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Editor's Choice: Scroll below for our monthly blend of mainstream and alternative April 2021 news and viewsTop Headlines
New York, Derek Chauvin Verdict Brings a Rare Rebuke of Police Conduct
- New York Times, Derek Chauvin Is Guilty of Murder in George Floyd Death
- Washington Post, Watchdog nixed probes of Secret Service during Trump era, documents show, Carol D. Leonnig
- New York Times, A Global Tipping Point for Reining In Tech Has Arrived
- Washington Post, Judge criticizes Rep. Waters’s comments about Chauvin trial
Walter 'Fritz' Mondale's Death, Legacy
- New York Times, Walter Mondale, Ex-Vice President and Champion of Liberal Politics, Dies at 93
Washington Post, Analysis: Mondale lost the presidency but permanently changed the office of vice presidency, Dan Balz
- Axios, Former Vice President Walter Mondale's last message
U.S. Elections, Rights
- New York Times, A Dozen Megadonors Gave $3.4 Billion, One in Every 13 Dollars, Since 2009
- New York Times, Live Updates: Senators Step Into Voting Rights Debate
- Palmer Report, Opinion: Val Demings rips Jim Jordan to pieces during House hearing, Bill Palmer
Virus Victims, Responses
Washington Post, 132.3 million vaccinated in U.S.
- Worldometer, World & U.S. Coronavirus Case Totals, U.S. Deaths: 581,542
- New York Times, With Universal Eligibility, a Fifth of Seniors Remain Unvaccinated
- New York Times, Live Updates: Benefits of J.&J. Vaccine Outweigh Risks, E.U. Regulator Says
- Washington Post, India’s devastating outbreak is driving the global coronavirus surge
More On Chauvin Murder Verdict
- New York Times, The Chauvin Trial and the History of Police Violence
- New York Times, How Protests Reached Every Corner of America: A Visual Timeline
- Daily Howler, Media Criticism: Mob and Town: Our press corps pretends to discuss a trial! Bob Somerby
- Palmer Report, Opinion: Fox News melts down after Derek Chauvin guilty verdict, Sheree McSpadden
U.S. Crime, Courts, Prisons, Polic
- Washington Post, Missouri House member faces expulsion after probe finds he sexually, physically abused his children
- Washington Post, Fact Checker Analysis: Yes, the House can vote on expanding the Supreme Court, Salvador Rizzo
- Washington Post Magazine, The girl in the Kent State photo and the lifelong burden of being a national symbol, Patricia McCormic
U.S. Politics, Governance
- New York Times, Why Political Sectarianism Is a Growing Threat to American Democracy
- New York Times, Opinion: What’s the Secret of Biden’s Success? Paul Krugman
- Washington Post, Biden will hold a big climate summit this week to reestablish U.S. leadership. Not everyone may follow
World News
- Washington Post, Massacres threaten to engulf Darfur, as revenge is substituted for justice
Washington Post, For Nigerian students fearing the next mass kidnapping, there is only one defense — to run
- New York Times, President of Chad Is Killed as Soldiers Clash With Rebels
- New York Times, Super League Collapses as Premier League Soccer Teams Walk Away
Media, Health News
- Washington Post, Dan Bongino isn’t just taking over where Rush Limbaugh left off — he’s building a conservative media universe
Washington Post, Parler’s revamped app will be allowed back on Apple’s App Store
- New York Times, Sleeping Too Little in Middle Age May Increase Dementia Risk, Study Finds
Top Stories
Former police officer Derek Chauvin was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs after the verdict on April 20, 2021, and will be sentenced in eight weeks (Photo via Court TV).
New York Times, Derek Chauvin Verdict Brings a Rare Rebuke of Police Conduct, John Eligon, Tim Arango, Shaila Dewan and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, April 20, 2021. A former police officer who pressed his knee into George Floyd’s neck until well past Mr. Floyd’s final breath was found guilty of murder on Tuesday in a case that shook the nation’s conscience and drew millions into the streets for the largest racial justice protests in generations.
The verdict, which could send the former officer, Derek Chauvin, to prison for decades, was a rare rebuke of police violence, following case after case of officers going without charges or convictions after killing Black men, women and children.
At the center of it all was an excruciating video, taken by a teenage girl, that showed Mr. Chauvin, who is white, kneeling on the neck of Mr. Floyd, who was Black, for nine minutes and 29 seconds as Mr. Floyd pleaded for his life and bystanders tried to intervene. Mr. Floyd repeated “I can’t breathe” more than 20 times during the encounter.
A jury deliberated for just over 10 hours before pronouncing Mr. Chauvin guilty on all three charges: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The video, played on a horrifying loop for the past year, triggered more than calls for changes in policing. It stirred Americans of all races, in small towns and large cities, to gather for mass protests, chanting “Black lives matter” and challenging the country to finally have a true reckoning over race. Their demands reverberated within the walls of institutions that had long resisted change, from corporate America to Congress.
This week, over the course of two days, a racially diverse jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about 10 hours before pronouncing Mr. Chauvin guilty on all three charges: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
President Biden praised the verdict in a nationwide address at the White House but called it a “too rare” step to deliver “basic accountability” for Black Americans.
“It was a murder in full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see,” Mr. Biden said. “For so many, it feels like it took all of that for the judicial system to deliver just basic accountability.”
Hours before the jury came back with a decision, Mr. Biden had taken the unusual step of weighing in, telling reporters that he was “praying” for the “right verdict.”
“This can be a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America,” he said.
After the verdict, Philonise Floyd, one of Mr. Floyd’s younger brothers, spoke at the Hilton hotel in downtown Minneapolis. “We are able to breathe again,” he said, holding back tears.
He drew a line from his brother back to Emmett Till, a Black child who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955. “We ought to always understand that we have to march,” he said. “We will have to do this for life. We have to protest because it seems like this is a never-ending cycle.”
Mr. Chauvin was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and will be sentenced in eight weeks.Credit...Still image, via Court TV
Derek Chauvin Is Guilty of Murder in George Floyd Death, Staff Reports, April 20, 2021. Ex-Officer May Face 40 Years in Killing That Spurred Protests.
Mr. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The death of Mr. Floyd spurred the largest civil rights protests in decades.
Speaking after the verdict in a news conference with Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, several members of the prosecution team that tried Derek Chauvin spoke directly of George Floyd. “He was somebody,” said Jerry Blackwell, the laywer who delivered the prosecution’s final words to the jury on Monday. “His life mattered.”
George Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Ross, who testified in the trial, emphasized that the push for justice should not end with this verdict. “I know that he gave his life so that other people’s cases can get reopened,” Ms. Ross said outside of the building in Minneapolis where Derek Chauvin was convicted.
George Floyd, above left, and former police officer Derek Chauvin, convicted of Floyd's murder on Tuesday.
Washington Post, What we know about the jurors who decided Derek Chauvin’s fate, Mark Berman and Holly Bailey, April 20, 2021 (updated from March 28). A White executive who has discussed privilege with her Black co-worker. A Black immigrant who watched a video of George Floyd’s death, then told his wife, “It could have been me.” A multiracial woman who sees police officers as humans who sometimes “make mistakes.”
These are some of the dozen jurors whol decided whether former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin broke the law when he knelt on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes while the Black man gasped, “I can’t breathe.”
Two weeks of jury selection in Chauvin’s murder trial recently whittled a pool of more than 300 potential jurors down to 12 with three alternates, one of whom is expected to be released Monday. There is one Black woman, two multiracial women, three White men, three Black men and six White women. Seven are under 40 years old.
Related stories:
- New York Times, Derek Chauvin Is Guilty of Murder in George Floyd Death
- New York Times, The Chauvin Trial and the History of Police Violence
- New York Times, How Protests Reached Every Corner of America: A Visual Timeline
- Washington Post, House rejects GOP attempt to censure Rep. Maxine Waters over remarks about Chauvin trial, Marianna Sotomayor
- Washington Post, Judge criticizes Rep. Waters’s comments about Chauvin trial, Paulina Villegas
- Daily Howler, Media Criticism: Mob and Town: Our press corps pretends to discuss a trial! Bob Somerby
- Palmer Report, Opinion: Fox News melts down after Derek Chauvin guilty verdict, Sheree McSpadde
Washington Post, Watchdog nixed probes of Secret Service during Trump era, documents ...
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