Sentenced today by Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill after his April 20 convictions in Second Degree Murder, Third Degree Murder and Second-degree Manslaughter, 47-year-old former Minneapolis police officer Derkek Chauvin got 270 months [22-and-half-years]. Chauvin will be eligible for parole in 15 years or 180 months for the May 25, 2020 murder of 46-year-old George Floyd. Floyd’s murder by Chauvin caught on video pushing his knee with his full body weight on Floyd’s neck for eight-and-a-half minutes created racial shockwave around the U.S., prompting riots, looting, arson and anarchy across the U.S. for three months last summer. Law enforcements complacence to enforce the law for over three months prompted the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and mob scented prompting former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment for “incitement of insurrection.”
Make no mistake that months of race riots over the 2020 summer prompted right wing groups and plan and orchestrate the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. No one, other than the most partisan Democrats, believes that Trump led a coup d’etat to topple the U.S. government to be re-instated as dictator of the United States. If you listened carefully to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and nine House Managers led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) you’d believe Trump committed treason and serious high-crimes-and-misdemeanors. When it came to Floyd’s May 20, 2020 murder it was the second most important factor getting Trump out of office. Covid-19 was the No. 1 issue on voters’ minds that turned against Trump. Democrats managed to hang Trump with Chauvin’s rap, despite the fact he had nothing to do with it. But in Black voters’ minds, Chauvin and Trump were all but the same.
Today’s sentencing cuts both ways with blacks thinking Cahill’s sentence wasn’t harsh enough and other thinking it was too harsh based on current political trends. One thing’s for sure, Chauvin will spend most of what’s left of his adult life in prison, assuming he’s not killed while in custody. Cahill wanted the public know watching Chauvin’s sentencing on national TV that he was trying to follow the law and do his job as a judge. But Cahill too was impacted by the seismic shift in racial issues around the country, where African American groups seized more political clout than ever before in U.S. history. For better or worse, black lobbying groups like Black Lives Matter have more influence inside the Biden administration than ever before. George Floyd’s murder was the “tipping point” combusting latent issues that were buried in the long history of the U.S. Civil Rights movement.
Chauvin’s sentence should be disappointing consolation prize to the Floyd family, especially compared with the March 12 $27 million settlement obtained from their Atty. Benjamin Crump.” “What the sentence is not based on is emotion or sympathy,” Cahill said. “But at the same time, I want to acknowledge the deep and tremendous pain that all the families are feeling, especially the Floyd family. I’m not going to attempt to be profound or clever because it’s not the appropriate time. I’m not basing my sentence on public opinion. I’m not basing it on any attempt to send any messages,” Cahill said, delivering what most honest legal analysts would say was well-reasoned sentence. Chauvin will not doubt appeal his case in the next 60 days but all indications point to a legitimate trial and sentencing unlikely overturned. Cahill could have doubled Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines to 300 months or 25-years.
Floyd’s public execution by former white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin struck a long-overdue raw nerve in the black community, reacting to his death as a symbol of centuries of black oppression. Floyd’s death galvanized the black community to defeat Trump in the polls, largely demonized by Democrat and the press as a white supremacist. For the past 13 months, the country has gone through a major upheaval with race relations, questioning the foundation of American democracy. Only recently, Grammy Award-winning 53-year-old singer Macy Gray called for a new American flag to represent racial diversity in America. Not only are professional black athletes refusing to stand for the National Anthem, Gray takes it a step further overhauling the Anthem and the American flag. Events like Aug. 11, 2017 Charlottesville are a faded memory.
Charlottesville was used by Democrats and the press to demonize Trump as a White Supremacist. Watching Confederate flags and statues removed from government buildings all over the South have been replaced with removing American flags, now as Gray says, no longer suitable to the black community. Chauvin goes to prison for egregious abuse of his badge, the responsibility to protect-and-server as a peace officer. Floyd’s death prompted long-overdue shockwaves, mobilizing black groups to make more demands on the Biden. Black Lives Matter Founder 40-year-old Alicia Garza said after Biden’s Nov. 8, 2020 election, she wants a seat at the table for delivering the black community for Biden’s victory over Trump. Black Lives Matter would like to ride Floyd’s death all the way to slavery reparations for African Americas, something not in Biden’s current infrastructure plan.
