George Floyd died in police custody with a knee on his neck. It’s all on video. Now try finding a jury that can hear both sides of that case. Try being a juror knowing that Floyd’s death caused a summer of rioting across America, and that how you rule in this case could cause more violence and destruction.
On Tiffany Cross’s weekend MSNBC show, MSNBC regular Elie Mystal — “justice correspondent” for The Nation – apparently believes that former policeman Derek Chauvin’s jury should be composed of people…who had already decided to convict him! He decried the “ignorance” of the Chauvin jury, saying it was chosen by people who either had not seen the video of the arrest of George Floyd, or maybe “saw the video and couldn’t decide if sometimes, maybe black people do need to be choked to death.”
In other words, Mystal wanted a jury composed of people who had decided—in advance of seeing any evidence—that Chauvin had no valid defense. Or that anyone who hadn’t seen the video are far too stupid or self-involved to be trustworthy jurors.
Mystal is so blindingly anti-police that he compared Floyd to the victims of 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing. Police are domestic terrorists like al-Qaeda. Speaking of ignorance, Mystal also led viewers to believe that the three other police officers involved in the Floyd arrest were all white. He said:
“We don’t let terrorists blame the victims for the terrorism. That’s not what happens in this country, unless the victim is black. And when the victim is black, these white, domestic, state-sponsored terrorists—which is what Derek Chauvin and his three accomplices were that day—state-sponsored terrorists. When the terrorism is against black people, it is suddenly okay for lawyers to make the arguments and judges to allow evidence suggesting that the victim of the terrorism was at fault for their own death.”
In fact, two of the three accompanying police officers were not white. Alex Kueng is black, and Tou Thao is Asian-American. With this kind of ignorance, would Mystal disqualify himself from jury duty?
And note also Mystal’s slur of the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota. He refers to the cops not merely as “domestic” terrorists, but as “state-sponsored” terrorists. Has Elie forgotten that Minneapolis and Minnesota are controlled by liberal Democrats? Does the MSNBC audience agree whole-heartedly that liberal Democrats sponsor domestic terrorists in their police departments?
Mystal also claimed Floyd was killed “with impunity,” when Chauvin in now on trial, he’s been removed from the police force, and the city of Minneapolis agreed in March to pay $27 million in a civil settlement to Floyd’s family, which was mentioned in this segment. That’s not the dictionary definition of “impunity.”
Host Cross, far from correcting or criticizing Mystal’s misstatements about the nature of the justice system and the identity of the other police officers, predictably praised him: “Elie, you’re so good! I hope you can stick around for the next hour!” He did.
Before the show, MSNBC touted the appearance of this “great guest.”
.@ElieNYC joins The @CrossConnection today. Join @TiffanyDCross for this great guest and more coming up at 10 AM ET this #SaturdayMorning on @MSNBC. pic.twitter.com/v0Ye9V5XRF
— The Cross Connection with Tiffany Cross (@CrossConnection) April 10, 2021
MSNBC regular Elie Mystal saying he was “frightened” that the Chauvin jury was “seeded with ignorance” because it is composed of people who hadn’t decided in advance that Chauvin is guilty, was sponsored in part by Jeep, Planters, Allegra, Tide, and Dell.
Here’s the transcript.
MSNBC
The Cross Connection
4/10/21
10:21 am EDTELIE MYSTAL: Now, the testimony that the prosecution has put on from the other police officers should, to my mind, blunt this defense argument that Chauvin behaved like a reasonable cop. Literally, other cops are saying that he didn’t.
But then we have to think about the jury. And you have to remember, this jury has been seeded with ignorance. It’s been seeded with people who either did not see the video, which is almost impossible to do in this country, or, saw the video and couldn’t decide if sometimes, maybe black people do need to be choked to death for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. Maybe they had it coming!
So those are the people that wer’re talking to here. It’s not talking to me; it’s not trying to convince you. That ship sailed long ago. They’re trying to convince 12 people that have been picked specifically for not knowing things. And so, that’s what — that’s what frightens me. No, they don’t need to put Chauvin on the stand. They need one juror to refuse to see a reason.
. . .
MYSTAL [earlier in the segment] Of course, we don’t let terrorists blame the victims for the terrorism. That’s not what happens in this country, unless the victim is black. And when the victim is black, these white, domestic, state-sponsored terrorists—which is what Derek Chauvin and his three accomplices were that day—state-sponsored terrorists. When the terrorism is against black people, it is suddenly okay for lawyers to make the arguments and judges to allow evidence suggesting that the victim of the terrorism was at fault for their own death.
Better to keep your mouth shut and let people assume you’re smart than to open your mouth an prove you’re not.
Corollary: Far better to keep your mouth shut and have people assume you are STUPID, rather than open your mouth and prove you are!
If they fail to convict, then the evidence presented to the jury was not sufficient and failed to prove the crime he was charged with. It’s as simple as that. I read yesterday that his knee was not on the neck but Floyd’s back. He resisted for a half-hour before the knee was used to control him, but based on what I saw was excessive. Did it rise to the level of murder with intent, I don’t think so. Did he commit a crime by ignoring his pleas “I cannot breath”? The answer is YES. But not murder. I wish, just once, that Black Lives Matter would suggest to everyone not to resist officers when being taken into custody or become dependent on drugs. The resisting arrest charge or worse can be avoided. Another suggestion is don’t commit a crime.
Wasn’t floyd complaining “I can’t breathe” while he was still in the back seat of the cop car?
Maybe there should be a weekly replay of “How Not To Get Your Ass kicked By The Police” by Chris Rock?
27 million dollars to the family of a career criminal who had ENOUGH fentanyl in his system to kill an elephant.chauvin will be the scapegoat BECAUSE the RACISTS on MSNBC want more. innocent until proven guilty and an unbiased jury .if chauvin was BLACK they would want this .if chauvin and floyd were white NOBODY would open their big MOUTHS.
Mike, I agree with you. The two main points of you made: DO NOT COMMIT A CRIME to begin with and then if you are caught doing so DO NOT resist arrest! Plain and simple for most civilized people.
Knee on back not neck BS to promote a false narrative, 23-7-5 arrests, convictions and incarcerations George was a career criminal and drug addict.
Still does not mean he can be killed while in police custody. I don’t care for either Floyd or Chauvin but we can’t have this happening in our country. At a minimum qualified immunity needs to be seriously rexamined. Policing is not a hard job, handcuff the guy to the bumper and wait for the van to arrive. Problem solved and everyone goes home fine.
Well, if policing is such an easy job, maybe you should try it out. Just driving around while drinking coffee, I bet. Course every now and then something comes your way and bites you in the ass, say an active shooter or someone high on a lethal amount of drugs that you have to arrest, but I am sure that only slightly interferes with your doughnut time…he said sarcastically.
Hard to believe this whole country has gone off the deep end….Jenner considers running for Governor of Calif, now that’s appropriate for the land of fruits and nuts. Reading Elie Mystal with the warped idea of justice and fair trial. What kind of “justice” are we talking about? Juries to be made up of persons with their minds made up going into the side show of a trial. How much of this country consists of heavy drug users at this point in time !! Does our constitution and Bill of Rights no longer have any meaning ? What about those of us who defended these principles in times gone by. How much American blood has been spilled around the world defending unfortunates that Mr. Biden is apologizing for? Did we soldiers have much to say about our assignments or our “leaders” at the time when Mr Biden was a senator and one of the leaders? Last thing to comment on is why do I have to give my name and E-mail address in order to place my comments? Make it a bit easier to track me?
Apparently Mystal has forgotten what “justice” means in this country. It means presumption of innocence until proven guilty. If a jury trial, it means PROOF and DECISION of guilt by an UNBIASED jury of your peers. It means ALL evidence is presented for consideration by that jury. But he is a minority, and BLM means anything other than a predisposed guilty verdict means everybody in the process is racist. Three issues I have with this. 1- If he is going to be a justice correspondent, maybe he should go back and understand what the justice system is in this country. For ALL people and races. 2- Floyd’s death is a tragedy, we can all agree to that. But he also has a lengthy history with authorities, he had lethal amounts of illegal drugs in his system, and he was being uncooperative and resisting arrest. Of course these facts are just annoying truths against Mystal’s narrative. 3- Mystal’s blatantly racist comments condemn every person who is not black. ALL lives mater, not just black lives. Those who are not black tend to respect authority and civilized rules in our society more than those who are black. As for MSNBC, well, they have no interest in truth and honesty in journalism. Main stream media only wants to hype sensationalism to sell ad time. They are whores of the corporate dollar rather than journalists. MSNBC and CNN as the extreme frauds should both be sanctioned by the FCC.
Howard – we do not actually have a justice system, it is a legal system. In spite of that potentially flawed (two tiered?) system, sometimes justice is actually reached.
BTW – it is more properly the lame stream media. They are ‘presstitutes’ since they get paid for purveying their ‘favors’ – that other term you used implies they simply give it away……………..
I got an idea for reparations for Mystal…A one way ticket back to the country of his ancestors with no chance of EVER returning to the United States!
If the cause of death is a deadly dose of mixed drugs, then Chauvin didn’t kill him. This man was a career criminal and drug addict. He wouldn’t listen when given an order. He was high on drugs. No one wanted him dead, but he never agreed to obey the cop. According to the autopsy report I read, he was already overdosing because of the drug mixture he had ingested. Let’s wait for the jury. I usually respect the reasonable voices of a jury over the hot headed voices of nutjobs.
Officer Chuvin of MINNEAPOLIS, MA and the other Officer’s will be Acquitted because the Evidence is not there to CONVICT.
Hard to follow up after that…..but….4x lethal dose of Fentanyl ingested by the “angel wings Floyd”. Someone on that jury will not convict. Get your popcorn out…..Portland/Minneapolis will burn. I don’t feel sorry for any city that votes for democrats.
The only ignorant one I see is this fat arz….
Elie wants to be judge, jury and executioner. Elie wants to ignore the very rules upon which our country was founded upon. Things like “innocent until proven guilty.” In short, he HATES America because it has LAWS which won’t give him what he WANTS.
He’s a selfish, petty, small minded man who wants things to go his way, regardless of the negative consequences to anyone else.
Or, putting it simply, he’s your typical LEFTIST.
The one thing I will say Chauvin MAY be guilty of is what is called Wrongful Death. IE Death by Negligence. As an experienced cop he should know some of the signs of being on various drugs. He should have been able to see that Floyd was crashing, and what can happen during a drug crash. And he should have taken better steps to prevent that from happening.
So, I do believe that he was guilty of Negligence, but he certainly did not plan to murder George Floyd. That would still remove him from the force and include possible jail time or serious fines to pay.
I don’t believe the other cops present should go down with him. I don’t believe they should have been fired. Perhaps sent back for mandatory training about how to handle criminals, how to spot drug crashes, things like that. And maybe a reduction in pay along with being put on a probation of sort. IE “you screw up again, you’re gone.”
I spent some years on the streets, and I learned how to spot the signs someone is high. And I’ve seen the effects of someone crashing, from far milder stuff than what Floyd was on. And if I can spot such signs as a civvy, a trained cop should be ten times better at doing the same and more.
While I will never understand a cop putting their full weight on the neck, or back, or leg of a suspect, causing considerable pain, btw, when that suspect is prostrate on the ground, I do understand that it’s about control! The cops who do this are afraid that the suspect will somehow overcome the officer, even though the suspect is handcuffed behind their back, and effectively immobilized, and the cop has a gun, a taser, and usually, an ASP Baton, not to mention all those other cops who run to help him (or her)! I was taught to be a protector, not a punisher, a role MOST cops still strive for! But, there are always some who can’t grasp the role of being a Protector, or maybe they just can’t rise to it, so they strike out, whenever opportunity presents itself! Until laws are ridiculously unjust, I will be a Law Abiding Citizen, but, I fear that the lunacy has risen, and grows larger and stronger by the day, and will soon be ridiculously unjust! I’m always Pro-Cop, but somebody is teaching our cops to act out of fear, rather than respect for the people they serve! And they are taught to exert CONTROL over the people, even to the point of BREAKING the very laws they are sworn to uphold! Some cops just never get it that the Citizen has RIGHTS that are irrefutable, and cannot be trampled on, for when they do THAT, they are no longer COPS, they are rabble…
no matter what the verdict is. they will riot !! either its justice is not done or yea justice is done ! but be sure they will riot. oh they will call it a peaceful protest but it wont be.
The only verdict the Media driven frothing at the mouth mob will accept is “Does someone have a rope? We see the tree we’ll hang him on. We just need a rope.”
The best realistic verdict we can get is for them to drop the WORST charges and downgrade them to lesser sentences. Prison will probably actually be the SAFEST spot for Chauvin for a few years until the mob has forgotten about him.
Yes, it sucks, but, let’s be honest, if the courts don’t hang him, the mob will. And that blood will be on the Media’s hands. So, yeah, a few years in Prison is probably the safest spot in America for him.
Read the Bill of Rights again CLYDE!!!
There is no way this police officer will be acquitted. His fate was sealed when he was denied a change of venue. The jury will convict him of something for their own safety and to avoid more rioting and looting. A sad commentary on life in today’s America. Let freedom ring.
Mass killings in Chicago every weekend, hardly any coverage, George Floyd worldwide coverage, it ain’t right.
And one wonders how racism can be eliminated. It Can’t and Won’t as long as the communist continue to try and separate the citizens. These liberal cities will continue to burn as the failed communist administrations continue to defund police departments and never enforce drug problems. Bring your marshmallows to the Twin cities this summer as there may be bonfires nightly.