When accurate information from due process is more valuable than snap and uninformed mob reactions.

From Why Derek Chauvin May Get Off His Murder Charge by David Gavrilo in Medium of all places.

In the midst of the plenitude of those incontinently emoting over a tragedy and skipping due process to express their virtue signaling certitudes without a grasp of even the basic facts, I remain a convinced enthusiast for due process. Let's get the facts.

Those have been dreadfully in absence in the mainstream media. Not only are they simply opinionating rather than reporting, they seem to have been actively suppressing new information as it comes along. The Medical Examiner's report was full of suggestive information and it seems to have been substantially buried. As have most other inquiries seeking context.

But the internet being what it is, if you pay even a little bit of attention, it is surprising what you can find even if it is from noxious or otherwise unreliable sources.

So in this instance, I Gavrilo bringing a lot of information together which I had not seen in aggregate together. He laso has some interesting new information which I had missed.

For example. If you heard this was all about passing a forged $20 bill, think again.

From the 911 transcript, we know that George Floyd was acting “drunk” and “not in control of himself” before the police were called. The 911 caller is concerned that such an “awfully drunk” man would attempt to operate a vehicle. This is an important departure from the earlier media reports, which indicated the officers were only called over a counterfeit bill.

“Um someone comes our store and give us fake bills and we realize it before he left the store, and we ran back outside, they was sitting on their car […], and he’s sitting on his car cause he is awfully drunk and he’s not in control of himself” […] He is not acting right […] and [he’s] not acting right so and [he] started to go, drive the car.”

That would seem pertinent to an accurate reporting.

I also learned:

An official autopsy declared cause of death “sudden respiratory arrest following physical struggling restraint due to cocaine-induced excited delirium.” The legal team hired Dr. Michael Baden, who testified that Lewis died from “asphyxia caused by neck compression.” Baden is the same medical examiner who was hired by the George Floyd family, and made a similar finding. Baden is also the same medical examiner who was hired for Eric Garner, and declared death by “compression of the neck”. Baden is also the same medical examiner who was hired by the Brown family to examine Michael Brown, and Baden found that Brown died while surrendering, an assertion totally disproven by a DoJ investigation spearheaded by AG Eric Holder under Obama. Suffice it to say, Michael Baden has a very specific interest, and a very tenuous track record. The Court will be aware of this when weighing the autopsies.

The only report I had seen acknowledging the ME's autopsy focused very much on Baden's refutation without revealing Baden's background. Again, kind of a material oversight.

Finally, in some of the early fringe reporting I saw references to Excited Delirium Syndrome, including links to what appeared to be legitimate research supporting the diagnosis. I had never heard of ExDS before and it seemed to me as a possible real thing but not likely. Looked kind of fringey.

According to this reporting, it is much more mainstream than I had understood. Probably still not settled, but again, something important to know. The jury is out but I will pay closer attention.

This was good reporting.

The big missing item so far is whether George Floyds and Derek Chauvin had any prior relationship which might have shaped how either one of them responded.

Minnesota Attorney General Elison elevated the charges against Chauvin in order to placate the mob. In doing so, it appeared to me that he made it more difficult to gain a conviction. We will see. More information to emerge but this once again appears to be a different reality from what initial reports suggested.