There is a major outcry on social media over anyone who refers to the trial of former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin as the George Floyd trial with the howlers claiming that such words may cast a pall of criminality over a man who may have been a brutal thug in life but was given sainthood after his unfortunate demise.
Now that jury selection is moving forward for the trial as a city that hasn’t even recovered from last year’s looting and burning simmers in dread, the battle over shaping the narrative shifts into high gear as racial tensions begin to build.
Black Lives Matter and their fellow travelers in the endless carnival of racial grievance are inundating social media with calls that a trial that could rival that of former NFL superstar running back O.J. Simpson as far as a media sensation should not be referred to as that of the deceased Floyd, a man with an extensive criminal record and a jones for hard drugs including Fentanyl.
In addition to preventing the tarnishing of Floyd’s sanctified image, efforts must be made to further demonize Chauvin who has arrested after a viral video that had footage of the 46-year-old Houston transplant resisting arrest removed which not only stripped the incident of important context, but fed the raw emotion and percolating anti-police, anti-white resentment that was unleashed on the nation.
It is imperative that the anger toward Chauvin be ratcheted up with there being no guarantee of a conviction on anything more than manslaughter with his attorneys expected to focus on Floyd’s actions during the arrest as well as that subduing the suspect with a knee was a standard training procedure for the city’s police.
George Floyd is NOT on trial; Derek Chauvin is!
Some will use the "DEREK CHAUVIN TRIAL" to question George Floyd's character.
That's WRONG. Demand JUSTICE. pic.twitter.com/gWUr0DF2wr
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) March 8, 2021
George Floyd is not on trial.
Derek Chauvin is on trial. https://t.co/mtMB2qg8az— janashortal (@janashortal) March 1, 2021
News cycle we are about to requires this reminder. The Derek Chauvin trial is about to start. This is not the George Floyd trial. The man whose breath was squeezed out or his body is not on trial. There are other ways to honor his name beyond giving him this erroneous headline
— Michele Norris (@michele_norris) March 8, 2021
A note to all my journo friends and TV commentators, this is NOT the “George Floyd Trial” this is the “Derek Chauvin Trial.”
George Floyd, although many will try, is not the one on trial. Please and thank you.
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) March 1, 2021
#DerekChauvin is on trial. #DerekChauvin is on trial. #DerekChauvin is on trial. #DerekChauvin is on trial. #DerekChauvin is on trial. #DerekChauvin is on trial.
Not George Floyd.
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) March 9, 2021
George Floyd was put "on trial" for 8 minutes and 46 seconds with Derek Chauvin as judge, jury AND executioner. #ChauvinTrial
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) March 8, 2021
Media: important note for this week. Remember it’s not "the George Floyd Trial," it’s "the Derek Chauvin Trial."
— Young Daddy (@Toure) March 8, 2021
Jury selection is expected to last for weeks given the difficulty in finding potential jurors who are either unbiased or unknowledgeable of the details fo the fateful encounter, not an easy thing in a city where virtually every citizen has been adversely affected either through the riots themselves or the subsequent spike in crime rates following the city council’s demands to defund and dismantle the police.