If peace holds in Minneapolis, it will largely depend on how well the state makes its case against Derek Chauvin, the former police officer charged with murdering George Floyd.
Prosecutors, aware of that added pressure, have spent months finely tuning their allegations. Some of the changes to their argument appear small, the latest being a new time on how long Chauvin’s knee was on Floyd’s neck.
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Initially, prosecutors recorded the incident at eight minutes and 46 seconds. That number was used at numerous “die-ins” around the country, where activists would lay down in public and private spaces for that amount of time to help bring awareness to Floyd’s death.
Some Democrats in the Senate knelt for that amount of time in the upper chamber over the summer, as other activists in the nation’s capital regularly held moments of silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
The number was revised downward by a full minute after the admission of a basic arithmetic error by the prosecution. But the state now says Chauvin rested his knee on Floyd for at least nine minutes.
A time discrepancy on the initial criminal complaint and the prosecution’s arguments likely won’t make much of a difference to the potential jury, the selection process of which will begin Monday.
Prosecutors say Chauvin’s restraint tactics were unnecessary altogether and directly caused Floyd’s death, an assertion backed by a coroner’s report that found he died of “asphyxiation.”
“Mr. Floyd repeatedly stated he could not breathe and his physical condition continued to deteriorate such that force was no longer necessary to control him,” the charging document against Chauvin reads. “Officer Chauvin’s restraint of Mr. Floyd in this manner for a prolonged period was a substantial causal factor in Mr. Floyd losing consciousness, constituting substantial bodily harm, and Mr. Floyd’s death as well.”
Despite the prosecution’s confidence in an eventual guilty verdict, Minneapolis has taken extensive steps to minimize unrest both during and after the trial, including upward of over a million dollars in fencing around the city courthouse and town hall.
Businesses, still recuperating losses from the riots that plagued the city over the summer, began boarding up windows and storefronts this week. The Minneapolis Economic Policy and Development bureau recommended business owners “consider adding physical barriers, such as … permanent security gates” to minimize damage.
Despite monthslong rhetoric and efforts from members of the City Council to slash the funding of the Minneapolis Police Department, the body recently approved upward of $1.5 million in funding for new security measures.
“Our hope is that the number of days we need these officers will be very short, that it will be a trial where there is peaceful expression of First Amendment rights and not destruction or other types of illegal activities that would require these officers to be around for numerous days,” City Coordinator Mark Ruff said last week.
Minnesota’s governor recently granted a request from Mayor Jacob Frey, an ardent liberal who opposes slashing the police budget, to station National Guard troops in the city to help maintain peace for the duration of the trial.
That move prompted outrage from city activists like mayoral candidate Sheila Nezhad, who called the move provocative and risked causing further violence.
“We need to show the people of Minneapolis that their voices are heard, and their grief is shared. We need healing, not fear. An armed military occupation of our city while we await Chauvin’s fate is not the answer,” she wrote in an op-ed this week.
Earlier this year, the City Council passed $6.4 million in funding for new police officers following record-low staff and a sharp uptick in resignations.
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Much of the trial will only be accessible virtually, with both the judge and state citing the COVID-19 outbreak as rationale for dramatically limiting access.
“While they understand the judge’s reasons to limit attendance in the courtroom, the family is understandably disappointed by this ruling,” read a statement from the attorneys representing Floyd’s family on news that only one member would be allowed access to the courtroom at a time. “The family is looking forward to the start of the trial as a critical milestone on the path to justice and a step toward closure in this dark chapter of their lives.”
