Convicted murderer Derek Chauvin being led away. Photo: YouTube
The question must be asked, why was a cop with 18 documented complaints against him, including shootings that resulted in death in one instance still be employed as a cop?
Officer Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department’s background reveals that he was a troubled, obviously racist person unfit to serve as an officer of the law. If his criminal behavior had been dealt with during his 20 years trigger happy reign of terror on the force George Floyd would not have been murdered at age 46.
Chauvin has been involved in several police shootings. George Floyd was the second black person that Chauvin had made plead for his life by crying out, “I can’t breathe.” In 2017 Chauvin hit a 14-year-old Black boy on his head so hard with his flashlight that the child required stitches. After striking the child, Chauvin held him down with his knee on his neck for 17 minutes as he begged for breath. Luckily that boy somehow lived.
Back in 2001 Chauvin was awarded a “Medal of Valor” for being among several cops who fatally shot and killed a man charged with domestic violence. Supposedly, all the officers fired simultaneously. It is possible that all involved officers shared in this reward for their valor. Chauvin had just joined the police force that year.
In 2006, Chauvin and four other officers shot a man who allegedly stabbed his girlfriend. According to CNN, in November 2008, Chauvin, and another officer, responding to a domestic violence call, forced their way into the apartment of Ira Latrell Toles, a 21-year-old Black man. After they forced themselves in, they found Toles attempting to escape through a bathroom window, reportedly. A struggle ensued resulting in Chauvin firing two shots at close range into Toles’ abdomen. Fortunately, Toles survive but now has a permanent hole in his stomach.
Statistics reveal that a third of police officers never fire their guns. Chauvin’s record of shootings and complaints should have raised a red flag. Six other Black people filed complaints that Chauvin kneeled on their neck during their arrest. Chauvin’s work history indicates that he has had considerable interaction with Black people during his work at McDonalds and as a short order cook at a local restaurant.
His part time employer at a night club described Chauvin as being very impatient with and intolerant of Black customers. Obviously, Chauvin carried his dislike of Blacks over into his police employment. Most of his abuse was against Black citizens.
What has not been widely publicized is the extent to which white officers have participated in making Chauvin comfortable while incarcerated. Although Chauvin was a man of meager means he was able to be released on the required $1million bail prior to his trial and conviction. Black officers are claiming that Chauvin is being handled with extreme care.
As a result, several Black officers at the Oak Park Heights State Prison have filed a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights charging inappropriate behavior of the part of the jail superintendent and staff. Black officers have claimed that they have been banned from working on the 5th floor where Chauvin is jailed.
According to the white superintendent, this was done to protect the complaining officers. One of the plaintiffs said that his job has been to regularly process high profile inmates. He said he was in the process of patting Chauvin down when his white superintendent told him to stop and replaced him with a white officer. It was reported that a white female officer who was given “special access” to Chauvin was filmed sitting on Chauvin’s bed illegally allowing him to use her cell phone and she was recorded rubbing his back as if to comfort him.
It was after his conviction on April 20th that Chauvin was remanded into the custody of the Hennepin Sheriff’s office where he remains incarcerated at Oak Parks prison until his sentencing in June. On April 20th his second wife divorced him and filed for a name change after declaring that he, Chauvin, was as sweet as a teddy bear.
Chauvin is now being held in solidarity confinement under close watch. The three officers who participated in the murder of George Floyd, Thomas Lane, Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao are awaiting their trials, probably in nervous anticipation as the impact of George Floyd’s murder continues to reverberate around the world.
