Don’t Hold Your Breath For Real Police Reform *

Photo by munshots on Unsplash

Many were surprised to see fellow police officers testifying against Derek Chauvin in his trial for the murder of George Floyd. Has the Blue Wall of Silence been broken?

Don’t hold your breath —

The Blue Wall is just being strengthened against further attacks.

The testimony in question focused on Chauvin’s violation of alleged department rules and policy. Kneeling on George Floyd ’s neck while he was handcuffed and lying on his stomach was “top-tier, deadly force” and “totally unnecessary,” the head of the Minneapolis Police Department’s homicide division testified.” Continuing to kneel on Floyd’s neck once he was handcuffed behind his back and lying on his stomach was “in no way, shape or form” part of department policy or training, “and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values,” Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said.

Police chiefs, officers, and even unions, hailed the verdict against Chauvin as showing “police officers are not above the law.” In other words, the system works — Chauvin was just a “bad apple” who broke those rules, and he was appropriately held responsible.

If that were so, why is that Chauvin had seventeen complaints against him, and only one resulted in any…