May 27, 2020

Minneapolis Cops: Will There Be Due Process for Everyone?

A black man died under the knee of a white cop, but “justice” demands due process for all involved.

“Now is not the time to rush to judgment and immediately condemn our officers.”

So said the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis in the wake of a disturbing video taken Monday evening that showed one of those officers pressing his knee on the neck of a prone and subdued crime suspect, 46-year-old George Floyd, while Floyd complains, “I can’t breathe.”

Floyd soon became unresponsive, but the officer continued to kneel on his neck as a crowd of onlookers pleaded for him to let the man breathe. Paramedics took Floyd away, but he was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The officers had responded to a call that evening about a fraudulent transaction at a local deli. According to a police statement, the officers were advised that the suspect “was sitting on top of a blue car and appeared to be under the influence.” Upon arriving and locating the suspect, the statement added, “[Floyd] physically resisted officers.”

Reaction came quickly on Tuesday from Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who took the extraordinary step of firing all four officers who were at the scene.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also weighed in with a straw man: “Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” he said. “For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a black man’s neck. Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you’re supposed to help.” Reacting via Twitter to news that the four officers had been summarily fired, Frey said, “This is the right call.”

But is it? Perhaps the video evidence of the officers’ actions provided overwhelming evidence of their collective guilt, but cops suspected of wrongdoing are typically suspended or placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an actual investigation. We call this due process, and its history dates back to the Magna Carta. More recently, due process was spelled out in the Fifth Amendment of our Constitution, and it’s been one of the hallmarks of our American system of criminal justice ever since.

The video of George Floyd is indeed difficult to watch, and it reminds us of the 2014 arrest of Eric Garner, a black man who died in police custody in Staten Island after resisting arrest and being placed in a chokehold by an NYPD officer. (According to Garner’s autopsy, the chokehold led to a fatal asthma attack.)

A grand jury refused to indict the officer in question in the Garner case, a decision that led to widespread public protests. Garner’s family eventually received a $5.9 million settlement from New York City, however, and the officer in question was fired in 2019 after an NYPD disciplinary hearing. One might reasonably conclude, then, that justice was ultimately served on behalf of Eric Garner and his family.

That brings us back to Minneapolis, which last night saw plenty of civil unrest as protesters clashed with police and family members demanded that the officers be charged with murder.

Perhaps a murder charge will be forthcoming, and perhaps not. But regardless, we’d all be well served to remember that cops, too, are American citizens deserving of due process.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.