testify about watching the arrest live on a pole-mounted camera. She testified that Mr. Floyd wasn’t handled correctly. The camera was on a pole and dozens of feet away. She could only see on the passenger side of the vehicle, therefore she could not see the unsuccessful struggle by four officers to put Mr. Floyd in the car. The prosecution saw what she saw and knew that there was an unsuccessful struggle to put Mr. Floyd in the police vehicle’s driver side door.

Because I watched the same video she did I would posit that the original reason she called a supervisor was the struggle the policemen were having while attempting to restrain Mr. Floyd. They were probably contemplating calling additional backup officers.

In legal terms her testimony had no probative value.

The bystanders

I believe the prosecution showed the bystander video first to effectively hide their participation. I believe the bystanders were the primary cause of Mr. Floyd’s death. If I were Mr. Chauvin’s lawyer I would have patched all the video together in chronological order and shown just how high Mr. Floyd actually was, how much he resisted and the crowd’s outraged.

I would have then shown the video of prosecution witness after prosecution witness admitting that if Mr. Floyd weren’t under arrest they would have attributed the cause of death as a drug overdose.

I would like to take this chance to comment on how few police control the many. About 600,000 policemen to control over 300,000,000 people in the United States, which is about 500 people per cop. This is an amazing fact when you think about it. No amount of police firepower or organization could control the population without its consent. In racially charged situations such as four white policemen surrounded by a crowd of demonstrative black onlookers the odds are against the police. There is no way to know if the onlookers are armed, are trained fighters as one of the onlookers claimed before and during the incident.

By the way, that supposed mixed martial arts fighter whom didn’t know the difference between a choke and a choke hold was allowed to testify as an expert witness regarding Mr. Floyd’s ability to breathe. This is prosecutorial misconduct at the very least. It is truly unfortunate that the defense attorney didn’t have the background to object. To my mind, it was intentional misrepresentation by lawyers eager to get a win to help the governor get reelected. An overriding question is why the judge allowed the flagrant liar to make his grandiose lies.

Any time a cop steps out of his/her vehicle there is the chance that a bystander will somehow be offended. Sometimes the offended will act. Even the smallest gun or knife can be lethal at close range. The crowd kept attempting to crowd the officers. Whatever their intentions the crowd should have been charged with interference instead of celebrated as heroes.

The total number of people killed by policemen in 2022 was 1,145. That is not 1,145 black people, that is 1,145 of all races. The number of policemen killed was 623. That is a ratio of about 2:1. Since the non-police are often violent that isn’t all that bad if you think about it.

There are over 20,000 murders per year, less than 5% of the murderers are killed by cops. The murders know they have nothing to lose so killing a cop has little or no repercussions. Since the cops are dealing with known murderers with nothing to lose that ratio is quite small. If they really were blood thirsty shoot first rules would mean a much higher murderer death rate.

Cops arrest more than 4.5 million persons per year yet there are about 600 deaths during those arrests. That is about one death per 7,500 arrests.

I don’t want to offend them when I call them cops. I was once a uniformed servant of the people. As a soldier, people called me a grunt. Cops and grunts have a bit in common. I was in Vietnam the same year as the Mi Lai massacre occurred. I did not participate but a single company of soldiers ruined all our reputations.

Any person that tells you that the cops are bloodthirsty monsters is a stupid idiot. They are stupid because they won’t listen to the facts and an idiot because they can’t see the obstacles cops face.

Consider that more people kill cops than cops kill people of any ethnic group. Cops are not perfect, far from it, but I hope that you will agree that they are a necessary nuisance if one breaks the law.

By far most crimes are committed in the vicinity of the criminal’s own neighborhoods. The crime rate is higher for black neighborhoods than Latino neighborhoods and higher for Latino neighborhoods than for white neighborhoods. When the crimes per 1,000 population is taken into consideration the crime rates are about 5, 4 and 1 times larger for black, Latino and white neighborhoods respectively.

That is a lot of numbers to digest so let me just state that a large number of police officer deaths are by bystanders – usually in domestic violence situations and often by the person they are attempting to assist, and there are far more officer deaths than black deaths during the arrest process. A number of those officers killed are themselves black.

My point is that during an arrest a crowd of any size is potentially dangerous. There might be a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, criminal, cop hater, glory seeker or even crime participant hiding in the crowd. The smallest gun or knife can kill. A cop on the ground because they are dealing with a suspect is particularly vulnerable. Because they are on the ground, they cannot quickly rise to meet a challenge, they have restricted access to their weapons and the odds just went from 1 to 1 to two to one the original suspect and the attacker. A group of officers on the ground are vulnerable to even a small crowd whom can trap him/her/them in a stomping frenzy. Even sympathetic bystanders will probably record the riot instead of helping the policemen.

The three most prominent persons in the crowd are listed below but there were more. Police body cams apparently show three were actively interfering with the arrest in the first minute Mr. Floyd was on the ground. Their activities couldn’t be ignored by the officers. They were present and active and vocal the entire time Mr. Floyd was on the ground.

Danella Frazier

Darnella Frazier took the video but not without affecting the events. She was one of the primary persons responsible requiring one officer be dedicated for crowd control. A man is most dangerous when trying to impress a woman. Will Smith’s reaction to his wife’s displeasure at the Oscars comes to mind.

I have to admit that when I first saw the video she took I was angered to tears. After the Aubrey case in Georgia, I was angered and disgusted. The video was compelling during the Aubrey case. Because of that video, I took the George Floyd recording at face value.

The governor Tim Walz commented that the video “may be the only reason that Derek Chauvin will go to prison,” The millions of dollars of taxpayer money Mr. Walz spent to convict Mr. Chauvin certainly contributed to Mr. Chauvin’s conviction, as did his commitment of significant portions of the state budget and legal resources.

I believe that Walz’s actions were politically motivated. In my opinion, the actions of Mr. Walz were precipitated by the not-guilty verdict in the OJ Simpson trial and its effect on California politics. Not willing to admit their own incompetence in the trial state government blamed the verdict on Mr. Simpsons privilege and financial resources. The spin was very successful politically, especially with those that depended on media coverage. Therefore Mr. Waltz was perfectly happy to sacrifice four white officers to secure the Minneapolis black vote. The strategy was successful since it was the only thing that kept him in office.

He certainly directed a maximum effort to convict Mr. Chauvin before there was any chance of a proper investigation. Following the governor’s lead, the governors political sycophants (police management team) delivered a guilty verdict.

Donald Williams II

Donald Williams II considered himself a fighter, professional MMA fighter and general badass. I was once a bar manager/barkeep/bouncer working solo shifts in Tampa’s skid row. I would not have taken him seriously in a bar atmosphere because a bouncer always avoids hurting the ego of a rowdy individual. However, Mr. Williams was in a crowd and anxious to show off to his neighborhood and apparently to the females in the crowd. The policeman standing guard had to repeatedly coerced Mr. Williams was back on the sidewalk.

Genevieve Hanson

Genevieve Hanson was as aggressively and negatively vocal as any in the crowd and more than most. She claimed to be a EMT certified firefighter but had no credentials. The prosecution presented this as proof of Mr. Chauvin’s disregard for Mr. Floyd. Allowing a civilian access to a detainee without verification of their qualifications would have been police misconduct of the highest order by Mr. Chauvin. Keeping her away was appropriate because there was no on-the-scene proof of her capabilities and Mr. Floyd was under arrest. This was one of the most egregious prosecution misrepresentations.

An ambulance was called for Mr. Floyd early on. The typical ambulance response time for that area was about seven minutes, which would have meant Mr. Floyd’s survival.

The turn coat cops

Captain Jeremy Norton

Captain Jeremy Norton said he “was worried that a man had been killed in police custody.”

First of all the characterization that Mr. Floyd was “killed” was beyond his first hand knowledge. Why did he jump to the opinion that Mr. Floyd was killed instead of died in police custody? I contend that either he jumped the gun or noticed that Minnesota’s political establishment had already decided the case and he wasn’t going to testify against the establishment. That is probably how he became a captain.

After all Mr. Floyd’s estranged family had already received $27 Million compensation. Captain Norton would have been a fool risking his future to support Mr. Chauvin after such a strong statement of the government’s position in the case.

Retired Sgt. David Pleoger

The 911 supervisory sergeant alerted by the video operator stated that the arresting officers “could have ended their restraint” of Floyd once Mr. Floyd was on the ground. This man was miles away at the time. I can only guess that wanted to tell a hero’s story. This is knowledge beyond his potential perception since he did not see the level of resistance Mr. Floyd exerted when the officers first attempted to place him in the police vehicle. The prosecution knew this but still put him on the stand. In my opinion, this is another example of prosecutorial misconduct. But the prosecutors had their marching orders after the $27 million government settlement with Mr.. Floyd’s estranged family statement. Money speaks louder than words.

Lt. Richard Zimmerman

Lt. Richard Zimmerman was the most senior person responding to the scene and stated that the knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck was “totally unnecessary” and that it could “kill” and that the threat level “goes all the way down” when once suspects are handcuffed. It is too bad he couldn’t have been kicked in the mouth or balls trying to put Mr. Floyd in the police vehicle’s back seat.

This fool could have only become a Lieutenant through ass kissing because he was apparently never responsible for two rookie officers at a crime scene with aggressive bystanders. Mr. Chauvin knew that the rookie officer’s response would not be that of seasoned officers but supported them to the best of his ability.

Why would anyone become a cop with Lt. Zimmerman as a supervisor?

He also stated that the prone position restricts the suspect’s breathing. Even the YouTube video shows that Mr. Floyd was on his side until after he lost consciousness. I have personally seen people on their belly with not only their hands tied behind their back but their ankles tied to their hands breathe, scream and shout.

In my opinion, Lt. Zimmerman was simply an outright liar watching out only for himself. I would be willing to bet that this man spent very little time on the street and probably never participated in a physically adversarial arrest.

Medaria Arradondo – Police chief

This police administrator’s testimony goes a long way toward explaining the previous officer’s testimony. He was a total political tool.

Sgt. Ker Yang

This officer’s testimony was the most ironic explaining that listening (responding to immediate local conditions) is the key to crisis intervention and that officers should deescalate a scene only when it is safe and feasible. The irony is that Mr. Chauvin did exactly that.

Nicole Mackenzie

A medical support coordinator testified as an expert. A coordinator is not a medical doctor. A coordinator has no particular medical knowledge beyond the language. Why did the prosecutors allowed her to make such testimony? The only information she had available to support her testimony was the bystander video she shot and posted to YouTube. Attempting to introduce this testimony was prosecutorial malfeasance and acceptance was judicial malfeasance.

Sgt Jody Stiger

Yet another unqualified individual testified about many items about which he was not qualified to comment and even contradicted himself by saying both that the crowd could be viewed as a potential threat and that he did not perceive them as a being a threat.

He also testified that placing a knee between a suspect’s shoulder blades rather than above them was proper procedure, which ignored the situation, namely that Mr. Floyd was on his side not his stomach and the shoulder blades were not available. Any fool could have seen this on the officer’s body cameras but the sergeant was not that sharp.

Martin J. Tobin, Daniel Isenschmid, Bill Smock, Lindsey Thomas

Each of these individuals categorically testified that the levels of fentanyl and methamphetamine did not cause Mr. Floyd’s death. They made these assertions despite the fact that each of them admitted under cross examination that under any other circumstances those blood concentration levels would be adequate to classify Mr. Floyd’s death a drug overdose.

Remember the testimony that a large percentage of DUI arrests had more fentanyl in their blood stream. So? What was their tolerance level? How long were they using? Did they also have meth like George Floyd? How did this population compare to George Floyd? The defense attorney didn’t object but the judge should have. Unless …

Andrew Baker M.D. – medical examiner

I believe he changed the cause of death on the death certificate. I could find no documentation on that. If so, why?

At least had the decency to admit that drugs were a contributing factor in Mr. Floyd’s death. He also stated that there was no neck bruising and that Mr. Chauvin’s actions did not restrict air or blood flow to the brain. He also said that the increased stress, adrenaline and blood pressure of being arrested contributed to Mr. Floyd’s death.

Let me get this straight.

A man on drugs is killed by the police officer because he was mentally stressed by his arrest.

I can imagine the field process an officer would have to take. “Sir please fill out this questionnaire so I can determine if can arrest you. I must be careful because the stress might aggravate your blood pressure, elevate your adrenaline or elevate your psychological stress.”

I should note here that a video of an earlier traffic stop showed that Mr. Floyd became so distraught that officers called for medical assistance.

Can you see how any of this was Mr. Chauvin’s fault? I can’t.

Jonathan Rich

A medical expert in cardiology (notice there is no MD associated with any of the above witnesses except Andrew Baker MD whom debunked the prosecution theory) stated that the heart is able to “create new paths” to remediate heart damage.

If Mr. Rich were a doctor, he would know that the rerouting process takes years to accomplish and Mr. Floyd’s cardiac history was not established. I know this because I’m a heart attack survivor. There is a good chance that Covid-19 caused Mr. Floyd’s cardiac problems.

I have had a heart attack. It was an LDA, the one called the “widow maker”. I was told by my medical doctors (M. D.) that the scar tissue will last the rest of my life.

Mr. Rich also testified that drug usage was not a factor in Mr. Floyd’s death. When a person stops breathing due to narcotic use it is because the brain doesn’t send the signals to breathe. It is a neurological function. A cardiologist should not have testified about this. I remind you Mr. Rich was not a doctor.

In my opinion, this passed the lie classification by a country mile. The lie was told by the prosecutors when they put this person on the witness stand.

The blue line

What blue line? A political police supervisor wanting to cover his or her ass seems to have no trouble crossing the blue line. Those that believe that some cops will lie to make a conviction are correct. This case has convinced me that the tendency to lie is in proportion to rank.

The governor’s intervention was more than adequate to make police management blind to the color blue.

The defense

First of all, I would like to point out the predicament suffered by the defendant’s lawyer. He was an on-call lawyer for the Minneapolis Police and Peace Officers Association. The most damning testimony to Chauvin was from senior police officers. You can certainly assume they have high influence on the Minneapolis Police and Peace Officers Association. You can imagine how gingerly Eric Nelson had to treat those that employed him.

After the self-serving testimony given by senior police officers, I think it was a conflict of interest for Mr. Nelson to defend Mr. Chauvin. Also consider how effectively the sole defense lawyer Mr. Nelson whom was hired by a local police association, could defend his client against the highly concentrated efforts of the State of Minnesota.

What chance did he or his client have?

Peter Chang

I have said a lot about the bystanders. The only police officer outside the four officers charged with crimes. Mr. Chang testified that the bystanders were “very aggressive” toward the officers. This man had guts and I respect the nerve he exhibited both during the original event and during the trial.

Barry Brodd

Testified that Mr. Chauvin was justified putting Mr. Floyd in handcuffs and in a prone position. He also testified that Mr. Chauvin’s actions were reasonable according to Department policy.

My evaluation

Multiple persons testified about Mr. Floyd’s repeatedly going to sleep and otherwise seeming high on drugs. The blood tests prove this.

Mr. Floyd was a drug addict that went through rehabilitation and regressed. Recreational addicts tend to take more drugs each time to create the same previous high. Some addicts each day take the number of pills a normal takes in a month every day and some take that many pills in an hour. For those people with advanced accumulated tolerance Mr. Floyd’s blood drug levels would not be too high.

However, Mr. Floyd recently went through rehabilitation. In rehabilitation the body does a reset. If an addict immediately returns to the same level of drug used they stand a strong chance of dying. One of the drugs present was fentanyl meaning that Mr. Floyd did not know what dosage he was taking.

The fact that he repeatedly went to sleep (passed out actually) indicates that he was extremely high. Since he had recently fallen off the wagon after a Covid-19 hospitalization he had lost his previous drug tolerance. Most of the prosecution witnesses agreed that without knowledge of Mr. Floyd’s arrest they would have attributed his death to a fentanyl overdose.

One ‘expert’ claimed that laying a person on his belly asphyxiates him or her. Come on. Have you ever seen either an amateur or a professional wrestling match? Very large men lay on others without any damage or harm, especially in professional matches. Have they ever seen humans having sex?

The same ‘expert’ claimed asphyxiation is possible by pressing on the side or back of the neck. That is total bullshit and everyone knows this. Eric Garner was asphyxiated by an officer incapable of executing a choke hold and cutting off Mr. Garners air supply.

Eric Garner was asphyxiated. The athletic George Floyd died of a drug overdose.

One ‘expert’ claimed that pressure on the chest through the back could cause asphyxiation even though Mr. Floyd was on his side until he lost consciousness. If he lost consciousness first and then rolled to his stomach, his being on his stomach didn’t cause asphyxiation. Mr. Floyd did, in fact, lose consciousness first and then roll to his stomach. Just watch the video.

The prosecution even allowed the self-proclaimed MMA fighter to testify to this matter. The man didn’t even know that a choke hold cuts off blood flow to the brain without interfering with breathing. The hold’s name is an ironic one. The femoral arteries and veins are at the two o’clock and ten o’clock positions on the neck (near the front and just beside the Adam’s apple). I know this because I spent three years in the US ARMY.

The onlookers were a mob and there was no way to know if they would become violent. They certainly acted as if they would. They were aggressive and vocal during the few minutes Mr. Floyd was on the ground. The officers were dealing with a large aggressive suspect that had already demonstrated his aggressiveness. There was no way the officers could know if crowd intimidation was a bluff. The two rookie officers assisting didn’t have experience and were an unknown in such a pressure situation.

The State of Minnesota usurped local government’s power taking over the prosecution for political reasons. Policemen have to become politically aware at some level to progress in rank. Note that higher-ranking policemen without specific on-scene knowledge were more adamant about Mr. Floyd’s death than lower level officers. In other words, the less they actually knew about the situation the more negatively they spoke.

Twenty seven million dollars is a high settlement. Consider that the government made this settlement before the facts in the case were adjudicated. In other words, the $27 million settlement illustrates the government’s predisposition to a guilty verdict. George Floyd Jr. died May 25, 2020 and Governor Tim Walz determined Mr. Chauvin was guilty on May 31, 2020 when he removed the case from local jurisdiction and assigned his top state prosecutor to the case.

Tim Walz

To me the evidence shows that governor Tim Walz threw Derek Chauvin and his three fellow officers under the bus, slid to a stop and backed up to be certain he didn’t miss. The governor was perfectly willing to sacrifice those officers to gain black support in his upcoming election. Instead of supporting the officers or at least waiting until he knew the facts in the case he made a summary judgement when it was not his jurisdiction. This was days after George Floyd died.

It worked. He did win the governorship in 2022 but lost ground to his previous vote percentage. He should be exposed to public shame and ridicule for the rest of his life.

Mr. Walz may have justified his actions as preventing further riots. Even if that were so, it is more of a statement about his authority than police policy. Tim Walz is a man without backbone or scruples that didn’t care about his officers enough to wait for a proper investigation because he knew that the incident might cost him an election and his reelection meant more than four lowly city police officer. In his mind he is that important.

If George Floyd were white, there would have not been D. Chauvin trial.

If Mr. Arbery were not murdered on Feb 23, 2020 in Georgia, there might not have been a D. Chauvin trial.

If the public knew Mr. Floyd’s arrest record, there might not have been a trial.

If the public knew about the extraordinary effort to put Mr. Floyd into the police vehicle there might not have been a trial.

If the prosecution had presented the FACTS more honestly, there might not have been a murder conviction.

Tim Waltz did not want Mr. Chauvin exonerated so he threw the state’s most valuable resources into the efforts to find him guilty.

If the public had known the chronological events, leading up to Mr. Floyd’s arrest there might not have been a trial.

If the evidence had been presented without prejudice, I believe that Mr. Chauvin would certainly not have been convicted of murder and probably not manslaughter. This case was truly THE STATE OF MINNESOTA VS. DEREK CHAUVIN or even more appropriately THE GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA’S BID TO RETAIN THE GOVERNORSHIP.

Don’t think that I condone Mr. Chauvin’s actions. He afraid of the crowd. As a bouncer, he called the police at the slightest provocation. I believe his timid nature and fear of the small crowd prevented him from having the awareness to help Mr. Floyd when he clearly lost consciousness. Not everyone has the courage to be a police officer. He probably should have been anything but a cop. I think firing Mr. Chauvin was appropriate. I think the city should have tried him for manslaughter at most.

His supervisors had to paint him as a renegade outside their control or admit their culpability having an ineffective policeman on patrol and in a teaching position.

I don’t believe charging any of the other officers is appropriate. His partner whom performed crowd control didn’t significantly contribute to Mr. Floyd’s arrest or subsequent death. In fact, I didn’t notice any contribution by Mr. Chauvin’s partner. He should have been on desk duty. The two novice police officers attempted to do the right thing but were overruled by a training officer concerned about crowd control.

Consequences

After Arbery and before George Floyd I wrote that the rest of America needed to take a look at how black people are treated by police officers. I believe many black men fear police officers. I believe that many police officers fear black men. Organizations such as Black Lives Matter profit from such fear and prejudice. If cops and black men don’t argue and fight BLM has no income.

Back to the mutual fear between black men and cops. Fear is the usual source of such bigotry and inconsideration. I predicted that nature or fate or whatever you want to call it, usually overcompensates for situations like this and the downtrodden usually achieve the advantage, at least temporarily.

In my experience, black people are kind and loving neighbors but like all people, even the best people, there is a limit. We are now experiencing the consequences of pushing a race of people past their limits. Honestly, I think we’re getting off easily.

It is now 2024 and, if anything, I would say that national race relations are worse than before. In non-urban areas such as where I live blacks and whites still smile and are courteous at the grocery store and will even hold a door open for each other. However, in urban environments the actions of Democrat politicians to preserve a voting block have made life more dangerous in black communities. The danger is largely due to reduced police presence caused by budget constrictions. Those that live and prosper on discord are doing better than ever before, so the impetus to improve is nearly non-existent.

Somehow we have to remove the monetary and political incentives for sowing discontent between racial and ethnic groups.