Wondering on Wednesday 4/21/21

Ready... Set... Wonder!

The wondering never really shuts off; it's always drip, drip, dripping, at the very least. Sometimes, it's more like an open floodgate; that's what it's felt like yesterday. Let the wondering begin, in no particular order.

• I wonder if the defense in the Derek Chauvin trial thought the jury would fall for the alternate causes of death that were offered? Or was all of that merely "mounting a defense" to ensure that Chauvin wouldn't be able to win an appeal based on poor representation?

• The prosecution's closing argument - in a nutshell, believe your own eyes and the eyes of the witnesses - made me wonder about the witnesses. How hard it must have been to relive the murder of George Floyd in open court, to be questioned about what you saw, to stay strong with the whole world watching. I wonder if they'll ever know how grateful we are?

• I wonder what Chauvin was thinking when he had his knee on George Floyd's neck, particularly what he was thinking as he held that look, the unflinching look we saw in the video. Was there ever an "oh, shit, what have I done?" moment, I wonder? 

• I wonder who's paying Chauvin's legal fees? Is it the same group of upstanding white folks, police officers and politicians who donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, I wonder?

• I wonder why the judge felt compelled to make the comment about Rep. Maxine Waters? I agree her comments were over the top, as usual, but grounds for an appeal?

• The law enforcement folks who testified for the prosecution did all of us a favor, lending credibility to the case that Chauvin's actions were not acceptable or sanctioned. I wonder, will their coming forward light a spark under others to do the same, voluntarily or otherwise? I wish it would happen voluntarily - and automatically, but that's likely too much to ask.

• On a related note, many of us have heard of private social media groups where LEOs have been known to share their racism and other sentiments freely among like-thinking members of their club. I wonder what the chatter is on those groups today? Are they having their own "oh shit" moment, or are they chalking up the guilty verdicts as an aberration, and still feeling safe? I hope it's the former, but I'm not holding my breath.

• I wonder if Project Veritas will ever try to infiltrate LEO social media groups or delve into the racism that we know is found there? Or is that not the kind of veritas they find interesting?

• Parts of Minneapolis, and other cities, too, became plywood jungles filled with National Guard troops as testimony ended last week, making them look more like hurricane-zone businesses than downtown urban centers. I don't wonder why they did - it made sense to me - but boy, I wonder if we'll ever be at a place where we don't have to be afraid of the verdict in a case like this? 

• Is justice something that can even be defined here, I wonder? Or should accountability be the expectation? What does justice even look like, for the Floyd family, for the witnesses, for the city of Minneapolis, for people of color generally? And what do these verdicts mean for police generally?

• I confess I couldn't convince myself that we'd hear guilty verdicts, and I know that does a disservice to the jurors, the witnesses, the prosecution... but I can't escape the thinking that this could have gone the other way, as happens so many times. And I wonder when - or if - I'll ever stop feeling that way. 

• The DOJ has announced a 'pattern or practice' investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department; it's going to run concurrently with the civil rights investigation into Chauvin's action that's already under way. The wondering here? This is a lot of federal firepower for one department and one former cop; how many more of these should be done? And how can they possibly do them all, in a timely manner?

• And how, I wonder, will there ever be enough cell phones to police the police? Because in the end, that's why Derek Chauvin was convicted. Just as, absent Chauvin's knee on his neck, George Floyd would not have died on the street next to a police vehicle last May, absent the witnesses, and their videos, this could easily have become just another case of the police deciding one of theirs did nothing wrong. 

Honestly, I haven't even scratched the surface. There's so much more to wonder about, mostly centered on the why and how of it all - why it happens, and how we fix it. I'll save that pile of wonderment for another time. Today, I'm thankful that the outcome was what it was, and that people across the country - black and white - could breathe easier for a moment.

What are you wondering about tonight?