Here is Queen Ann Coulter wading in on an argument that I had not heard before, that the hostile crowd that had gathered to film the alleged knee on the neck of gentle giant George, prevented officers from saving his life. That’s irony for you!
“One of the main arguments being advanced by Eric Nelson, sole attorney for Derek Chauvin in his trial for the murder of George Floyd, is that the hostile crowd itself prevented the officers from attempting to perform CPR in the last minutes of Floyd’s life.
Even the prosecution’s “use of force” experts admitted repeatedly on cross-examination that a hostile crowd would justify Chauvin keeping Floyd restrained until an ambulance arrived. An officer’s duty to provide care is overridden by his duty to keep himself, the suspect and the bystanders safe.
As was evident from the videos (and admitted to by the bystander witnesses), they were shouting obscenities at the police, threatening them with bodily harm and, in a few instances, had to be held back from rushing the officers.
And of course, because of the presence of the angry crowd, the EMTs themselves did not stick around to provide care, but did a “load and scoot,” heaving Floyd into the back of the ambulance and driving three blocks to get away from the mob on the street. They didn’t even want to work inside an ambulance near this feisty group.
As it becomes increasingly obvious that the belligerent onlookers themselves may have gotten George Floyd killed by creating a dangerous situation for the officers, media commentators leap in to do backup work for the prosecutors by sneering at the idea that the officers might have felt threatened by a few rowdy teenagers.
Oh, the big pansies! So, a few teenagers yelled at the officers. Show me just ONE example of disaffected urban youth going from agitation to brawling!
Here’s one! One recent Saturday morning in May 2019, six teens beat the crap out of an off-duty firefighter on the Upper East Side because he stepped in to defend an elderly couple from the youths’ harassment.
And here’s another: A mob in Chicago attacked an older white man in 2016 for voting for Trump.
But the police were armed! Yeah, what are they going to do if one of the bystanders rushed them? Shoot him? Shoot them all?
So, yes, I see your point, MSNBC, it’s completely crazy for the officers to have felt threatened by the agitated crowd of urban youth hurling epithets at them.
At least we can count on our media to report fairly on any case of a black man dying in police custody.
No, my mistake! For important news about America, we turn to the British press. It seems that Floyd had a long list of criminal convictions, including holding a gun to a pregnant woman’s belly during a home invasion robbery in Texas. See EXCLUSIVE: A new start turns to a tragic end for George Floyd, who moved to Minneapolis determined to turn his life around after being released from prison in Texas, DailyMail,May 28, 2020 .
You won’t read about that in The New York Times! The Times briefly mentioned a “home invasion” in a single article about Floyd last June (27th paragraph – seriously). I guess they didn’t have space to mention Floyd’s pistol-whipping a pregnant woman.
Even the Houston Chronicle’s major retrospective of Floyd’s life skimmed past the violent home invasion in a few sentences about his period of “struggle”: “In 2009, Floyd went to prison after pleading guilty to aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.”
That was it, in a deep dive article on Floyd’s life that was 1,500 words long.
It seems like an intriguing story to me. How about an interview with the victim, media? Anyone interested?Nah, let’s get to the story on Officer Chauvin’s taxes!
Yes, the Minnesota Department of Revenue and the Oakdale Police Department have done their part for BLM by poring over Officer Chauvin’s state tax returns and are now charging him with “tax fraud.” They claim that, over the past five years, Chauvin and his wife underpaid the State of Minnesota about $21,000 in taxes. There’s a real clickbait story!
There have been hundreds of news stories on Chauvin’s alleged tax fraud. (George Floyd, I assume, was always punctilious about his taxes. Probably an early filer.)
Rioting is good for ratings. Don’t expect the media to report the truth.”
Yes, there has not been much reporting of the pathologist, testifying that George died of a heart disturbance, not lack of oxygen, although I suppose the media will start changing their story, but the prosecution is locked in now.
“A forensic pathologist testified on Wednesday that George Floyd died of a sudden heart rhythm disturbance due to his advanced heart disease, and not from lack of oxygen from the way he was restrained by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, according to the Associated Press.Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death.
Former Maryland chief medical examiner Dr. David Fowler said that the combination of fentanyl and methamphetamine in Floyd's system, heart disease, and potential carbon monoxide poisoning from automotive exhaust were contributing factors in the 46-year-old Floyd's death last May.
"All of those combined to cause Mr. Floyd’s death," said Fowler, who also said that he would have classified the manner of death as "undetermined," not homicide as the county's chief medical officer ruled. He added that some of the contributing factors could be ruled homicide and others could be ruled accidental.
"You haven’t seen any data or test results that showed Mr. Floyd had a single injury from carbon monoxide. Is that true?" Blackwell asked. "That is correct, because it was never sent," Fowler replied.
Blackwell then countered by noting that Chauvin's squad car was a gas-electric hybrid, and Fowler had no data on how much carbon monoxide was actually released - or if the engine was running at the time.
While several medical experts called by the prosecution have concluded that Floyd died from lack of oxygen due to the way Chauvin restrained him, Fowler said that the knee on Floyd was "nowhere close to his airway," and that Floyd's ability to speak and groan showed that the airway was still open. He also said that there wasn't enough pressure to cause bruises or scrapes on Floyd's neck or back - and that Floyd did not complain of vision changes or other symptoms which would indicate insufficient oxygen to the brain.
"The bottom line is, moving air in and out, and speaking and making noise is very good evidence that the airway was not closed," said Fowler.”
I predict that Chauvin will still be found guilty, as a human sacrifice to the great god of political correctness.