Guilty

Derek Chauvin has been found guilty on all counts.  I hardly paid any attention to the trial but I did read one report that George Floyd had an alarming amount of drugs in his system according to the autopsy.  In fact, one witness testified that, based solely on the autopsy and toxicology, it looked like a classic overdose.  Both fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in abundance in his blood.  Moreover, he had Covid-19 too.  Reasonable doubt?  Apparently not.

One wonders if the jury took into account the politics outside the courtroom when deliberating.  One of the trial's witnesses had his house vandalized with pig's blood and a severed pig's head.  Congresswoman Maxine Waters called for protesters to stay in the streets and be more confrontational if Chauvin was acquitted.  It is a given that riots would follow an acquittal.  With that, do you convict on all counts in order to avert a devastating riot like the ones that tore through Minneapolis last year?  Two people died in the riots and there was $500 million in damages.  Send one man to prison to save the city?  Heck, anyone who saw the video would be glad to toss this guy in prison, all the better if it prevents further mostly peaceful protests.