Day 1 and 2: Prosecutors focus on feelings, emotions and 'Black pain'

Published by carolyn on Tue, 2021-03-30 23:49

The small crowd that gathered and watched as the Minneapolis police officers held George Floyd pinned on the ground while awaiting the arrival of medics. Six of those shown above testified on Day 1 and 2.


By Carolyn Yeager

TEARY-EYED AND OUTRAGED witnesses to the 9 minutes of recorded “death throes” of George Floyd have made up the opening testimonies in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. What I've seen in these first two days is all about emotional reactions, and Fox News commentators get focused on the emotion just as much as the other mainstream networks.

Chauvin is being portrayed from the start as a heartless, even sadistic individual. It's no exaggeration to say the suggestion that Floyd was 'murdered' by Chauvin is something the prosecutors definitely want to leave in the jurors' minds.

The hostility of the pro-Floyd witnesses toward the defense attorney Eric Nelson is obvious, even though Nelson has an open, non- threatening manner toward all the witnesses.

The ultimate in the showboating by the prosecution was calling the 9 year-old girl who was at Cup Foods that day “buying snacks” with her older cousin Darnella Frazier. Eighteen-year-old Darnella is the one who who made the recording of the 10 minutes that has become the best known of the videos, seen round the world. This nine-year-old had nothing of substance to bring to the Jury exccpt to tell her 'feeling-response' to what she saw. She said it “made her feel sad - and a little mad.” Wisely, Nelson chose not to cross-examine.

The prosecution brought in these teenage girls who see everything from an emotional perspective. Their subjective ideas about “good” and “bad” suffer from insufficient experience or the benefit of larger perspectives. It's like what they would feel about a puppy who they saw being disciplined without knowing why or what it had done. George Floyd is the puppy. Each prosecutor would ask of the witness he/she was questioning: “How did what you see make you feel?” and “What impact has it had on you since?” Which has nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of anyone.

One replied to the question “What do you feel?” that she “didn't know what to feel, at first.” But of course the news media told her how to feel, and helped her get her feelings into the proper place. She was then convinced she felt that way from the start.

One denied, and had to be shown the transcript, that she had told police detectives shortly after the event that she remembered the policemen checking Floyd's pulse “multiple times” while they were detaining him, awaiting the medical assistance.

It was the question "how did you feel?- how did you feel?- how did you feel?-" over and over again that got to me. It's like this trial has been prepared for a 6th grade mentality. Even the lawyers for the prosecution don't seem very sharp. Especially the one named Matthew Frank, who I was surprised to learn is actually the Assistant Attorney General of Minnesota -- Keith Ellison's assistant! He is the pits, in my opinion. He seems to be purposely slowing the process down by speaking very slowly, even haltingly – and none of them are very good at formulating their questions.

It's a relief when Eric Nelson's turn comes up because he is clearly sharper. well-prepared and follows a more upbeat pace. If Derek Chauvin gets off, or is found guilty only of the manslaughter charge, it will be due to Eric Nelson. A Swede? Nelson's fee is being paid by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. A managing partner at Halberg Criminal Defense, I read that he has been doing Association cases since 2015. That makes him a champion of law enforcement in my book.

I like Peter Cahill too, the judge, who seems to be attempting to be absolutely fair and impartial. We'll see if he stays the course as the trial continues. But it was a beautiful moment at the end of today when Judge Cahill reprimanded, in no uncertain terms, witness Genevieve Hansen for argumentativeness toward the defense lawyer. A 27 year-old EMT with the Minneapolis Fire Department who was off-duty at Cup Foods on May 25, she didn't like being reminded of things she had said when being interviewed by the detectives earlier, and at one point even said “I don't believe it” when shown her own words in the transcript! The judge told her, after sending the jury out, she was to answer questions 'yes or no' without adding further commentary, to let the prosecutors use redirect to clear things up, and that she would have to come back tomorrow (Wednesday) to complete her testimony. This judge, while easy-going and respectful, certainly lets everyone know he is the boss of his courtroom.

I'll probably have more to say at the end of the week.

Category 

News, Race

Comments

Just my two cents:
The look on Chauvin face as shown around the world shows no look of despotic anger....NOTHING in his actions denote hate in any way towards the victim...its funny, read the story of  actor Woody Harrelson before he became famous, HE took a Knee, nobody gave him millions of dollars.
Obviously this is how the police subdue their victims

You used the word 'victim' twice. Why?

Ok, who do the police subdue then? Clients, Criminals? Subjects, Saps Learn me...

It sounds like you're saying anyone in police custody is a victim (of the police). So I ask you to clarify so your meaning can be deciphered.

And what does Woody Harrelson "taking a knee" have to do with it? 

Have a family member on a large midwestern city police force - said the opinion among his fellow cops is Chauvin will be found guilty.  
And their view based on one of their own already sacrificed to prevent the town burning down. That cop's been in prison since 2015 (the year BEFORE his trial) and his parole still years away.

"How did you feel?"  This is one of the main problems in our society.  We are increasingly seeing a society ruled and operated by emotions and feelings instead of facts, reason, and logic.  This is the path to chaos and disaster.  Even though it will cause more violence and destruction on the part of tribal-thnking blacks, I hope the facts prevail and Chauvin is acquitted.  We cannot have a justice system based on "how did you feel".  Thank you for highlighting some things the media just won't show.

After four days of watching all of this trial, I'm not so sure about the innocence of Derek Chauvin. It's pretty clear Floyd was held down after he had expired (the officers could find no pulse). I'm thinking the reason is going to be given as Chauvin's fear of the bystanders, and losing control of the situation. The medics did, in my opinion, take way too long to get there and there hasn't been defining testimony on that yet. But it's looking like it may come down to what decisions were made and why.

Chauvin was in a bad situation but maybe he didn't handle it very well.

It's definitely highlighting a crisis in policing, and how to keep law and order in black communities. They're like children who want to misbehave and not be punished -- make it magically go away.

I don't see this trial in any way as a defining moment. I'm an old mofo who has seen this many, many times. George Floyd is not a saint or an "icon", he's just a garden variety ordinary negro criminal/scumbag. It doesn't matter what the verdict is---there is going to be a Chimp Out on the scale of Rodney King.
The real Defining Moment, the real 'New America' moment was when two negro teenage girls tased, carjacked, and killed a 66 year old immigrant, and not even the National Guard (!!!) could stop it. Welcome to the Future. 

There's a SUCKER born every minute.
If this wasn't crazy enough, I believe these same mega-opportunists had an earlier GoFundMe page, raised over $825,000, took it down and started over. If that's the case, poor, poor, unfortunate Darnella has benefitted over 1 million dollars. If my memory is wrong, she has still put over $500k in her purse. It's the fools that donated, especially after a certain total that I fault.
My browswer won'y let me leave a link; I typed it in. Hope it works.
I hopin she be bein better now.
www.gofundme.com/f/peace-and-healing-for-darnella

I really don't like people writing things here based on their 'memory.' You also don't have a good track record for accuracy. There is a lot of misinformation on the internet about this trial. A recent article at Unz Review (picked up from American Renissance) had plenty of omissions and some mistakes in it. Someone posted the link here saying "This is good." I didn't agree and didn't publish it. I"ve watched every minute so far and I have no objections to the way it's conducted, except that I think the prosecuting attorneys are lazy, super boring, and too confident. The best prepared is the sole black man, Jerry Blackwell!

I checked my files and took a screen shot of Darnella's GoFundMe page on July 14, 2020. (I must have typed in the wrong keywords earier.) The total was $527,528. I may have confused a GoFundMe page set up for the Floyd family with Darnells's page, but did not save the information. The link I posted earlier seems to be Darnella's original GoFundMe page.
Aside for that error, which I corrected, I still say there's a sucker born every minute!

Thanks.