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The rule of law is an innate and indispensable part of a democracy. The application of justice is a fundamental adjunct of that democratic principle of equality, where the arbitrary manifestation of power or capriciousness of any individual or group has no place in a constitutional republic.
In the close to eleven months since the unfortunate death of George Floyd, public and corporate policy have been guided, not by reason, logic, or even justice, but by a genuflection to violent, bully maneuvers of mob rule that call for a system overthrow, following the prescriptive guidelines of identity politics-driven Marxism (AKA cultural Marxism or Neo-Marxism). Can the main accused of the Floyd death receive a fair trial in today’s America?
The Rule of Law and a fair trial
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer and main defendant, has been charged with unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in relation to Floyd’s death. The trial began on March 29th and is expected to last approximately four weeks. Since Chauvin has no previous criminal history and given the nature of the criminal accusations levied, the charges would not carry a capital or lifetime prison sentence if he were to be found guilty.
The Floyd incident is a quagmire. Court documents containing two memorandums dated May 26th and June 1st, 2020, state that Dr. Andrew Baker, the Chief Medical Examiner of Hennepin County, construed that the victim (Floyd) died as result of a fentanyl overdose and that there was no proof or conclusive “physical evidence that Mr. Floyd died of asphyxiation,” as Minneapolis based Fox9 reported.
Dr. Baker further added that Floyd’s level of fentanyl at the time of his death was at a potentially “fatal level”. Additionally, there was evidence of his recent methamphetamine use, as well as the fact that he was Covid-19 infected. The medical examiner did not find any sign of substantive or “life-threatening” trauma to the body. Cuts and abrasions were the only physical injuries sustained by Floyd which can be attributed to the police effort to subdue the suspect after he resisted and challenged the arrest. A cracked rib was discovered, but that had been the work of medical emergency workers who were trying to revive Floyd at the hospital.
In any country where there are free and fair legal due process assurances, a case such as this would have a high bar to meet, in order to produce a guilty verdict. Yet, the saliency of American jurisprudence and the solitude of its institutions, are not what they once were. A nation that is swayed by riots, murder, vandalism, and arson carried out by hateful communist-inspired mobs, like Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa, resulting in hundreds of unlawful acts of domestic terrorism, cannot be counted on to uphold justice in any court of law.
Maya Echols, a contracted model and BLM activist, brazenly warned that Minneapolis would undergo riots and vandalism, BLM’s usual modus operandi, if Chauvin is not found guilty. Kelly Campagna (@warriorwoman91), conservative Social Media Director at Convention of States, recently include in a tweet a Tik Toc video of Echols’ rant. Campagna’s observation in the stated tweet was right on target, “‘Justice’ apparently now means people riot in the street if they don’t get the conviction that they want…” Echols has not been the only BLM member to laud the riots and violence as a necessary mechanism to address perceived grievances.
Ashley Gantt, a militant BLM agitator from Rochester, New York, defiantly delivered a gruesome tirade where she said, “I don’t care if the whole city burned down. We need justice.” Pronouncements like these represents the established ideological norms for subversive Marxist groups like BLM and Antifa, albeit their leadership and other apologists within the intelligentsia community, may word it in more polished and scripted forms. “If there was looting,”, Gantt added, “if there was things on fire, that is not what is important. What is important is why these things happen.”
It is imperative to note that all communist regimes, every single one, has warped interpretations of “justice”. Gross crimes against humanity have been carried out in Russia, China, Tibet, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and, sadly, many other communist countries, in the name of executing “justice”.
The Chauvin case will be a seminal litmus test of America’s level of intoxication with socialist identity politics “due process”.
Julio M Shiling, political scientist, writer, director of Patria de Martí and The Cuban American Voice, lecturer and media commentator. A native of Cuba, he currently lives in the United States. Twitter: @JulioMShiling // Julio es politólogo, escritor, director de Patria de Martí y The Cuban American Voice. Conferenciante y comentarista en los medios. Natural de Cuba, vive actualmente en EE UU.