Eight minutes and 46 seconds!
How much can be accomplished in that amount of time? Maybe eat an ice cream cone. Or read a very short story. Or clean out the coffee pot. Or run a respectable mile.
Eight minutes and 46 seconds.
It’s not really a lot of time when you think about it. But as millions of TV viewers on May 25 found out, it’s ample time to commit murder. And that’s exactly what Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin did when he knelt on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, for eight minutes and 46 seconds. (Floyd was taken into custody for allegedly attempting to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.) Even as Floyd repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe,” and “Mama,” Chauvin ignored the pleas as he continued to crush the life out of Floyd. After six minutes Floyd was motionless and unresponsive, and Chauvin still did not remove his knee from Floyd’s neck until two more minutes and 46 seconds had elapsed. By the way, Chauvin is white.
“…asphyxiation from sustained pressure” was the way one report described the cause of Floyd’s death. Three other white police officers – Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao — were at the scene, and for eight minutes and 46 seconds, they did nothing to stop Chauvin!
Reaction
Now Chauvin’s horrific act of police brutality predictably spawned massive protests and rioting in cities nationwide and around the world. Even though all four of the police officers were fired, at first only Chauvin was arrested and charged, but initially the charge was just manslaughter, which sparked more outrage from those who thought that charge was not harsh enough.
After all the dust has cleared, here’s where we are at this writing. Chauvin’s charge has been upgraded to second-degree murder, and now Lane, Kueng, and Thao are in custody and charged with aiding and abetting a second-degree murder. If they are convicted, all four of them could be sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Of course the key word in the foregoing sentence is “if.” IF they are convicted. History has shown that many times what is just and true does not always prevail. Because millions of witnesses saw what Chauvin did, you would think that four guilty verdicts would be a slam-dunk. Unfortunately that is not always the case. In fact there are too many cases in which justice does not always win out.
Just think about how often we read or hear about cases where people who are obviously guilty go free because they could afford high-powered defense attorneys. Sadly at the other end of the spectrum are the innocent ones who are unfairly incarcerated because their pockets aren’t deep enough to hire top-notch lawyers or even worse because of their skin color.
Just recently there have been news stories about a black man who was falsely accused of murder and rape. A jury found him guilty, and he served 37 years in prison until finally DNA evidence surfaced that proved him innocent. Injustices like this should not happen, but all too often they do. And also all too often racism is involved.
That Blindfold
Racism is a hideously ugly problem, and there is not sufficient space here to delineate all of the recent cases of it involving white police officers and black victims. It seems as if we just finish trying to come to grips with the horror of the Ahmaud Arbery case when the George Floyd incident occurs. It just never seems to end.
Since way back in the 16th century justice has been depicted in pictures and statues on courthouses as a blindfolded lady holding scales. That blindfold is supposed to convey the idea that justice should be completely impartial and, as one source put it, “She symbolizes fair and equal administration of the law, without corruption, favor, greed, or prejudice.”
Now in doing some research on this fascinating lady, I read where she wasn’t blindfolded until the 16th century. Thus, she’s had a long, long time to balance those famous scales, and she certainly hasn’t done a very good job of it yet.
Maybe it’s time for that damn blindfold to come off.
