Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill is set to making a ruling on Thursday October 15th  
The motions on the table right now up for consideration are as follows:

1. Dismissal of Aid and Abet charges against the 3 assisting officers, as 2nd Degree Murder is not applicable and officers can’t be charged for this at a lower level
2. Dismissal of the 2nd Degree Murder charge against Ofc Chauvin due to no conditions of felony action present
3. Trying all four officers separately (like with the Baltimore 6) versus trying all four together (which is what the State AG wants)
4. Change of venue to an out-state court away from Hennepin County, as defendants arguing an inability to obtain a fair trial.

As it stands, #4 is likely to happen.  The other 3 are possible, with #1 and #3 being highly probable.  If this happens, agencies here in Minnesota are on standby for civil unrest.  This is on Wednesday morning, possibly by noon.  For other LE agencies, there could be nationwide unrest in response.  We saw the same thing happen with no direct charges being filed in the Breonna Taylor case, so there’s every reason to believe it’ll happen again with this one on Wednesday.  Just a heads-up to all of you working in hotspot areas.

UPDATED to new date.

Interesting. Thanks for the update. The charges need to be dropped against all of them but I don’t know if there is a judge around that has the courage to do so. They are lawyers after all.

That and they’ll have their own occupy movement on their  front lawn before the ink on the order is dry.

And that is the definition of terrorism

I just updated the date.  It’s now set for Thursday October 15th.  MFF and CART teams metro-wide are now on standby.




No kidding.  Fortunately the judge is not a fan of AG Keith Ellison and has already removed the activist county attorney from the case due to meddling in the case with the ME’s report.  

Wow that’s good info! Thanks for the “in the trenches” reports!

Any updates or confirmation of tomorrow?

So I guess nothing happened?

If it was my area, the spineless lawyer (judge) would “take it under advisement” and then issue an unpopular ruling once the heat died down.

Is there anything left to burn and loot there?

Judge is still deliberating.  It kept getting pushed back.  Next deadline we’ve heard is Monday (Oct 19th) at noon.  
Agencies are getting pretty pissed off at having to have assets on standby for this.

Spineless fucking lawyers

If it keeps getting pushed back we already know the answer.

Pretty much the universal sentiment.

Nobody is going to want to be on the receiving end of this case.
That is if it makes it to trial.

Well, the judge bitched out and dropped the 3rd Degree murder charge against Chauvin, but kept all other charges, including the A&A 2nd deg murder charge for the other three officers.
I guess this just makes it a prelude to a full acquittal.

@UnaStamus

https://www.lawofficer.com/derek-chauvin-will-be-tried-separately-from-other-officers-in-george-floyd-case/

Defense attorneys for the other three officers had a strong argument on their side for a continuance to June/July because the State had withheld evidence and violated disclosure procedure.  It was basically either give a continuance or declare a mistrial, and the judge didn’t want to declare the mistrial.  

The benefit is that so long as Chauvin isn’t convicted of 2nd Degree Murder, the charges for the other three have to be dropped then.  In theory.  The State AG’s office is very insistent on this.  
Funny enough, the Atty General Covid Enforcement Team contacted us on New Years and wanted us to go to a venue where a promoter was reportedly hosting a New Years party in violation of the state lockdown.  They wanted us to break up the party, identify the person/people holding the party, and do reports on it and submit it to them.  Something like 400 people were there.  We told the AG’s office to do it themselves and don’t bother calling for police when it turns to shit and people pull guns on them.
Apparently they did that to several agencies in the metro, and nobody would go do the AG Office’s dirty work for them.  AG’s office reportedly doesn’t understand why they can’t get any LE agency in the state to cooperate with them.

Good info and a bit of good news in an otherwise gloomy world. Thanks for the update!!

https://www.lawofficer.com/minnesota-attorney-general-wants-to-upgrade-charges-of-former-officers-in-george-floyd-death/

MINNEAPOLIS — Prosecutors want to charge all four police officers at the scene of George Floyd’s death with third-degree murder, according to a report Friday.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a motion Thursday, citing a legal precedent that would allow him to charge officers Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng with the crime — potentially adding decades to the amount of prison time they face, according to NBC.

Thao, Lane and Kueng are accused of failing to stop Chauvin from allegedly “killing Floyd,” despite lethal doses of fentanyl in Floyd’s system.

Thao, Lane and Kueng are currently charged with aiding and abetting murder along with aiding and abetting manslaughter. Chauvin is faces second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree manslaughter  charges.

The addition of a third-degree murder charge could add up to 25 years to a potential jail sentence for all four men, New York Post reported.

In the motion filed Thursday, Ellison argued that the state’s Court of Appeals recently upheld a third-degree murder charge against former officer Mohamed Noor over the shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.

That case included, “situations in which the defendant’s actions … were not specifically directed at that particular person whose death occurred,” he wrote.

However, this argument seems flawed since Noor actually shot Damond. Legal skeptics wonder if this tactic is an effort to get a plea agreement from the lesser involved officers while prosecutors go after Chauvin.

Chief Arredondo and Mayor Mom Jeans Frey have been calling agencies all over the state asking for assistance during the trials.  Nobody will agree, and numerous calls are going unanswered.  
Governor Kommissar Walz stepped in and attempted to free up $35M in funds to try to fund agencies who assist, and basically to bribe them to assist.  The state Congress shut it down, calling it a bailout of Minneapolis.  
Now Kommissar Walz is reported to be exploring the legality of an executive order mandating that agencies or tactical teams around the state dedicate a certain percentage of personnel to security in Mpls and St Paul during the trial.  There are already Sheriff’s in the state that have made statements to Walz that they won’t comply, and won’t dedicate their people to protect a city that gave up one of its own precincts.  

What’s more is that word through the info chain is that the State AG is pushing for these new charges because they know they over-charged and won’t get a conviction.  Now they’re trying to find a way to save themselves.  They set themselves up for failure from the start.  This is about to become a gong show.  I smell lots of OT coming up.

That's hilarious.  I hope the various agencies stick to their guns and refuse to help.  I feel bad for the Minneapolis officers but only to a point.  Why work for a city that hates you?  I understand making a good living but being stressed out before even starting work does not seem to be a healthy future.  I'd have been long gone if I worked there.  

Thanks for the continued updates!!

Looks like the trial of Officer Chauvin is getting ready to start next week. It’s going to be interesting. I hate it for him but I wish the best for him.

Apparently the democrats in Congress have a bill named after Saint Floyd the criminal and woman abuser.

This is also going to be a problem for the prosecution........

https://www.lawofficer.com/derek-chauvin-trial-fentanyl-methamphetamine-found-in-police-car-months-later-by-defense-team/

MINNEAPOLIS — The jury selection in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of murdering George Floyd, was paused for at least a day on Monday, after his defense team appealed a decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court regarding the additional charge of third-degree murder against the former officer.

Shockingly, it was also revealed that months after the incident, Chauvin’s defense team found methamphetamine and fentanyl in the police car that had Floyd’s DNA on it. That evidence had apparently been overlooked by police investigators.

During routine motions Monday afternoon, Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson revealed that investigators apparently missed something in the back of the police car officers tried putting Floyd into the evening he died, KARE11 reported.

“It was very apparent what was in Squad 320 was controlled substances,” Nelson said.

The Minneapolis Police Department squad car has been in storage at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension garage pending this trial. One day a couple months ago, Nelson, along with the other defense attorneys and some staff members, went there to look over the car.

Inside, Nelson said they spotted some chewed up pills and a full pill. And the state tested them.

“They are in fact methamphetamine and fentanyl, and they contain the DNA of George Floyd,” Nelson said.

The implication is that the drugs were in Floyd’s mouth, and he spit them out when the former officers were trying to place him in the police car.

The state has given no explanation how the BCA could have missed that potential evidence, according to KARE11.

Nelson brought it up Monday in the course of arguing for the 2019 arrest of Floyd to be allowed as evidence, which Judge Peter Cahill said he most likely will not allow it.

Drug use will certainly be a focus by Chauvin’s defense team as Floyd had a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system at the time of death along with “multiple natural diseases” including “severe multifocal arteriosclerosis heart disease,” “hypertensive heart disease” and COVID-19 according to the autopsy.

Floyd was complaining about not being able to breathe during the initial encounter with police and asked to be taken out of the police car and placed on the ground.

Following a 2018 training curriculum on excited delirium by the Minneapolis Police Department, Chauvin along with other officers removed Floyd from the police car and subdued him on the ground as they waited for paramedics to arrive.




Note:
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is a statewide criminal investigative bureau under the Minnesota Department of Public Safety that provides expert forensic science and criminal investigation services throughout the state of Minnesota.

So a state agency working for the corrupt ANTIFA supporting Attorney General completely missed plainly visible evidence in the vehicle when they presumably processed the vehicle for evidence?

Should I be surprised that within all of the MSM coverage today, this is the first Ive heard about the new evidence?  I guess they needed that time to  insinuate that the defense team was racist by giving the thumbs down to a couple of latinos.  

I suspect jury selection will take the better part of a month.  State dismissed a juror that supported the notion that All Lives Matter.

https://www.lawofficer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Derek-Chauvin-Second-degree-murder-charge.pdf



Here’s the charging documents. Interesting that a lot of facts that have since come to light have been left out of this document. This is such a garbage case.

And to top it off, the Mpls city clowncil just authorized a $27M payout to the Floyd family.  And Ben Crump.  But probably mostly to Ben Crump.  
That’s certainly not going to taint a jury pool....

Be a shit bag....no one cares.  Die of a drug overdose while committing crimes.....family gets a huge payout and bills in Congress get named after you.  Clown world....and the citizens of Minneapolis are actually ok with this stupidity.  

It'll be interesting to see how long the money lasts.  If the attorney got 30-40% then the family probably got around $16mil give or take.  That's going to be a lot of fentanyl and meth to cheer the family up.  

I'd be embarrassed if I typed a probable cause statement that bad.

https://www.lawofficer.com/chauvins-lawyers-ask-judge-for-change-of-venue-after-floyd-family-27m-settlement-publicized/


MINNEAPOLIS — Derek Chauvin’s team of lawyers are asking for a change of venue and also a trial delay, due to the possible influence of news that a $25 million civil settlement was reached between the city and the Floyd estate, Post Millennial reported.

Said lawyer Eric Nelson before the presiding judge, “I am gravely concerned with the news that broke on Friday related to the civil settlement. The fact that this came in the exact middle of jury selection is perplexing to me, your honor.”

Nelson said the announcement “has incredible potential to taint the jury pool,” Star Tribune reported.

Moreover, Nelson noted that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s son, Jeremiah, sits on the City Council that unanimously approved the settlement, and questioned the timing, though he said he was not making accusations. Keith Ellison heads the prosecution team and often has been present in the courtroom.

Judge Cahill said he wishes city officials “would stop talking about this case so much,” but that he does not think there was “any evil intent on the timing.”

Nelson pushed back, saying, “We have a mayor who is a lawyer by trade. He should know better.”

In addition to his motion for continuance, Nelson also raised the possibility of renewing a previous motion for a change of venue for the trial. Cahill said he is taking both motions under advisement, KMSP reported.

During a break in jury selection, Keith Ellison stopped at Nelson’s table and said: “Is there anything else anyone would like to not accuse me of?” Nelson looked at Ellison but did not reply.

Chauvin is facing charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd while in MPD custody on May 25, 2020.

Prosecutor Steve Schleicher admitted that the timing was awkward, but nonetheless, argued that the trial should continue as planned:

“All I can say to the court is there are some things the state of Minnesota and this prosecution team can control, and there are some things it cannot control.”

“We cannot control the civil aspect of the case, we cannot and do not control the Minneapolis City Council, and we certainly cannot and do not control the news cycle.”

Mayor Jacob Frey deferred questions about the timing of the settlement to City Attorney Jim Rowader, who declined to comment. Representatives for both said they were following the judge’s guidance to not comment on the criminal proceedings.

The settlement timing was intentional.  They did it to appease protestors in hopes they won’t riot.  They did it to taint the jury pool and let them know the city thinks they’re guilty.  They did it because they’re self-righteous oxygen thieves who value criminals as false idols.

That judge doesn't deserve to be a judge if he doesn't grant the change of venue.

The judge is an Amy Klobuchar (Sen D-MN) lackey.  He hasn’t had balls in a long time.  
If the trial were already taking place, I’d say they need to declare a mistrial.  What I think ultimately this will cause is another justification for an appeal later on due to numerous tainting factors that created an unfair environment for the defense.  Meanwhile, they won’t change venue.  They have enough of an argument that preparations have been put in place to such a high degree that they could not move it without unreasonable delay to the trial process.  But ideally they’d wash the jury, move to a more remote location, and start over.

In case anyone is on the fence about Chauvin being railroaded by the State, the AP put out an article 6 days ago talking about how numerous outside attorneys are helping the prosecution pro-bono, and ZERO news agencies picked it up for any time.  These are all private attorneys too, not prosecutors from other areas.  


https://apnews.com/article/derek-chauvin-trial-attorneys-explained-0740d5d5bc0c8ba5f0319b2eff7ae821

You would probably know better but I thought I read somewhere that Ellison has never tried a case. That true?

Seems like Nelson is a competent attorney although I’m not up on the day to day defense actions in this case.

Ellison spent a short time as a pretty shit public defender before he went into public office.  He’s an idiot.  When he swore into congress, he used Thomas Jefferson’s Quran and claimed that Jefferson had it because Jefferson knew the wisdom of the Quran and regularly read it for self betterment.  When told that Jefferson read it to understand his enemies in the First Barbary War in Tripoli, Eliison tried claiming that everyone saying that was anti-Islamic and bigoted.

Nelson is a good dude and very good at what he does.  He represented me last year in a Federal investigation when I got subpoenaed by the FBI and US Attorney’s office.  Very intelligent guy.  The cops being accused have some exceptional attorneys that were hand-picked by the MPPOA.  I’ve used three of them myself, and I’ve been very impressed.  I meet a lot of idiot attorneys that have the intelligence of a potato, so it’s nice that we have attorneys that aren’t idiots or assholes.

https://www.lawofficer.com/cahill-slams-minneapolis/

Minneapolis — The judge in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial slammed Minneapolis city officials for continuing to discuss the $27 million payout to George Floyd’s family—which hasn’t been finalized, but was nonetheless announced during jury selection for some reason.

Judge Peter Cahill demanded the city, the prosecution, and the defense ‘stop talking about it’  after it was brought to his attention that city council members had held yet another press conference discussing the settlement earlier that day.  Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and City Attorney Jim Rowader defended the timing of the city’s announcement on the settlement in a press briefing and stated that, ‘there is no good timing to settle any case,’ as the reported by the Daily Mail.

Rowader admitted the settlement has not even been ‘finalized’ and must still go through federal court approval. Officials also admitted that it could be a month before the settlement is finished.

When asked why there was an initial announcement during the initial stages of jury selection, Rowander refused to answer.

Mayor Frey said he ‘disagreed with the underlying premise’ that the announcement of the settlement had a negative impact on the murder trial—even though it was announced on the same day that prospective jurors were dismissed because they addmitted their opinions had been impacted by the announcement.

Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson, told the court that the city had given ‘yet another press conference’ about the payout. Nelson questioned how the ‘timing was of the essence’ for the announcement even though the settlement will not be finalized for another month.

The prosecution later argued that the defense had taken the announcement out of context, sparking a fiery outburst from Judge Cahill who demanded everyone ‘stop talking about it.’

“I’ve asked Minneapolis to stop talking about it… they keep talking about it, we keep talking about it… Everyone just needs to stop talking about it. Let me decide what the ramifications are,” Judge Cahill said.

Apparently the Chief of Police is supposedly going to testify against Chauvin.  What does the rank and file think about it and if he does testify against his officer, how many do you think will leave an already grossly shorthanded PD?

I just watched all the body cam footage.  Again.  Those guys got thrown under the bus, then it backed up and ran over them again.

There was no, zero, none, not even close to, excessive force used against Floyd.  They requested EMS (who took 8-9 minutes to arrive) and are constantly checking his pulse and his breathing.

The goal posts have moved so far in the last 20 (maybe 7?) years that I don't even recognize what sport we're playing anymore.

I watch those videos and all I can think is that could have been me or any of my guys multiple times in my career and there is nothing that I could do to prevent this political/media lynching from happening to them.

If they had all been crying their eyes out on scene for Saint Floyd the Felon (Patron saint of woman abusers and drug addicts) maybe the prosecution wouldn’t have happened. Bottom line is....we really don’t care when some junky overdoses. I can work a drug OD, then go eat dinner, and go home and to bed without spending another moment thinking about it. Apparently I should take leave for PTSD and cry my eyes out every time some felon overdoses.

We have become a nation of feelings not a nation of facts. I’m afraid we are doomed.

He fired the officers the next day after the incident happened.  He took a knee at every anti-cop protest.  He has allowed 38th/Chicago to become an occupied CHOP zone and from the start threatened officers with discipline if they got within 2 blocks of the place.  He went through and suspended over 40 officers after the riots for violations as long ago as 4 years prior, with suspensions ranging from 10 to 800 hours.  Yes, you read that right, 800 hours.  Plus several officers fired for non-terminal offenses.  He walked away from police contract negotiations in violation of Minnesota state law, and still reportedly hasn’t come back to the table.  To prevent summary judgement against the city, a city negotiator has had to restart negotiations on behalf of the city until they can convince the chief to come back.  He has openly campaigned to strip the Federation (union) of their arbitration rights (legally afforded rights by state law).  The same federation that once represented him.  He has openly campaigned to disband the Federation as a whole and try to force them to separate into different ranks.  
There’s a reason why the department now is sitting at 613 officers, down from 850 less than a year ago.  I highly doubt him testifying in court can drop the negative opinion any lower.




It’s amazing how quickly the narrative disappears when one watches the actual body worn camera video.  When I first heard I was going to be wearing a camera, I was not having it.  Now I won’t do this job without it.  I still don’t want it and I miss the days when we just didn’t rely on video and handled business the way it needed to be handled and people actually took our word for what happened, but those days are gone.  In today’s environment of cops being thrown under the bus and cell phone videos being taken out of context, body cams are a necessity for career survival.  It’s sad.  And pathetic.    





Yeah, I tend to think we are.  Everybody wants omelettes but nobody wants broken eggs.  We can’t win.

Might as well get this party started.  


https://www.lawofficer.com/all-hell-will-break-loose-if-chauvin-not-convicted-buildings-will-be-on-fire-says-model-blm-activist/


Model and Black Lives Matter activist Maya Echols warned that Minneapolis would suffer more riots and vandalism if former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin is not convicted for the death of George Floyd.

“If George Floyd’s murderer is not sentenced, just know that all hell is gonna break loose,” Echols said in a now-removed video (see below). “Don’t be surprised when building are on fire. Just sayin’.”

The social media influencer, a signed IMG Worldwide model, has nearly half a million followers on TikTok, Daily Wire reported.

In another recent TikTok video from Echols, the model boasts of her “Black Lives Matter” face mask that she likes to wear at her grocery store in a “predominantly white” neighborhood. Echols claims “conservatives” give her dirty looks for the mask, and bragged that she stares them down and looks “down on them” since she’s usually taller and “they’re not gonna say anything to me,” according to Daily Wire.

“My new favorite guilty pleasure is going to the grocery store with this mask on,” she starts the video, taking off her “Black Lives Matter” mask. “I live in a predominately white area …. and the looks I get from these conservatives are crazy, like y’all would be shocked. Like, the death stares I get. It’s so funny to me, though.”

“Like, I get so much pleasure out of seeing somebody upset because I’m saying my life matters,” Echols continues. “Like, it makes me laugh. And then I just look at them dead in their face, and usually I’m taller than them, so I just look down at them, and I look them in their eyes, ’cause they’re not gonna say anything to me.”

Funny thing is that the ATF catalogs these videos and these dipshits don’t even know it until it’s too late.

The police Chiefs testimony yesterday was unbelievable. I know all heads of agencies are politicians to one level or another and I’ve known of several shittty chiefs locally and personally even worked for a terrible police chief....and even my worst experience isn’t nearly as bad as that embarrassment to the profession. If seeing his testimony isn’t enough to make one quit the department ASAP I don’t know what will. These upcoming riots, regardless of the trial outcome, are going to be BAD. If every officer knows the chief won’t back them, they aren’t going to do shit to rioters. It’s gonna be a long summer in Minneapolis.

It will shock you then further that it’s been verified that while he was a patrol sergeant (however short of time that was), he wasn’t carrying a gun on duty as a uniformed street sergeant.  As the story goes, he got found out when he was at a gas station getting something to drink and a robber came in to rob the place at gunpoint and he had to call for backup because he didn’t have a gun.  Word is that normally that’s a pretty huge policy violation, but magically he was allowed to float and just ordered to wear his gun.  

But this guy is a true believer.  He’s a danger to his officers, and all surrounding communities by the way that his officers won’t do anything to stop in-progress crimes.  They don’t want to get in trouble for trying to do their job.  Crime is spilling over to surrounding cities and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has had to reallocate resources to surrounding suburbs to help curb the crime and keep it contained in Mpls as best as possible.

I wish that sheriff all the best. Normally I would not wish ill on a citizenry but Minneapolis residents have brought this upon themselves...either by their action or by their inaction. I hope Minneapolis burns to the ground. If I was an officer there, I wouldn’t raise a hand to stop it....let it burn. I feel bad for the officers there but only to a point. At some point you have to realize you have 0 support and your choice is stay and get thrown under one of the next buses by your command staff or get out of the bus throwing line. There is not a dollar amount that you could offer me to get me to work that area. My hat is off to you OP....and I think you might be a little crazy to keep working that area!  I hope wherever you work offers you more support than MPD has....of course the MPD chief has set the support bar pretty low......

I know we talked about the defense attorney already but I have to say, I'm continually impressed with this attorney.  And I'm not easily impressed with attorneys.  He's doing a VERY good job defending Chauvin.  Today was a blood bath for the prosecution.  Absolutely devastating.

State use of force "expert"

https://www.lawofficer.com/chauvin-use-of-force/



Minneapolis, Minnesota – On Tuesday, the trial of Derek Chauvin ended with the prosecution’s expert on use of force on the stand, Los Angeles Police Sergeant Jody Stiger.

As testimony began on Wednesday, Chavin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, cross-examined Stiger for over an hour and those that are familiar with “experts” in law enforcement, that are certified for court proceedings, are questioning the use of Stiger, considering the magnitude and importance of this case.

Indeed, Law Officer reached out to several renowned court experts that have years of experience in criminal and civil trails testifying on police matters and there should be much to question on why the State used, what appears to those we spoke with to be an inferior expert.

We have compiled several concerns that were brought to our attention by police “experts” that often testify in law enforcement cases both criminal and civil. The details below were gathered from Stiger’s testimony on the stand and gleaned from what appears to be a methodical questioning process by Nelson that early on causes the prosecution to call for a recess.

   


This was a huge red flag for the experts we reached out to. Granted, the majority of expert case work is conducted long before any trial and most civil cases are settled prior to trial but any seasoned expert, with the appropriate work in the field, will see actual trial testimony.

   -Stiger stated that he had been “qualified” to act as an expert in court one time….in Los Angeles and never outside that city.

While Stiger answered “In LA during a trial use of force that I was investigator for,” that does not sound like he was actually qualified as an independent expert in court but rather testified in a criminal trial that he investigated. The difference between the two is night and day. Nelson did not dive into that answer so we do not know at this time but it does beg the question in a case with this profile and on use of force where there are hundreds of “experts” qualified, why was Stiger chosen for the State?

   -Stiger reviewed 5737 documents for his preparation for the case. He admitted that he did not review them all and was unable to watch any of the training videos because the powerpoint lessons were provided to him “in a PDF.”

It is not uncommon for a court recognized police expert to not review all the materials they were provided. Often, attorneys provide them with information that does not apply to their opinion but not reviewing actual training videos given to Chauvin seems rather strange. Stiger provided an expert report that was 461 pages long but just 26 of those pages were his actual opinion and the rest comprised “a list” of materials he was given to review.

   -Stiger said that the force used by Chauvin was “excessive” but on cross examination and discussing the “objective reasonableness” standard, that opinion became questionable.

While Stiger’s qualifications were suspect at best with the experts we talked to, his answers to the defense surrounding the “Graham v. Connor” standard was the most egregious to them. According to one expert, “any expert knows this is what it is about. Any opinion given while serving as an expert witness on use of force needs to be couched with this standard in mind.” It was this line of questioning that may have hurt the State’s case the most. As Nelson discussed the “totality of circumstances” standard, Stiger admitted that an officer must rely on information given by a dispatcher, which was a priority one call with a suspect “six to six and half feet tall.”

When asked “Reasonable for officer to respond differently for officer to respond to large intoxicated person than a small person,” Stiger replied “I’ve seen small people be more dangerous.” That answer essentially tells the jury that anyone can be dangerous to law enforcement. When told about the 911 call from the scene with screaming in the background that caused dispatch to send a second officer, Stiger said that he had not heard that call.

Stiger admitted that with all the information the officers had at the time, it would be reasonable for them to have a tightened sense of alert to the call. Stiger admitted that Floyd was resisting officers and when asked about his report that said officers were displaying “futility of their efforts” in attempting to get Floyd in the car, Stiger said that he did not remember using those words even though they were taken from his own report.

Stiger admitted that suspects in handcuffs can still pose a threat to officers and he said that it was reasonable for officers to call paramedics to the scene as they did. Stiger also agreed that placing Floyd on the ground and the decision to not use additional force was a form of “de-escalation.”

   -Stiger disclosed that he received $10,000 as a flat fee and $2950 for the court appearance.

The experts that we spoke to were shocked that a fee of that magnitude would be paid to someone with, at most, one expert case on their resume. Multiple experts told us that a standard starting fee for expert work would be a retainer for $2000-$4000 and an overall hourly rate of $150-$200 but the retainer would cover the first 20 to 30 hours of work. While it is possible that Stiger provided enough hours for a $10,000 flat rate, the use of a “flat rate” in expert case work is odd, considering it is always unknown how much time will have to be dedicated to the case.

Here are some additional conversations with Sergeant Stiger:

Nelson: “Do you participate in training or present a training “Awful but Lawful.”

Stiger: “Yes”

Nelson: “Sometimes the use of force looks really bad?”

Stiger: “Yes”

Nelson: “Looks bad but still lawful.”

Stiger: “Yes, based on policy or state law. I did a presentation at a conference for that.”

Nelson asked several questions about the unruly crowd and Stiger admitted that it was a “perceived threat” for the officers. Stiger admitted that MPD training shows an officer using a knee to the neck for control and he agreed that a knee to the shoulder blades at the base of the neck was standard police practice and that he was trained in the same way.

Ultimately, the jury will have to decide whether Sergeant Stiger has the background and qualifications to be the “use of force” expert on what is no doubt the highest profile use of force case in a generation.

Regardless, one has to wonder, given his lack of experience in the area along with some of his responses, was Sergeant Stiger appropriate for the State, given the complexity of this case?

Fucking clown world but the bright side is Chauvin has excellent grounds for an appeal.


https://www.lawofficer.com/chauvin-juror-rioting/


Minneapolis – On Tuesday, a jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in a case that has sparked nationwide riots.

During the course of the trial, Judge Peter Cahill mentioned that the court case was getting dangerously close to a mistrial. An interview with an alternate juror named  Lisa Christensen, who lives in Brooklyn Center, provides new insight into the courtroom dynamics and was reported by Beckernews.

Christensen, who lived in Brooklyn Center said that one night she could hardly make it home after testimony ended because of protesters blocking intersections.

Christensen thought Derek Chauvin was guilty, citing the testimony by Dr. Martin Tobin as a major influencer in that decision.

Christensen said that she and the other jurors didn’t even share their real names and occupations with each other and were concerned about “saying too much.”

Admitting that jury intimidation played a major part in the trial, Christensen said that “I didn’t want to go through the rioting.”

Trying to find a reason to care.......but I can't. The business owners can enjoy the mess they supported.  

https://www.lawofficer.com/black-business-owners-at-george-floyd-square-desperate-for-help-as-crime-spikes-and-revenue-dives/


Black business owners at George Floyd Square desperate for help as crime spikes and revenue dives

MINNEAPOLIS — Black-owned businesses surrounding the area where George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis last year say they are in desperate need of help from police.

Black merchants operating on the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, known as George Floyd Square, are struggling to stay open due to rampant crime and say police have blocked off the intersection, creating a dangerous autonomous zone, according to the New York Post.

“The city left me in danger,” the owner of Smoke in the Pit said Thursday, two days after Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder for Floyd’s death, Washington Examiner reported. “They locked us up on here and left us behind.”

Left-wing militants have reportedly been patrolling the autonomous zone around the Floyd memorial, and business owners say crime has spiraled out of control as a result.

“The situation at the memorial, from what I understand, is its kind of volatile,” Kim Griffin, a Minneapolis resident, said last month, Law Officer reported. “People that want to go and support doesn’t feel a sense of inclusion. There is more of a like militant-type atmosphere over there and a sense of fear.”

Griffin should know as she has a unique perspective. Her nephew, Imez Wright, was gunned down within the zone in March. She said activists blocked police from responding.

“Police were not allowed to get into that area; he was carried out outside of the zone of George Floyd Square,” she said. “It was made clear law enforcement was not welcome to penetrate that zone, which is an atrocity because his life was taken, and I mean who knows whether or not he would have survived had things been different.”

Meanwhile, several stores on the block are boarded up, and the New York Post reported that many owners and workers were afraid to comment about the dire situation due to fear of reprisal.

“Look around. Things are empty,” said Richard Roberts, who works at a nearby church. “What can we do about it?”

As a result of the grim circumstances, a GoFundMe page has been created to help owners mitigate losing 75% of their revenue since the memorial was established.

“Following the killing of George Perry Floyd Jr. and the reduction of the Minneapolis Police Department, there has been uncontrollable crime in this city,” the page stated. “Carjackings have nearly tripled and cars and catalytic converters are being stolen at high rates. Reports of bullets whizzing through the streets, businesses, innocent unintended residence homes, into cars and walls are plentiful. There is constant gunfire day and night, through all seasons despite the belief that winter would slow crime and gunfire it has not! In fact these Black businesses have suffered a similar fate having windows shot out from random gunfire, cars stolen, customers not patronizing businesses due to fear of violence in the neighborhood and throughout the city.”

The page also stated that the black-owned businesses have become a “sacrificial lamb” of the Black Lives Matter movement and that “in the fight for justice we must not forget the fight of economic justice of once thriving community.”

Police have said they are planning to send more support to the area but so far have not, according to the business owners, the Washington Examiner reported.

This is not the worst article written out there, and it gives a good idea of how the media’s not reporting everything.



https://mtracey.substack.com/p/one-year-after-george-floyd-minneapolis

One Year After George Floyd, Minneapolis Is “Murderapolis” Again


Michael Tracey
Apr 27


All photos by MT
(Warning: graphic image below)

It would be foolish to deny that there’s a specific significance when citizens are unjustly killed by the police, as a jury in Minneapolis determined last week happened to George Floyd. Armed agents of the state funded by taxpayer money have special obligations, and that includes avoiding the unjust killing of citizens. When the killing is captured on video, an intense emotional reaction is doubly understandable.

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But with the gigantic outpouring of global attention that the Floyd case received — and with virtually every major elite US institution united in both their condemnation of the death-inducing act, and their claimed resolve to continue doing unspecified reparative “work” — it would be foolish to not also notice the comparatively miniscule attention that other instances of unjust killings receive. If one unjust killing (Floyd) generates sustained, historic, society-altering attention, and hundreds or thousands of others generate virtually no attention, the reasons for that disproportionality have to reflect something about a society’s cultural and political priorities.

This is especially true in Minneapolis, where the tumult of the Floyd episode and its fallout has now lasted for nearly a full year. Because it simply cannot be disputed that the prevalence of unjust killing and violence in the Twin Cities area has vastly increased since last summer’s protests and riots. Minneapolis recorded its second-most homicides ever in 2020 — after only 1995, when the city was ignobly dubbed “Murderapolis” in national media. And the trend has continued to escalate in 2021: between January 1 and April 25, the number of homicides increased by 92% compared to the same period in 2020. More than 80% of the shooting victims in 2020 were black.

“We’re gonna blow Murderopolis off the charts this year,” one Minneapolis cop told me. (Names in this post have been withheld or partially redacted. As you may be aware, there is often intense suspicion of journalists amongst both civilians and police.)

The situation is roughly the same in Saint Paul, which tied its all-time record for homicides in 2020. This year, it is on pace to break that record comfortably. The latest homicide was on Sunday night; a man was shot and killed outside a bar in an apparent carjacking. I visited the bar the following day and there was hardly any sign something was amiss — the manager only insisted that the killing had nothing to do with the bar. (Carjackings in the area have surged to an astronomical degree, as I can personally attest. See below.)

“There’s way more people it seems like with guns now than there ever has been,” another Minneapolis cop told me, and “much less hesitation to use them.” These officers theorize that the explanation for the crime surge is related to the city’s political climate over the past year, which in their view has allowed perpetrators to wreak havoc without consequence. “They feel emboldened and they feel untouchable, in my opinion,” the cop said.

Yes, it’s true: police are generally not credentialed experts in criminology or sociology, and their theories for complex multi-causal phenomena obviously should not be taken as gospel. Still, it is worth incorporating their viewpoint into any assessment of the overall situation. Just as it’s worth taking into account the perspectives of non-police citizens who virtually never factor into national media narratives — narratives which are usually crafted by elites who live in affluent areas that undergo little or no violent crime. And while they express it differently, regular citizens (including non-whites) often have a similar perspective as police on the issue of crime prevention.

On Sunday afternoon, April 25, a woman and her husband were sitting in their truck outside her place of work in North Minneapolis. The woman is employed as a home elder care assistant. Without warning, a fusillade of high-powered shots rang out around them; two of her children were also in the truck. She had to shout for them to “get down, get down,” as she tearfully recounted to me moments later. “My kids was crying because they didn’t know what was going on... they scared,” she said.

“I was right by my front door,” another witness told me of when he first heard the shots. “I could feel the sonic boom. Big fucking guns, war guns,” he said. “Afghanistan guns.”

Seconds after the firing erupted — 15 or 20 shots in total — the woman and her husband saw an elderly man who had just walked past them on the sidewalk staggering back in their direction, now suddenly bleeding from the neck. They rushed up to him, guided him to sit down on some front steps, and tried to stanch the bleeding while they called for an ambulance.


In all likelihood, this was a random bystander who’d been struck. A police spokesperson later told me the injury was non-fatal — I happened to be close by at the time of the shooting, and I watched EMTs roll him into the ambulance on a gurney. It certainly looked like the injury would’ve been fatal in another few minutes had there not been a speedy medical intervention.

The woman who had helped the elderly man was crying. “Yes, I’m upset. And I’m hurt because I just witnessed a man shot in his neck,” she said. “My take about this is it’s crazy. Like people is getting killed for no reason. Innocent people.” When asked if she thought this sort of thing was happening more frequently than usual in Minneapolis, she said: “Yes, way more.”

Kevin C. is 22 years old and lives with his younger sister in their great-grandmother’s house off Lake Street in South Minneapolis — the epicenter of last summer’s riots and protests. He was a protester himself, and even had to jump out of the way during an infamous incident when a tanker truck nearly barreled into the crowd he was in on the interstate.

Now almost a year later, he told me his current preference is for police to be more aggressive in curbing indiscriminate violence in his neighborhood. A few weeks ago, he said, there was a shooting in the alley behind his house — bullets were flying just yards from him and his sister. “The police came, but they didn’t really like, investigate,” he recalled. “They just shined their lights and then drove off.”

He said he’d noticed a steep decline in police presence lately, especially after last week’s trial of Derek Chauvin ended with a guilty verdict. “Even before the trial,” he said, “they would drive through here, but there wouldn’t be any, like, policing going on.”


A memorial adjacent to the alley behind Kevin’s house where the shooting recently occurred
Kevin said he and his family uniformly wanted police to be more assertive — in the sense of addressing genuine threats to public safety such as shootings, though without any extraneous harassing behavior thrown in. “Honestly, we just want them to do what they supposed to do. All the extra stuff, you can just keep. That’s for the birds. If there’s a problem, and we’re contacting you to come check it out, we expect you to do above and beyond the call of duty. Not — you know what I’m saying — do what they usually do. Just come over here, flash a light, and speed off.”

He is shortsighted, and said the eyeglasses store he used to go to down the street has been permanently shuttered since last summer.

Minneapolis cops tend to agree that the primary reason for this surge in crime is that their resources have been stretched precariously thin, as a result of widespread anti-police sentiment since the George Floyd episode. “It’s kind of like the Wild Wild West out here,” one cop told me.

“Usually a cop should take about ten calls a day,” he said. “I’m already at like, thirty. So that’s way overboard. I mean, you’re gonna have burnout. You’re gonna have people quitting.” Fourteen officers had left in just the past week since the verdict, he said.

“One of us is gonna get killed and nobody cares. And that’s what’s sad. Nobody cares. Not the citizens, not our brass. Not our administration, not our city. They don't care. They don’t care one bit.”

The Target store where much of the rioting first kicked off last year is now adorned with a corporate-sponsored artistic mural that appears to glamorize the burning of the Third Police Precinct building, which is located right across the street.

The cop said he expects an even more concerted round of mass resignations the next time a “big incident” happens wherein the cops are portrayed in a negative light: “We’re getting fed up. All of us. And there’s only a few of us left that really want to work for the city.”

“We’re not gonna be here. We’re gonna all leave,” he said. “So this is gonna get worse before it gets better.”

The Minneapolis Police Department didn’t specifically track carjackings as a unique category of crime until September 2020. A retroactive analysis showed a 537% increase in carjackings in one month — November 2020 — compared to November 2019. Yes, you read that correctly: 537%. (I haven’t independently corroborated this data, and it may well have been imperfectly collected, but a substantial increase seems beyond dispute.) Additional data given to me by police show that carjackings are up 180% year-to-date in 2021 between January 1 and April 25.


This truck was carjacked on the morning of Monday, April 26 and recovered later that afternoon after the perpetrators led police on a high-speed chase. It was spray-painted black to evade detection, but a neighbor spotted the spray-painting taking place and called police. The perpetrators fled and were not apprehended
I was sitting in my car in South Minneapolis on the afternoon of Sunday, April 25 when a young man appeared at my driver-side window. He banged on the window and motioned for me to roll it down. With the window still closed, I repeatedly asked him what he needed. He continued motioning for me to roll down the window, without verbalizing any request. Cognizant that carjackings were on the rise, and seeing the young man’s hand conspicuously concealed inside his front hoodie pocket, I drove off. As I looked in my rearview mirror, two other young men popped out — unbeknownst to me, they had encircled my car. I can’t say for certain that it was an attempted carjacking, but I don’t know what else it would’ve been, and everyone I have described the incident to (cop and civilian) affirmed that it had all the hallmarks of an attempted carjacking.

NOTE: I am not traumatized by this incident. I am not declaring myself a benighted victim on account of this incident, and I am not otherwise requesting any special accommodations in relation to this incident. I’m simply relaying it as a thing that coincidentally happened *while I was in the process of reporting on crime patterns in the Twin Cities area* — and which was consistent with the tactics reportedly employed to execute carjackings, which have demonstrably surged.

The potential attempted carjacking incident occurred as I was going to gather more information about a recent Minneapolis murder victim, Maria Elena Mantini. She was 78 years old, and stabbed to death at a bus stop on the morning of March 17, according to police. Two other people are thought to have been stabbed by the same suspect; they both survived.


The bus stop where Maria Mantini was reportedly killed has subsequently been removed
There’s little information about Mantini in the public record, so I went to the apartment building in South Minneapolis where she lived. Several acquaintances had noticed her absence, but were completely unaware that she’d just been violently killed. They’d received no notice.

“I was friends with her. She usually came to you when she had a problem,” said Mary, a resident of the apartment building who said she often hangs out in the lobby to help “keep the riff-raff out.”

“I didn’t know that she was killed,” Mary told me. “I thought she died of natural causes.”

According to T.Y., the lobby companion of Mary who resides in the building and also works security at the front desk, Mantini is the first person who lives in the building known to have been killed since 1996 — back during the peak of the “Murderapolis” era.

“She went to Target every day,” T.Y. recounted. He was particularly dismayed upon learning of Mantini’s death because they’d developed a longstanding friendly rapport. “She basically just came to me most of the time, and tell me always ‘thank you’ for being down here — because she was more concerned about the building. You know, she just said ‘Thank you, T. Y.’ for working down here.”

Both T.Y. and Mary said their experiences with Mantini were pleasant, but minimal. “She came in the community room a few times and had coffee with us,” Mary said. “There’s a lot of things that she couldn’t eat because of her heart. She was only allowed to have one cup of coffee.” She lived alone; they didn’t think she had any family. Mary recalled that she was very private and concerned for her safety: “She was very suspicious of people.”

“Oh my god, I know exactly who you’re talking about,” another resident interjected. “She was a sweetheart. I used to run into her in the elevator sometimes. She was real quiet. She had a soft voice when she talked.”

The group’s conversation eventually turned to wider political issues. “I don’t know what fool would think about defunding the police,” T.Y. — who was formerly in the Army — remarked. “Because once you do that, who’s gonna protect you?”

Bear in mind that it’s still relatively cold in Minneapolis — violent crime always upticks in the summer, so the signs of what’s to come are ominous. This massive escalation in violent criminality doesn’t detract from the unjustness of Floyd’s death, but you’d think there’d be at least some interest in ascertaining a more complete picture of what is going on in the area. Oftentimes these incidents barely make it into local media, let alone national media.

Here is the exact location at a Saint Paul auto body shop where 36-year-old Mohamed Jama Samatar fell to his death on March 30 after being ambushed by a shooter who’d pretended to be a customer:


Here is the makeshift memorial for Iaan James Wade, a 19-year-old who was shot to death April 22 in North Minneapolis:


There will never be cries to “say their names,” nor will enormous crowds of protesters ever demand “justice” on their behalf. Again, the unique political resonance of cop-on-civilian killing makes the outsized focus on those events understandable. But when you spend some time in the crime-surging Twin Cities looking into other victims of unjust violence, the disproportionality of the focus does make you think.