Editorial: Who is Derek Chauvin?

UPDATE: Chauvin’s 3rd degree charge changed to 2nd Degree, three other officers charged with aiding and abetting murder.

Derek Chauvin was a Minneapolis Officer who murdered George Floyd on Monday, May 25th 2020. George was a father and someone who many people will remember as a kind and loving man. He leaves behind his daughter and mourning friends and family. He was taken too soon by a senseless crime and deserves more than the frayed media attention his death has been tainted with. 

Chauvin has finally been charged (with no help from the president) with murder and is being represented by Tom Kelly, an attorney who got Jeronimo Yanez acquitted for the murder of Philando Castile. Like Chauvin, Castile left behind a young daughter and was brutally murdered by a cop over racial prejudices after being pulled over at a red light. We can hope that Chauvin facing the hand of justice can provide a sense of grieving for George’s family. 

Chauvin has been proven to be racist and problematic over the years with numerous complaints, though somehow they haven’t brought almost no disciplinary action. He shot an unarmed black man, Ira Latrell Toles in 2008, twelve years ago, a clear red herring. He was also one of the officers who killed Wayne Reyes, a latino man with a total of 16 bullets, which is an absurdly excessive amount. This unnecessary tragedy should have been investigated. There are a total of twelve police brutality complaints against him through the Minneapolis Office of Police Conduct complaint database. These complaints are all labeled as “closed” “non-public” and you guessed it, “no discipline.”

As Chauvin had his knees on George’s neck, George was yelling out for help and repeatedly said “I can’t breath.” He said that phrase twelve times, as well as phrases such as “They’re gonna kill me.” With no remorse from Chauvin, George lost consciousness after four minutes. He was then seen unresponsive while Chauvin and the responding officers refused to check his pulse. The move that caused George’s murder was not apart of the departments training, another clear rendition of Chauvin being racially motivated. 

This murderer is someone who has clearly abused his power to assault and hurt so many innocent people who belong to minority groups. This raises the question, how many more deaths of unarmed black people will happen before there’s change? How many chances does Chauvin get, while Goerge Floyd gets none? Right now it seems infinite.