Tag: Chauvin Trial
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Domino
Minneapolis deputy police chief Katie Blackwell’s defamation suit was thrown out, and she’s been ordered to pay back part of Liz Collin’s legal fees: This may be the biggest backfire I’ve seen in a defamation suit – and the subject is by no means academic to me. In a move that finally brings truth to…
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Ellison: “You Are All Victims!”
Keith Ellison’s Attorney General’s Office is soliciting “victim impact statements”… …from, literally, everybody. Community impact statements are statements submitted by those who have been impacted by a crime. Those statements then may be read at the sentencing hearing. On a form on Ellison’s website, people can submit their own community impact statement describing “how Mr.…
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Who Needs A Highway, An Airport Or A Jet. . .
. . . when you can’t buy a gallon of gas? Drivers along parts of the East Coast piled into gas stations on Tuesday, resulting in long lines and shortages as motorists reacted to what could be a weeklong shutdown of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline because of a cyberattack. Colonial Pipeline Co., operator of…
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Chum
Andrew McCarthy writing at National Review says the Chauvin jury was correct to convict him, not based on anything reported in the media or introduced as evidence at trial or the pervasive atmosphere of intimidation, but because the conviction means Chauvin is a bad cop and that exonerates the rest of society from the charge…
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Urban Progressive Privilege: In Which I Defend A Cake-Eating Private School
Around the time of the Chauvin verdict, and in the wake of the Brooklyn Center shooting, a group of students at posh Creti\-Derham Hall – a private Catholic school in Saint Paul – held a walkout. Now, that’s fine. It’s a foreign concept to me, of course – in my day, at my high school,…
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A Little Concerning
One of the alternate jurors from the Chauvin trial admits the flamingly obvious (in an interview with KARE11’s Lou Raguse): Raguse: Did you want to be a juror? Christensen: I had mixed feelings. There was a question on the questionnaire about it and I put I did not know. The reason, at that time, was…
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Rumor Of War
The Chauvin trial wrapped up yesterday. As this is written, the jury is deliberating. But well into last week, Saint Paul was strapping in. Saint Paul is smoking ’em if they got ’em. The Midway Menards hasn’t yet piled stacks of plywood in front of the store – which is the “smoke ’em if you…
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This Is A Sincere Question…
…for any DFLers that happen to be reading. Yesterday, on the one hand, DFL rep Jennifer McEwen, sounding as if she were nearly in tearms, chided her GOP colleagues for attacking Maxine Waters, who spent her weekend telling Demcorats to riot if they didn’t get the verdict they wanted in the Chauvin trial… Right after…
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Journalism
Day by day analysis of the Chauvin trial by someone who seems to know what he’s talking about. Day 7 in particular, is highly recommended. Joe Doakes
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With Apologies To David Letterman (Back When He Was Funny)
The Top Ten Things you Never, Ever Hear in Real Life. 10. “Hey, hand me that piano”. 9. “Gosh, the Star Tribune does a great job of balanced coverage on divisive issues” 8. “You know what I could use right now? A plate of “Scrod” from Embers” 7. “The fact that the Vikings, T-Wolves, Wild…
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I’m No Lawyer
As such, I have no idea if the City of Minneapolis is trying to find ways to throw the Chauvin trial, or to create grounds for endless appeals, each of them a potential spark for more riots and, of course, more springboards for more political grandstanding. But if it were…: Cahill’s decision followed a defense…
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Make The Case
I always someone convincing me that Derek Chauvin can get a fair trial in Hennepin County. Really, the entire Twin Cities metro. The evidence is not encouraging.
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Send In The Kangaroos
City of Minneapolis reaches an independent settlment with the Floyd family… …just in time to jeopardize the Chauvin trial. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called it a milestone. The city council unanimously approved the settlement. Announcing the settlement in the middle of jury selection for the murder trial of Derek Chauvin confused legal experts. “It was…
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Death Spiral
Joe Soucheray on the Chauvin Trial and Minneapolis: Yes, the trial, and the attendant protests, could be the end of Minneapolis. There is no political strength in place to save it. The council even exudes a vibe that suggests they are more concerned about the safety and convenience of protesters than their own citizenry. The…
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Digging In
A friend of the blog emails: As you can see you today more fencing and wire went up around the 4th Precinct in North Minneapolis. Many traffic barriers are also set internal inside the fence in the police parking lot. So where will all the rioters go? It’s a rhetorical question. UPDATE: Compare and contrast…
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Currying Favor
Here’s the team of lawyers volunteering their time to prosecute a Minneapolis police officer in the biggest racial lynching the city has ever seen. They must all be gunning for judge, hoping to impress Tim Walz with their sterling Liberal credentials so he appoints them to the bench. Thank God I don’t live in Hennepin County. Joe…
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The Darkness Before More, Darker Darkness
The news is full of stories about the preparations for Monday’s opening of the Derek Chauvin trial. Signally, all those preparations seem to involve fortifying government buildings. That includes Minneapolis City Hall, where taxpayers are paying a lot of money to fortify a building wherein most of the City Council members believe the expectation of…
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Checklist
As Minneapolis heads towards what is almost certain to be a metaphorical and fiscal bloodletting, if not perhaps a literal one, the city is going through its crisis preparedness checklist: After nearly a year of calling public safety a privilege, erecting lots and lots of privilege around itself. Continue not only proving that public safety…
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Plans
A friend of the blog emails: The people of Portland and Seattle might get a break seeing so many will be in Minneapolis. Super Bowl, Basketball Final Four, and Chauvin trial, come to Minneapolis. We used to call them “professional protesters”. And they most certainly do exist. But I think we also have a class…
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The Darkness Before The Darkness
A longtime friend of the blog emails: With the impending Derek Chauvin trial, the fortification of the 4th Precinct has begun this morning. A wall of cement traffic barricades are being set around the perimeter. Back last summer it was reinforced with razor wire. I am so deeply saddened by what has happened to my…
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Bombshell
On May 31, prosecutors learned Floyd died of an overdose. On August 25, they admitted it in court. Charges against the officers still have not been dismissed. One remains in jail, in super-max prison, in Oak Park Heights. I seem to recall someone in the comments lecturing me on the ethical duties of a prosecutor as explanation…
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Shot In The Dark: Today’s News, Months Ago
Someone in the press leaked the body cam video of the George Floyd arrest. Taking nothing away from the tragedy or the anger that went along with it – “knee on the throat” isn’t a good look – but seeing this, I’m thinking Keith Ellison would need Vasily Ulrikh on the bench to get a…
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Rounds Two And…Three?
Like a lot of Twin Cities residents, I’m eyeing next spring – sometime after the scheduled March opening of the Derek Chauvin trial – nervously, remembering that the LA riots (at least the ones everyone remembers) began not with the pummeling of Rodney King, but with the acquittal of the four officers involved. And here’s…
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I’m No Lawyer…
…and I’ll leave plenty of room for those of you who are. But as re Keith Ellison taking over the prosecution of the officers involved in the George Floyd case, I can’t help but think the following: Hot Potato: Mike Freeman just got the most controversial case in his misbegotten career off his plate. He…
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The Fifth Killer
Police and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) deal with a lot of people in crisis – including various medical crises, exacerbated or caused by drugs, alcohol, mental illness, or physical pathologies. Combining the stress of a contact with police, the medical episode and other contributing factors can cause all sorts of problems, some of them potentially…