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AIBU?

Derek Chauvin

302 replies

x2boys · 20/04/2021 22:57

Derek Chauvin found guilty of all charges ,this is the right verdict imo,having watched the trial

OP posts:
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Am I being unreasonable?

491 votes. Final results.

POLL
You are being unreasonable
11%
You are NOT being unreasonable
89%
DumplingsAndStew · 21/04/2021 09:47

@skirk64

My takeaway from the recent police killings in America is simple - always comply with police instructions.

George Floyd would still be alive if he hadn't resisted.
Rayshard Brooks would still be alive if he hadn't resisted grabbed an officer's taser and run off.
Daunte Wright would still be alive if he hadn't resisted, got back into his car and driven away.
Adam Toledo would still be alive if he had not run away in an attempt to hide his firearm before surrendering.

That doesn't mean officers shouldn't be held accountable for their actions. But the common denominator in these fatal shootings is that the person killed did not comply with the instructions of the police. In most/all of those cases, the alleged crimes were fairly minor. Argue your case down the police station, argue it in court, don't argue with the officer pointing a gun at you.

The common denominator in these fatal shootings is that they were shot.
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Veterinari · 21/04/2021 09:48

@crashbandicoot4

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/


This is where I got my stats from.

All races are murdered by police in the states.
They spell out the proportionality simply.


Or the disproportionality.

Black people were 28% of those killed by police in 2020 despite being only 13% of the population.
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crashbandicoot4 · 21/04/2021 09:49

@EvilOnion Black people were 28% of those killed by police in 2020 despite being only 13% of the population.

So yes the police are not just killing Black people but they kill disproportionately more black people population %wise.

319 this morning

By contrast over the past 10 years, 164 people have died in or following police custody in England and Wales, according to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)

So I stand by my claim that our police are not perfect but they aren't American police and should not be tarnished with the same brush.

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RunningFromInsanity · 21/04/2021 09:54

@SpringCleanDiva

I think this is a wider issue than just police brutality. America is an extremely violent place and I have read in the past that police officers go out on duty thinking that they can have a gun pulled on them at any time. With that in mind, they are trigger happy and very heavy-handed whereas in the UK our police probably do not go out on a daily basis knowing every other delinquent is carrying a gun. This is not me sticking up for the American police. They are a nasty bunch. I just think that this issue is broader than just recruitment. and training adjustments.

It is the right verdict. I think GF was a nasty piece of work but he did have rights that should have been cosidered.

I agree. It must be a terrifying time to be a police officer in America.
When even 13 year old kids are carrying guns.
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C8H10N4O2 · 21/04/2021 09:57

I agree. It must be a terrifying time to be a police officer in America. When even 13 year old kids are carrying guns

Its more terrifying to be the black mother of young men frankly. Knowing that your teenage student son can go out for a run, be "mistaken" for a criminal courtesy of racial profiling, then shot with impunity.

They don't get to choose, police officers do.

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phoenixrosehere · 21/04/2021 09:58

My takeaway from the recent police killings in America is simple - always comply with police instructions.

George Floyd would still be alive if he hadn't resisted.
Rayshard Brooks would still be alive if he hadn't resisted grabbed an officer's taser and run off.
Daunte Wright would still be alive if he hadn't resisted, got back into his car and driven away.
Adam Toledo would still be alive if he had not run away in an attempt to hide his firearm before surrendering.

That doesn't mean officers shouldn't be held accountable for their actions. But the common denominator in these fatal shootings is that the person killed did not comply with the instructions of the police. In most/all of those cases, the alleged crimes were fairly minor. Argue your case down the police station, argue it in court, don't argue with the officer pointing a gun at you.


All you have to do is comply... what utter BS when evidence shows otherwise. There have been Black people who have been hurt while complying, trying to, or not a danger to police whatsoever. It was just a few days ago that an army guy was pepper sprayed in the face while trying to comply. He drove to a well-lit, safe area (gas station), told them he was scared with an officer replying “he should be” and the two officers were giving him two separate commands simultaneously before one of them pepper sprayed him in the face while his hands were put in front of him.

www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/us/virginia-police-officer-gutierrez-pepper-spray.html


A black deaf woman was pulled over by the cops with her two young daughters in the backseat. She couldn’t read their lips because they were wearing masks so didn’t know what was going on. They pulled her out of her car, forced her on the ground, put her in handcuffs, then told her daughters to get out of the car and to “talk some sense into her” by using sign language which is illegal to use children in that way.

www.insider.com/deaf-mother-handcuffed-children-asked-to-interpret-her-being-detained-2021-4

I still recall in 2016 a Black man who was shot while lying on the ground with his hands up in the air in the parking lot. He was helping his autistic patient.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Charles_Kinsey

American citizens have a RIGHT to know WHY they are being stopped, detained, and the crime/crimes they are being charged with. Police should know how to de-escalate a situation and more often than not one unarmed person doesn’t need a slew of cops. If 2+ cops can’t handle one person who is unarmed then there is a problem.

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DumplingsAndStew · 21/04/2021 09:59

This scene from Greys Anatomy is particularly emotional

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supermoonrising · 21/04/2021 10:00

@crashbandicoot4
Thing is in the US black and Hispanic workers only make about 65% of the salary of white people. Poor people are more likely to run into trouble with police, live in rough areas, get worse education etc. so it’s not as simple as white cop thinks “oh I’m going to arrest more black people”. The whole society in the US is massively unequal and frequently along racial lines. In America they call this huge social inequality “chasing the American dream”. Of course when it fears it head elsewhere in China or Russia or wherever they’d call it legal apartheid or cultural genocide or something.

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Abracadabra14 · 21/04/2021 10:01

@skirk64

My takeaway from the recent police killings in America is simple - always comply with police instructions.

George Floyd would still be alive if he hadn't resisted.
Rayshard Brooks would still be alive if he hadn't resisted grabbed an officer's taser and run off.
Daunte Wright would still be alive if he hadn't resisted, got back into his car and driven away.
Adam Toledo would still be alive if he had not run away in an attempt to hide his firearm before surrendering.

That doesn't mean officers shouldn't be held accountable for their actions. But the common denominator in these fatal shootings is that the person killed did not comply with the instructions of the police. In most/all of those cases, the alleged crimes were fairly minor. Argue your case down the police station, argue it in court, don't argue with the officer pointing a gun at you.

God you're dumb. What about the killing of Elijah McCain? He was listening to music, not resisting arrest.
What about the black people that can't even job without being murdered (Ahmaud Arbery).

It's a disgrace. White people STORMED the capital with GUNS and all were arrested peacefully. None murdered or killed.
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DentonsFringeArnottsWaistcoat · 21/04/2021 10:08

@skirk64

My takeaway from the recent police killings in America is simple - always comply with police instructions.

George Floyd would still be alive if he hadn't resisted.
Rayshard Brooks would still be alive if he hadn't resisted grabbed an officer's taser and run off.
Daunte Wright would still be alive if he hadn't resisted, got back into his car and driven away.
Adam Toledo would still be alive if he had not run away in an attempt to hide his firearm before surrendering.

That doesn't mean officers shouldn't be held accountable for their actions. But the common denominator in these fatal shootings is that the person killed did not comply with the instructions of the police. In most/all of those cases, the alleged crimes were fairly minor. Argue your case down the police station, argue it in court, don't argue with the officer pointing a gun at you.

Adam Toledo had stopped running, faced the officers and raised his hands - or ‘complied’ as you put it. He was still shot dead.

He was a 13 year old child.

But really, it’s obvious to see what you’re facing when the same right wing journalists call Adam Toledo a “thirteen-year-old man” but describe 17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot two people to death and injured another a “little boy trying to help his community”.
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EvilOnion · 21/04/2021 10:09

@toffeebutterpopcorn, of course people of other ethnicity are killed by police but the number of black people killed is disproportionately higher given the population.

A trigger happy cop didn't kill George Floyd, a sadistic prick literally squeezed the life from him.

@crashbandicoot4, sorry if I've been misunderstood but I didn't say anything that would disagree with your post (that o hadn't seen) with you so there's no point to stand beside Confused

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MrsMackesy · 21/04/2021 10:09

The feeling in our white household went deep when the verdicts came in. How depressing - but sadly not surprising - that 23 voters or 10% at this point think the OP is BU. The verdicts feel monumental but there is still much work to be done.

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plumpuddisnice · 21/04/2021 10:10

@crashbandicoot4

The verdict was never in any doubt.
US legal system will see appeal after appeal. Unfortunately the notoriety of the case gives quite good grounds for appeals.

I've been looking at the statistics and police violence in the states seems to be rampant. There have been 316 killings by police in the USA this year so far. 112 started as a traffic violation/stop.
The few criminal charge/convictions or even reprimands for these deaths is shocking.
How do they ever change such a broken system?
Will the general population ever see the like between gun ownership and police use of excessive force?
How do police services world wide disassociate themselves from their behaviour?

There are issues in the uk but GF would still be alive if he lived here.

I beg to differ. There have been a number of cases where individuals have died in police custody.

www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/family-want-answers-after-man-15406496
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majesticallyawkward · 21/04/2021 10:13

My takeaway from the recent police killings in America is simple - always comply with police instructions.
@skirk64 way to downplay police brutality and racism there.
What about Breona Taylor? Officers blindly shot 32 rounds into her home as part of a botched 'search' and none of them were charged.

The problem isn't people 'not complying'; the problem is the system that allows these murders to happen again and again with no sign of reform. If George Floyds death hasn't been caught on video and been seen there is a good chance Derek Chauvin would never have been in court or faced murder charges. It doesn't matter what he did or didn't do in the moment, no one should be murdered like that.

Derek Chauvin
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paralysedbyinertia · 21/04/2021 10:15

It must be a terrifying time to be a police officer in America.

Yes, indeed. It must be truly terrifying to know that they might be held accountable for their behaviour. That they can no longer unlawfully kill someone without the prospect that they might be convicted by a jury of murder. Chilling.

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toffeebutterpopcorn · 21/04/2021 10:17

[quote EvilOnion]@toffeebutterpopcorn, of course people of other ethnicity are killed by police but the number of black people killed is disproportionately higher given the population.

A trigger happy cop didn't kill George Floyd, a sadistic prick literally squeezed the life from him.

@crashbandicoot4, sorry if I've been misunderstood but I didn't say anything that would disagree with your post (that o hadn't seen) with you so there's no point to stand beside Confused[/quote]
And there is absolutely a difference between squeezing a trigger and squeezing the life out of someone. The brute force, close contact, violence... it’s unbelievable that this could happen. It wasn’t restraining him - it seemed more to hurt and humiliate him. God knows how many stones weight of a man on someone’s neck...

Cuff a suspect, arms and legs of needs be - then what can they do? Although there was the case in south London where a policeman was shot in the station by a cuffed man.

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TheCrowening · 21/04/2021 10:17

But the problem is, the police are trained to fear, rather than to de-escalate. They get shown graphic videos of police officers getting shot as part of their training. So of course some of them will be hypervigilant and fearful, and will make terrible decisions as a result. Their training is woeful and lets everyone down.

However that doesn’t apply at all to Derek Chauvin, who was entirely in control of the situation as he slowly suffocated an unarmed man to death.

And it doesn’t explain why so many victims are black.

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EmeraldShamrock · 21/04/2021 10:19

Delighted for the evil power hungry animal in uniform having watch all the evidence.
There is no excuse for their behaviour.

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TustedFormula · 21/04/2021 10:20

I have two sons, one in the Army and one a police officer. I worry far more about what might happen to the police officer in the line of duty.

The actions of this police officer are abhorrent and I agree completely that being a young black man in America must be terrifying. That doesn't mean it's not also terrifying to be a Police Officer in a country where literally anyone is likely to be armed.

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MrsMackesy · 21/04/2021 10:22

@pinkearedcow

George Floyd would still be alive if he hadn't resisted

If four police officers can't deal non-lethally with one person resisting arrest, perhaps they shouldn't be police officers.

It is good to see that the other three police officers will shortly go on trial.
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EmeraldShamrock · 21/04/2021 10:22

The evidence the handcuffs were manipulated to cause damage then held tight against him crushed against his back causing maximum pain.

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EdgeOfACoin · 21/04/2021 10:31

It's a disgrace. White people STORMED the capital with GUNS and all were arrested peacefully. None murdered or killed.

This isn't true. Ashli Babbitt was shot dead and the police officer responsible was cleared of her murder.

I in no way condone Babbitt's actions, and I make no comment on her death, but it is not true to say that no one was shot dead by the police at the Capitol riots.

I agree that had the rioters been black, there almost certainly would have been a lot more shootings.

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paralysedbyinertia · 21/04/2021 10:33

It is good to see that the other three police officers will shortly go on trial.

Yes, indeed. Does anyone know what they are charged with?

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Blackberrycream · 21/04/2021 10:45

It is very naive to believe that compliance will keep you safe. It’s obviously the best course of action but there are too many bad apples.
Read about the recent case with Caron Nazario, a US army Lt who was too terrified to leave his car because of the coded racist language the officer was using.
There have been so many incidents over the years that anyone following it can’t really be surprised anymore.
A while ago I met a friend of a man killed by police in the 80s in New York. The friend’s name was Michael Stewart. If anyone doesn’t understand fear of the police please look it up. I am hard to shock but the level of the cover up and how high it went was horrifying.

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PerveenMistry · 21/04/2021 10:46

@TustedFormula

I have two sons, one in the Army and one a police officer. I worry far more about what might happen to the police officer in the line of duty.

The actions of this police officer are abhorrent and I agree completely that being a young black man in America must be terrifying. That doesn't mean it's not also terrifying to be a Police Officer in a country where literally anyone is likely to be armed.

Then don't be one.

We have far too many cops here in the US as it is. They disgust me.
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