“I Don’t Think That Memes What You Think It Memes…”

There’s a trope being pushed currently by alt-reich supremacists that likens convicted murderer Derek Chauvin with the executed soldiers in Stanley Kubricks’s classic 1957 WWI movie, Paths Of Glory.

Great movie, BTW;
go watch it.

First, a quick encapsulation of the film:

• An incompetent general orders his battalion to make a suicidal assault across no-man’s land

• The battalion, pinned down by murderous fire, can’t leave their trenches

• The general orders his own artillery to fire on his own troops to drive them forward

• His own artillery refuses

• When the attack fails, the general orders soldiers be selected at random from the battalion and executed for cowardice in an attempt to frighten the battalion into following his incompetent orders

• The general is brought down by his own incompetence, but too late to save the sacrificial soldiers

The alt-reich supremacist argument goes like this:
“They” are sacrificing Derek Chauvin because “they” are afraid Black Lives Matter protestors will riot if they don’t.

Oh, really…?

Was Derek Chauvin told to charge The Wild Bunch, guns blazing?

No?

Did Derek Chauvin yank George Floyd -- who at the time was handcuffed and sitting inside a police car with the door closed -- out of said police car then kneel on Mr. Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face while his fellow officers, an Emergency Medical Technician, bystanders, and Mr. Floyd himself said he was putting Mr. Floyd’s life in danger?

Yes?

Well, then it seems like there’s a big difference between someone refusing to follow through on a stupid order that’s likely to result in them getting killed and someone who callously and indifferently chokes a human being to death despite pleas for mercy, doesn’t it?

This is literally why Colin Kaepernick knelt in protest:
African-Americans are repeatedly discriminated against by law enforcement and courts, stopped / detained / arrested / charged / tried / convicted / sentenced more harshly than white Americans for the exact same crimes and offenses.

The Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The Constitution Of The United States Of America:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The Pledge Of Allegiance:
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The alt-reich supremacists argue Chauvin did not receive a fair trial.

Really?  
How so?

Was Chauvin: 

1. informed of the charges against him?

2. informed of his Constitutional rights?

3. allowed to have a lawyer defend him?

4. presented with all the evidence against him?

5. allowed to confront his accusers in an open court?

6. allowed to challenge evidence, testimony, and witnesses in court?

7. allowed to present his version of what happened in court?

8. tried by a jury of twelve U.S. citizens selected at random that his own defense team could challenge or approve?

Yes?

How many of points 1 – 8 did Mr. Floyd receive at Chauvin’s hand…or knee? 

The alt-reich supremacists accuse Black Lives Matter of staging violent protests in response to Mr. Floyd’s murder.  While some violence and property damage was caused by BLM marchers, far and away the bulk of the violence and vandalism was committed by alt-reich supremacists acting as agents provocateurs.

There’s nothing new to this, of course.

The Nazis did it back in the bad old days, infiltrating peaceful protests and demonstrations to stir up riots so they could then blame the original demonstrators and use that as justification to oppress them.

(This is the point in our discussion where alt-reich supremacists will start shouting “Godwin’s law!  Godwin’s law!” to which I reply with this direct quote from Mike Godwin himself:  “By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis. Again and again. I'm with you.”)

The alt-reich supremacists fail to understand that a fair trial does not mean one where the defendant is guaranteed a chance to walk free.

A fair trials guarantees a defendant a chance to explain things from their point of view and, if they or their lawyers can make a compelling enough counter-argument, then they may prevail.

Nobody told the twelve impartial jurors at Chauvin’s trial how to vote, nor threatened them with harm if they failed to convict.

Prosecutors hate to go to court unless they feel they have an overwhelming chance of proving their case.

A lot of the time, the evidence and testimony leaves absolutely no doubt about the defendant’s guilt and culpability.

Chauvin got as fair a trial as Charles Manson got (admittedly, Manson had the better, more cognizant closing argument.)

All it would take would be one single juror with a reasonable doubt to deadlock the jury and win Chauvin a new trial.

The evidence and testimony led the jury to think Chauvin was guilty.

Video showing a murderer kneeling nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds on their victim’s neck will do that.

Hey, know who else
thought Chauvin
was guilty? 

Chauvin himself. 

He acknowledged guilt by offering to plea bargain to the least of the three charges in exchange for being let off the hook on the two more serious charges.

(This offer to plea bargain was not introduced in court as it might prejudice jurors against Chauvin and that wouldn’t have been fair, would it?)

No, it’s crystal clear by their invocation of Kubrick’s Paths Of Glory that the alt-reich supremacists consider Chauvin to be innocent of deliberately murdering an African-American.

(It’s a pity Kubrick is no longer with us because one can easily imagine him reaming out these assholes with an M-60 chamber brush for daring to link his work with their bigotry.)

Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter protest against the view that police officers are entitled to ignore the law and abuse the civil rights of suspects just because those suspects are black or brown or fly the rainbow flag.

Chauvin was neither falsely nor unfairly convicted of murdering George Floyd.

If he didn’t want to be convicted of murder,
perhaps he should have considered
not murdering Mr. Floyd.

© Buzz Dixon