The Scapegoating of Derek Chauvin, Pt. I

Stated plainly: Floyd chose to commit a crime. He was apprehended for that crime and became belligerent during that apprehension. The arrest resulted in additional physiological stress and the release of adrenaline. This stress was not excessive by ordinary standards, though it was excessive for Floyd because of who he was and the bad choices he had made. According to Baker, “it was the stress of that interaction that tipped him over the edge given his underlying heart disease and his toxicological status.” It is in this limited sense that the arrest “caused” Floyd’s death—much as riding a roller coaster might have done.

Let's just set aside the despicable, subtle racism of "who he was" in that paragraph...

The article basically argues that, because Floyd's physiological stress was his own doing, then Chauvin should not have been tried for second-degree murder, or the intent to kill Floyd without premeditation.

Fine.

That still leaves open the possibility that Chauvin was guilty of involuntary manslaughter, or causing his death by failing to behave with the level of care a reasonable person would have exercised under the same circumstances. That's what the second part is about: "As I’ll explain in Part II, the body camera footage proves that the arrest was conducted in a professional and dispassionate manner."

Still fine.

I can concede all of that, and still dress down the practice of policing generally and that of the Minneapolis Police Department specifically, even of Derek Chauvin specifically, according to the Department of Justice's investigation of the MPD (PDF).

On December 15, 2021, Mr. Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal criminal civil rights violations, both for the murder of Mr. Floyd and for holding a 14-year-old teen by the throat, beating him with a flashlight, then pressing his knee on the teen’s neck and back for over 15 minutes in 2017.

The MPD had a record of being a shitty department and Chauvin contributed to that by being a shitty police officer. That the prosecutor's office was "struggling under the weight of unfamiliar public scrutiny" was because regular people experience the documented civil rights abuses long before they're documented and what accountability.

In the same way that the physiological stress of Floyd, coupled with Derek Chauvin's behavior, caused Floyd's death, the public anger against police that Derek Chauvin and his fellow officers generated also caused the prosecutor's office to publicly flog Chauvin for his crimes.