Federal trial is wrapping up. Three officers all testified; Prosecutor has made closing arguments; Defence submissions yet to come.
If these guys had intervened, their careers would have been over. They knew that and didn’t. Now their careers are over. They should have anyway. But the real culprits are the people running the police force who let Chauvin continue in the force after numerous incidents of his stepping over the line. They will never be tried, but they are real guilty parties.
No-They are the other guilty parties.
The three officers make the argument that they were deferring to senior leadership.
That issue has come up in the past in aviation and surgeries, where deference to seniors had to be overcome by new training to ensure juniors could feel empowered to raise concerns.
Could that sort of training be used in police training?
Jury still deliberating.
Not anymore:
I remember a city Park officer testified at Chauvin’s trial. He was across the street at Floyd’s car and handling bystanders.
He was incredibly lucky to be there and not directly on the scene. He probably wouldn’t have confronted Chauvin.
A 19 year police veteran can be pretty intimidating to Rookies barely out of the academy. I’m still not sure what Lane and Kueng could have done. Maybe go to their Sergeant at the end of the shift? But by then it was too late. The Sergeant was called to the scene immediately after Floyd’s death. He testified at Chauvin’s trial.
Thao was a senior officer and Chauvin’s partner. He could have intervened. Chauvin would have lidtened to his partner .
Here is a state (not federal) result: