All Episodes
Previous Next
March 30, 2021 - The Ben Shapiro Show
48:21
Why You’ve Heard Of George Floyd But Not Mohammed Anwar | Ep. 1224
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
A Pakistani-American man is murdered by two female black teenagers, but that's not national news.
Meanwhile, the Derek Chauvin trial begins, and the left's agenda is obvious.
I'm Ben Shapiro.
This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
Your data is your business protected at expressvpn.com slash Ben.
Well, you may have noticed that the Biden administration is apparently just an ongoing ad for Birch Gold because all they are doing is blowing out the spending.
Eventually, that means they're going to have to either increase Taxation, or they're going to have to blow out the value of the American dollar.
Either way, you might want to diversify at least a little bit into precious metals, and this is why you should talk to my friends over at Birch Gold.
Do what over 10,000 other smart investors have done, convert a portion of your retirement account into gold and silver with Birch Gold.
When inflation hits, and it will, gold and silver are your safe haven.
In Birch Gold Group, that's who I trust to help you convert an IRA or eligible 401k into an IRA backed by gold and silver.
Through April 30th on qualifying purchases, when you open a Precious Metals IRA with Birch Gold, they will send a free home safe.
Birch Gold, that's who I buy my gold from and you can trust them as well.
Text BEN to 474747 for your free information kit on Precious Metals IRAs or to speak with a Birch Gold Representative today with 10,000 customers.
They've got an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau, countless five star reviews.
They can help you as well.
Text Ben to 474747 for your free, safe with qualifying purchase.
That's a great deal.
Plus, you should be talking to them anyway, because listen, you need to diversify.
The smart investor is always diversified and the way that they are spending right now.
is going to have real consequences for the value of the dollar.
Go check out Birchgold Group right now by texting Ben to 474747 for your free information kit on precious metals IRAs today and speak with a Birchgold representative.
Ask all of your questions and get your questions answered by my friends over at Birchgold.
Alrighty, so the big story of the day continues to be over the course of this week, the trial of Derek Chauvin.
He's the police officer in Minneapolis who infamously knelt on the neck of George Floyd for some eight minutes and 46 seconds.
That video, of course, went completely viral.
It spurred the largest protests in American history.
Some estimated 15 to 20 million Americans in the street in the middle of a COVID pandemic.
Our public health officials decided randomly that that was now okay because, of course, racism was a public health crisis as well.
In any case, this is the biggest story in the country.
It has been the biggest story in the country since that video emerged.
And this raises the question, which stories become national stories?
A pretty simple question.
Why do some stories become national stories and other stories do not become national stories?
And the answer, quite obviously, is the narrative.
Because certain stories are national stories until they don't match the narrative, at which point they sort of fall off the radar.
And other stories just stay national stories forever.
So to take a perfect example, three weeks ago, all we were talking about in this country was the Atlanta shooting, where a white man killed eight people, including six Asian women.
And the story was supposedly anti-Asian American hate.
And it turned out the evidence just wasn't there to back it.
We're not talking about that story anymore.
Did you notice how that story just disappeared?
Nobody's talking about Atlanta anymore.
Meanwhile, we are still talking about George Floyd, not just because the trial is going on, but because we never stopped talking about George Floyd.
And for those people who say, well, yes, police brutality is a bigger story than a mass shooting in Atlanta, Let me just point out that it depends on the police brutality story.
The case of Daniel Shaver, the young man who was shot to death by police, I believe in Arizona, a couple of years ago.
He was shot to death.
The video was available to everyone who was attempting to obey police commands, and they just shot him.
He was lying on the floor of like a La Quinta Inn, and they shot him in the hallway.
That was not a national story.
Nobody knows Daniel Shaver's name, but everybody knows George Floyd's name.
What becomes a national story and stays a national story is completely up to a national news media that have decided that each story that is important is important because it is a data point in support of the broader narrative.
The George Floyd story became a national story not because of the specific circumstances of the George Floyd story.
As it turns out, if you are attempting to establish reasonable doubt on behalf of Derek Chauvin, if we're talking about preponderance of the evidence, I think Derek Chauvin gets convicted.
If you're talking about reasonable doubt, it seems to me that the defense has a fairly easy case for reasonable doubt in this case.
Again, remember, the standard in criminal law in the United States is not preponderance of the evidence.
It's not what you think might have happened.
It's not what you think is probably what happened.
It's whether it is beyond a reasonable doubt.
In that particular case, The circumstances surrounding that particular case are pretty dicey.
At the very least, it's going to be a tough uphill battle for prosecutors in that particular case.
But it is treated as a national story where the conclusion is a foregone conclusion or should be a foregone conclusion.
Because again, it apparently is a data point in support of two ideas, one of which is that the police are routinely brutal to suspects, which the evidence is not there for.
And the second is that police Routinely target black men for death, which again is also not true by the statistics, but the media love that narrative.
And so this is a national story.
You can tell what becomes it.
You can tell what the narrative is by what becomes a national story and what is treated as a local crime story.
So today's local crime story comes courtesy of Washington DC.
There is a case.
It is a horrific case.
The video is now available.
It is just horrendous of Mohammed Anwar, 66, a Pakistani American.
He immigrated to the United States in 2014.
According to USA Today, he was assaulted on Tuesday with a taser when two girls attempted to carjack him, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Graphic video was posted to Twitter.
It shows Anwar in a struggle with the suspects, who then speed off and crash and flip the car with him hanging onto the side.
We actually have the video available.
It's tough to watch, so that is your warning.
If you don't wish to watch the video, then duck out for the next 25, 30 seconds.
Here's what that video sounded like.
This is my car!
Stop it!
He's hanging onto the side of the car.
The door crushes him as it hits a lamp post, and then the car continues to speed down the street, and then it flips.
You can hear it crash.
The car flips.
When people arrive there, the two teenage girls are attempting to get their phones.
They stole the car, and they are attempting to get their phones.
They don't care about the death of the man that they just murdered.
They care about their phones.
Anwar had been working on an Uber Eats delivery Tuesday when two girls attempted to carjack him, according to a GoFundMe set up by a family member.
A 13-year-old and 15-year-old were charged on Wednesday with felony murder and armed carjacking with a Taser.
By the way, there are apparently 7,500 stolen vehicles in Washington, D.C., the city, every year.
Every single year, 7,500 stolen vehicles.
The GoFundMe for Anwar said Anwar was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend.
Okay, so how did the mayor of Washington, D.C.
respond to this?
Respond to the fact that her city is in the midst of a massive crime wave?
The GoFundMe raised more than half a million dollars in three days since it was published on Thursday.
Anwar was the financial provider for the family.
The funds will be used to pay for his lost income and to provide a traditional Islamic funeral, according to the fundraising page.
Okay, so how did the mayor of Washington, D.C. respond to this?
Respond to the fact that her city is in the midst of a massive crime wave?
In part, created by her own crappy...
anti-police policy. Muriel Bowser instead released a video about how you prevent auto theft.
That's that was her response. Her response was not we have a systemic crime problem here. Her response was not about racism or race. Whereas we know for a fact that if this it is a simple fact that if Mohammed Anwar had been killed by two white teenagers, that would be a national news story.
This is not.
This is a local news story because of the race of the people involved.
And the DC mayor would not be talking about the threat of auto theft if these had been two white teenagers who killed a Muslim man.
She would be talking about white supremacist hate against Muslims in the United States.
Because again, the narrative matters more than the explicit data.
On any particular story.
So, Muriel Bowser shared a video on quote, preventing auto thefts amid her silence on the death of Mohammed Anwar, who died just days ago after two teen girls allegedly tasered him to steal his vehicle.
She wrote on Twitter on Sunday, quote, Unbelievable.
Unbelievable!
of opportunity. Follow these steps to reduce the risk of your vehicle becoming a target.
Remember the motto, protect your auto.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Apparently it was a pre-scheduled tweet, but if that's a pre-scheduled tweet, that is the worst time pre-scheduled tweet I have ever seen in my entire life.
We'll see you next time.
Now, of course, this is not a national news story.
A week from now, you will not remember Mohammed Anwar's name.
You won't.
Because crimes that are far more common than what happened with regard to George Floyd and Derek Chauvin, which again, may or may not be a crime according to the black letter definition of the law, Crimes that are much more common get ignored, even though those crimes are much more of a problem.
Carjackings.
Racist crimes against Muslim Americans that don't come from white Americans.
Racist crimes against Asian Americans that don't come from white Americans.
Those are stories that won't get covered from the media.
They just will not be covered.
And if they are covered, they will be covered in a way that avoids any sort of racial angle on them, because the only racial angle that we're allowed to discuss in the United States is, of course, white hate crime against everybody else in the United States.
We'll get to that in one second, because there's another story that will not be a national news story.
If it is a national news story, it will be tied into broader anti-Asian animus without ever mentioning the source of the anti-Asian animus.
We'll get to that in just one second.
Let's talk about the fact that you need better cell phone coverage.
You do.
Less expensive cell phone coverage.
The word is out.
People are abandoning their overpriced wireless carriers and flocking to Pure Talk for the same coverage, but at a fraction of the price.
That's right, if you're with Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile, switching to Pure Talk could save your family over $800 a year.
Switching is super easy.
You can keep your phone, keep your number, get huge discounts on the latest iPhones and Androids.
Right now, you can get unlimited talk text, 6 gigs of data, just $30 a month.
A lot of phone companies will intentionally try to confuse you.
They won't tell you exactly what you're getting for your money, or they will tell you that you need unlimited data.
You don't need unlimited data.
You need unlimited talk, text, and six gigs of data for $30 a month.
And if you go over on data, Pure Talk USA is not going to charge you for it.
So what exactly do you have to lose?
The answer, of course, is nothing.
You can just lower your bills.
There's a reason Pure Talk is the highest rated wireless company by Consumer Affairs.
Stop giving your money to overpriced wireless carriers and start saving money today.
From your cell phone, dial pound 250.
Say Ben Shapiro.
You will save 50% off your very first month.
That is pound 250.
Say Ben Shapiro.
Pure Talk is simply smarter wireless.
Go check them out right now and get started.
Okay, other stories that are not gonna be national news stories for more than about five seconds here.
So there's a story in New York, horrific video that has now emerged, in which a 65-year-old Asian woman is walking down the street, just walking her way to church, and a black man beats the living hell out of her.
And we know he is black because there's surveillance footage of the man walking down the street.
And in the video, what you can see is that she's just walking in front of a security, it's a secure building.
The man walks forward, he kicks her in the chest, knocks her to the ground, steps forward, kicks her in the face to the ground, kicks her again in the head to the ground.
He's significantly larger than she is, kicks her again in the head, and then starts to walk away.
There are two security guards who are looking on.
Neither one of them do anything in New York.
Not only do they do nothing, they walk over and they close the door.
They close the door to the building.
Okay, all of this is in the video.
Is this going to be a national news story for more than five seconds?
Of course not.
Are we going to talk about the fact that a huge number of anti-Asian hate crimes, particularly in America's major cities, which is where we've seen the escalation, are not coming from white supremacists?
In the same way that a huge number of anti-Semitic hate crimes occurring in New York City are not coming from white supremacists that are coming from young black men?
Are we going to talk about any of that?
Of course we're not going to talk about any of that.
Because that is not part of a media narrative that they wish to portray.
They wish to say that the biggest problem in America is white supremacy.
Any narrative that does not fit that narrative is simply going to be ignored.
And any data point that doesn't fit that narrative is going to be treated as a local news story.
We are not going to talk about any of the broader trends in American society that could lead to the spate of increased hate crimes against Asian Americans in America's major cities.
We're not going to talk about that.
We're not going to talk about the amount of crime in Washington, D.C.
We can't talk about that.
Those are things that we are not supposed to talk about.
Why?
Because again, the narrative is that when it comes to the problems of the United States, they're attributable, not in large part, in their entirety, to the white supremacist, white systems of the United States of America.
And this infuses all of American politics, everything from crime talk to economic talk.
It's the same reason why you will see the Biden administration pushing forward with the idea that if there is economic inequality, that economic inequality cannot be attributed in any way to individual decisions that differentiate by group, meaning that if you take any group in America and you put a dividing line down the middle of the group, there will be inequalities in that room because individuals within those groups make different decisions.
That's just the way human beings are.
Instead, what the Biden administration says is that any sort of group inequality must be attributable to the whiteness of the system.
It's inequitable.
This is why the Biden administration will continue to use racial gaps in income as an excuse to cram down a sort of redistributionist economic system.
And they'll simply ignore stats that don't actually fit that line.
So for example, the most important chart of the last couple of weeks minimum is a chart that was put out by, I believe, the American Enterprise Institute.
And what this chart shows is median household income and share of births to unwed mothers by race, 2019.
And what you will see in this chart is that there is an incredible correlation between the amount of single motherhood in a community and the lack of income in that community.
Asian Americans are by far the highest earning median household income group in America.
Almost $100,000 a year median household income for Asian Americans.
Their single motherhood rate is 11.7%.
For white Americans, the second highest earning group, $76,000 a year, 28% single motherhood rate.
For Hispanic Americans, it is $56,000 a year and a 52% single motherhood rate.
rate. For Hispanic Americans, it is $56,000 a year and a 52% single motherhood rate. And for black Americans, it is $45,000 a year and a 70% single motherhood rate. We're not going to see this chart because this chart suggests that some of the decisions you make in your life might actually be responsible for your outcome in life.
But that doesn't fit the narrative.
The narrative, of course, is that it is systems of power in the United States, racist systems of power in the United States, that cause all suffering in the United States.
So suffering that can be attributed to any other individual action, or suffering caused by some groups on other groups and neither of the groups is white, or suffering that is caused in circumstances that don't fit the narrative, That sort of suffering is just ignored.
It is not important.
And that is why Mohammed Anwar will be a footnote in history by this time tomorrow.
And George Floyd will continue to be a major story because the media have decided it is not a story when a Pakistani American man is killed, is murdered by two teenage girls stealing a car in Washington, D.C.
The media have decided it is not a story when individuals are beaten because of their race by people who are black in New York City.
That is not a story.
It is only a story when there is a white police officer, of whom there is no proof of racism, by the way.
They still have not proven a single shred of evidence that Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd because of race.
Even if you think he killed George Floyd, the race angle is one that has been utterly non-proven throughout this entire... It doesn't matter.
That's the national story.
The story is The Derek Chauvin George Floyd story because again, that is one that fits the narrative and all that matters to our lying media are narratives that are untrue and data points that can be twisted to fit that narrative.
We're going to get to the Derek Chauvin trial in a second and all the hullabaloo surrounding it because you can see how this is now being politically used.
We'll get to that in just one second first.
Let us talk about your safety and security at home, and also just being able to keep track of your property.
So much happens at your front door.
That is one thing that definitely has not changed these days at my house.
I've been getting a lot more folks dropping off food, friends and family stopping by.
I gotta know who exactly is on my front door.
And not just that, I gotta keep an eye on my kids.
I got three kids, they're running around all the time.
The littlest one is now starting to walk, and that means that they're always running around and making trouble.
And I only have one pair of eyes.
I can only keep my eyes on them because of our Ring devices.
When we moved, From California to Florida.
First thing my wife said is, let's get the Ring devices on the house, like right now.
And so we did.
I love having that Ring video doorbell.
I've actually added some Ring security cameras around my house as well, no matter your home.
Ring has everything you need to protect it.
See and speak to whomever has hit your door from anywhere with video doorbells.
Keep an eye on every corner of your house with easy to install indoor and outdoor cams.
Protect your whole home with Ring Alarm, a powerful, affordable whole home security system you can easily install yourself.
Right now, get a special offer on the Ring Welcome Kit at ring.com slash ben.
It comes with Ring's Video Doorbell 3 and the Chime Pro.
It is the perfect way to upgrade your front door and start your Ring experience.
Head on over to ring.com slash ben.
That is, again, ring.com slash ben.
Okay, so now we get to the actual story of the day, the one the media would love to cover, and that, of course, is the Derek Chauvin trial.
Now, understand, the reason they're covering this trial is because they hope that it promotes a narrative.
The narrative is, One of two things.
One, that if Derek Chauvin is convicted, that's because America's police ought to be convicted.
And if Derek Chauvin isn't convicted, it's because America's racist.
That's how the narrative is gonna go.
If Derek Chauvin is convicted, it's because his activity is far too common across the land, and we can use that as a wedge to simply indict all of America's policing systems.
And if he is not convicted, then we can do even more than that.
We can indict all of America as racist for Derek Chauvin not being convicted.
Remember, the standard in criminal court is not the standard of public opinion.
The standard is beyond a reasonable doubt.
This is true in every single criminal case.
Maxine Waters, of course, who is a racial radical, a woman who once declared that the L.A.
riots, which did literally a billion dollars in damage and ended with tremendous loss of life and tremendous suffering, particularly in black areas, Maxine Waters declared that the L.A.
uprising way back when.
The same Maxine Waters who said that you should get up in people's face and confront them over politics.
She also says that the police around America believe that their job is to keep black people in their place.
Remember, this is the narrative that the media wish to push, is that Derek Chauvin is all of American policing and Derek Chauvin was a racist.
Again, they haven't proved that.
In fact, they haven't shown any evidence of that.
They just sort of assumed it because he's white and George Floyd was black.
And then the idea is that their goal is to keep black people in their place, which is very strange since that is absolutely not the goal of the police around the nation.
There are 42 million black Americans living in the United States right now.
The grand total number of black Americans who have been murdered, shot by police, unarmed every year is less than 25.
That is not an existential threat to black life in the United States the way that the left would like to make it out to be.
Here's Maxine Waters basically laying out there what the narrative is.
This thinking about the need to control, the need to, you know, make sure that people stay in their place.
So called, has been basically what has happened in America for all of these years.
And I think it continues in various ways, sometimes a little bit more sophisticated ways.
But the police, I think, really believe and in some ways are led to believe that their greatest challenge and their greatest chore is to keep black people in their place.
I mean, this is just a lie.
The notion that police all around America are racially motivated to keep black people in their place.
What an incredible slander against police departments all around America.
By the way, you will also notice how when it comes to police officers, Democrats have a varying view of police officers, depending on who's doing the victimizing of the police officer.
If a police officer is out there on the streets attempting to stop crime, then Maxine Waters' view of police officers prevails.
If a police officer is being attacked by criminals inside the United States Capitol building, then all police officers are heroes.
Very weird how the vision of police officers change depending upon which part of their job we are talking about.
If the idea is that police officers all around America are into victimizing black Americans, George Floyd was arrested many, many, many times and let out of jail many, many, many times.
The problem in this particular case is that he was counterfeiting.
He's apparently high in his car.
He resisted arrest for 45 minutes.
They were attempting to get him to sit in the back of the car.
They were attempting to arrest him.
If you view the full 45-minute tape and not just the 8 minutes, 46 seconds of Derek Chauvin on his neck, what you will see is that he is begging not to be put in the car.
They say they will crack a window open for him so that he has enough air.
He pushes his way out of the car.
He's resisting arrest.
They were called to the scene because he was committing a criminal act in the first place.
The notion that police all over America are attempting to keep black people in their place.
is just belied by the evidence from across America.
Again, Black Americans are not being held down by the police.
There are other factors in American life that really harm Black Americans.
The crappy public school systems in their areas would be a big one.
The government incentivization of single motherhood would be an enormous one.
The notion that the police are the biggest barrier between Black people and success in the United States is just not true.
But again, this is all part of the broader agenda, which is why Karen Bass, Congresswoman from California, she is openly stating that Chauvin has to be convicted as proof that America is moving in the direction she wants it to move.
Now, normally, when we look at criminal cases, the goal of a criminal case, the goal of due process of law is that what is happening outside the courthouse, the calls for For heads outside the courthouse that those are not respected.
What happens inside the courthouse?
Due process of law actually matters.
But we're a country that now values the opinion of the mob more than it values due process of law.
Karen Bass says Chauvin should be convicted.
And if he is not convicted, then we can't get the police reform we want.
Again, it is just a data point in pursuit of a narrative.
Here is Karen Bass.
We have got to deliver for the American people.
There has got to be hope that we can actually transform policing.
And if there was ever a case that you can just not argue, it is this one.
This trial has got to come out the right way, and we have to deliver.
I believe that we will get a bill on the president's desk.
I know the White House and the president absolutely wants us to move forward, and we have to deliver.
I'm not aware that Chauvin's conviction has anything to do with what Congress does.
Congress can do whatever Congress wants to do.
Democrats are in charge of both houses of Congress.
The notion that if Chauvin is not convicted, that police reform dies is just a lie.
By the way, they've tried police reform in Minneapolis.
You know what the effect of that police reform in Minneapolis was?
Skyrocketing crime rates in Minneapolis.
According to the New York Times, the sacred intersection, sacred, like hallowed, Like somebody who's made a saint.
The sacred intersection where George Floyd died beneath the knee of a police officer has seen such an increase in violence that food delivery drivers are afraid to venture there.
There have been gun battles with bloodied shooting victims dragged to ambulances because of barricades keeping the police and emergency vehicles away.
Having no police, this is the experiment right here, said PJ Hill, a leader of Worldwide Outreach for Christ, a church that has been on that corner in Minneapolis for almost 40 years.
This is their one block experiment.
And you know what it turns out?
It turns out that when you get rid of the cops, you know what happens?
Crime increases.
Weird.
That doesn't back the narrative.
The narrative is that the cops are the threat to black life.
It turns out as soon as the cop leaves, people are shooting people.
Turns out people are victimizing people.
At the same intersection, the sacred intersection where George Floyd died beneath the knee of Derek Chauvin.
I mean, technically speaking, he actually died after that, but where Derek Chauvin's intervening act allegedly caused the death of George Floyd.
The narrative doesn't back, the data doesn't back the narrative.
That doesn't matter.
So we ignore the data.
Okay, now we get to the actual Derek Chauvin trial.
So again, it's all the narrative surrounding the trial that the media are very into.
It's not the actual facts of the trial that matter.
In reality, it is very, very difficult to achieve a confession beyond, to achieve a conviction Beyond a reasonable doubt in this particular case, the nature of the charges makes it very difficult.
The reason that that makes it very difficult is because there are several charges that have been brought against Chauvin.
We've explained this on the program before.
There's third degree.
Third degree murder does not really apply in this case.
Third degree murder is a case where you are threatening murder.
It's what's called depraved heart murder, where you don't care that somebody is going to die, but it has to be directed at a random victim.
Okay, it can't be that you targeted X and you didn't care about X and that person died.
It has to be like you take a brick and you throw it off of the top of a freeway intersection, off of an overhang, and then you hit a car, right?
That would be depraved heart murder.
You don't care who it is you kill, you're targeting just kind of generally humanity at large.
You shoot a gun into a crowd, right?
That would be depraved heart murder.
So third degree really does not apply.
In this case, it doesn't fulfill the element.
Second degree murder is the one that they're really attempting to go for here.
Second-degree murder is felony murder.
So the idea is that if you commit a felony, and in the process of committing that felony, somebody dies, you are now responsible for murder.
So for example, you go and you rob a bank with a gun.
That's a felony.
And in the process of that felony, you shoot somebody accidentally.
The gun goes off and you kill somebody.
That's called felony murder.
The reason that's felony murder is because it was a part of a crime that you were already committing.
So what they actually have to prove is that it was a felony, not for Chauvin to kill George Floyd, because that's in doubt.
They're not charging first degree, which would assume that Chauvin actually meant to kill George Floyd.
It's pretty obvious that Chauvin did not mean to kill George Floyd.
I mean, from the tape, the best you can say is that he was indifferent to the fate of George Floyd from the tape.
But you can't make the case that he intended to kill.
That would be the first degree.
They're not even charging first degree.
So they're charging second and third degree.
The court reinstated the third degree charge, even though the third degree charge doesn't really seem to apply in this particular case.
Yes, that's right.
And so the second degree charge, which is the felony murder charge here, So I'm sorry, the third degree charge is the felony murder charge.
The second degree charge would be the depraved heart murder.
Okay, they reinstated the depraved heart murder.
It doesn't really apply.
Third degree murder is the felony murder charge.
The problem with felony murder is that you have to prove that he intended to commit a felony.
Intent is still an element of the crime.
If this was just negligence, then you're talking about maybe manslaughter.
Even there, the elements there are kind of dicey.
And I'm not the only one who's saying this.
I mean, this has been pretty well known here for a while.
Robert McQuaid wrote in May of 2020, In the Daily Beast, that it's going to be very difficult to convict Chauvin.
She said to convict Chauvin of third degree murder, the prosecutor will have to prove that he acted with depraved mind without regard for human life.
For second degree manslaughter, the prosecutor will have to prove that Chauvin acted with gross negligence.
These are the same standards that apply in every case of third degree murder or manslaughter under Minneapolis law.
What's different when the defendant is a police officer is that he may use a public authority defense.
That means the state has the burden of proving the force used was not justified.
A jury would be instructed to conclude that the force was not justified.
It must find that Chauvin created an unreasonable risk of death or great bodily harm.
So in other words, he would have had to know that Floyd was dying under his knee and he didn't care.
That's kind of difficult, beyond a reasonable doubt at the very least, because there were intervening factors that Chauvin was not aware of.
Namely, that George Floyd had a serious heart problem, and that he was full of fentanyl.
This is why the medical autopsies are going to be a major issue in this particular case.
This is why when you see people on the TV who are telling you that this case is a foregone conclusion, and that conviction is inevitable, and that if it is not happening, if it's not a conviction, then that is because of the racism of the American system.
That's because they're lying to you.
This case could go either way, and there's decent cause to believe it could go either way or should go either way.
But beyond a reasonable doubt, it's certainly not a foregone conclusion based on the evidence in this particular case.
In addition to the reasonableness requirement, writes Barbara McQuaid over at the Daily Beast, the federal offense also requires a showing of willfulness.
To prove willfulness, the prosecutor must show the officer had a specific intent to do precisely what the law forbids, not just a bad purpose.
A jury would be instructed it is not enough that an officer's force was excessive or unjustified, or that he intended to harm or to frighten the suspect.
It's not enough to show that death was accidental, negligent, or reckless.
It's not enough to show that death was caused by a mistake, panic, or bad judgment.
Instead, prosecutors must prove the officer knew what he was doing was illegal and chose to do it anyway.
Right?
So it's not just that in order to prove a felony murder, he has to show that he knew that kneeling on Floyd's neck that way was illegal, that he was committing a crime.
And he ignored that in order to commit the crime because he hated Floyd that much or because he didn't care about Floyd that much.
That's very difficult.
That's particularly difficult because the Minneapolis Police Department actually instructs people to use exactly this kind of hold on suspects who are resisting arrest, which Floyd was.
They tried to put him in the car.
He pushed his way out of the car.
He said he would rather be outside the car than be in the car.
So this is a very, very difficult case for prosecutors.
And the fact that the media have turned it into a not difficult case is because the media are ignorant about the law or they don't care about the law, which is probably the more likely scenario in this particular case.
But again, the idea here built up by the media is that if he is not convicted, it is not because some of the jurors have good faith, reasonable doubts, which, again, very plausible in this particular case.
It's because America is systemically racist.
And this is the media the narrative are going to continually build over the course of the next couple of weeks.
George Floyd's family knelt outside the courthouse for eight minutes and 46 seconds in symbolic protest at the activity of Derek Chauvin.
The media covered this widely.
Here's a little bit of video of that happening.
Al Sharpton, by the way, being part of anything just immediately discredits the enterprise.
Al Sharpton is one of the great race baiters in American history.
And then we got Benjamin Crump, the attorney for the Floyd family, and Benjamin Crump, who's also been the attorney in a wide variety of other cases, including cases in which he's openly lied to the media.
It was Benjamin Crump and his attorney's team who suggested that Jacob Blake was unarmed and shot by the police for no reason at all in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Benjamin Crump A person who has told repeated untruths.
He says that the Chauvin trial is a referendum on how far America has come.
In other words, if George Floyd, if Derek Chauvin is not convicted in the murder of George Floyd, then this means America has not come far enough.
By the way, even if Chauvin is convicted, the implication is going to be that America still has so far to go because people like Derek Chauvin were on police forces in the first place, of course.
It's a catch-22.
There is no way, out of the conclusion promoted by the left, that police forces across America are racist.
You convict him, it's just a demonstration that Chauvin is indicative of all of America's police.
If you acquit him, and you show no evidence of racism, that is an indication that America is a white supremacist country that lets people like Derek Chauvin be on the police force.
It's a complete catch-22.
Here is Benjamin Crump saying this is a referendum on race in America, as always.
Today starts a landmark trial That would be a referendum on how far America has come in its quest for equality and justice for all.
It would be prima facie evidence whether America is going to live up to the Declaration of Independence.
Mm-hmm.
Well, here's the thing.
In a criminal trial, you have to show proof.
I keep saying this.
Show proof.
Show evidence.
I could easily see this case going either way.
I think anybody who is an honest legal observer can see this case going either way because, again, the Minneapolis Police Department does teach exactly the kind of suppression hold that was being used on George Floyd here.
And you have to prove felony murder if you want a convicted felony murder.
You don't have to prove bad things happened.
You don't have to prove that this was an ugly video.
You don't have to prove any of that.
You have to prove actual felony murder.
And the notion that if Derek Chauvin is acquitted in this particular case, that is because America will not live up to its founding promise and refuses to live up to its founding promise, that's always the narrative.
And that will be the narrative no matter what the outcome of this case.
Frankly, I think that for many in the media, they're hoping that Chauvin gets acquitted so we can have another spate of remonstrations over how America is deeply racist and horrible.
If Chauvin is convicted, we're still going to get those remonstrations.
They just won't have the same sort of edge to them, obviously.
In a second, we're going to get to the actual testimony that was happening inside the courtroom yesterday.
First, let us talk about the fact that your most valuable asset is almost undoubtedly your home title.
People think their home is their most valuable asset.
Really, it's not the home itself.
It's actually the home title, because here's the thing.
All the value is inherent in the home title.
So, you know who knows this?
Cyber thieves.
And you know what they can do?
They can actually just find your home title online and then they can forge a quick claim deed.
They can essentially steal the home title and then start taking out loans against the home title.
You know, imagine if your credit card company found suspicious charges on your card.
That'd be simple identity theft.
Annoying, but they cover it.
Home title theft?
That is not something that is really covered.
It's a devastating crime that takes you off your home title.
You're not covered by insurance or most identity theft programs, and that is why you need Home Title Lock.
The instant Home Title Lock detects someone tampering with your home title, they help shut it down.
Get yourself protected.
Go to HomeTitleLock.com right now.
Register your address.
See if you're already a victim.
Enter code RADIO for 30 free days of protection.
That is promo code RADIO at HometitleLock.com.
Go check them out right now.
HometitleLock.com.
Protect your most valuable asset, your home title, right now.
HometitleLock.com.
Go check them out right now.
All right, in just a second, we're gonna get to the actual testimony in the courtroom, in the Derek Chauvin case.
First, as you've probably heard, Candace Owens joined The Daily Wire a few weeks ago with the premiere of her new talk show, Candace.
The show streams on dailywire.com Fridays at 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central.
You can get the audio podcast, Candace, on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast.
Candace hosts a series of guests on the show every week, making for lively panel discussions and insightful interviews.
Candace's show is always interesting.
I'm getting emails from people all the time talking about how much they enjoy Candace's show.
Featured guests have included Jocko Willink and Brandon Tatum and John Rich, just to name a few.
Candace is a star, no question.
She's the first Daily Wire show to appear in front of a live audience.
Don't worry if you can't attend the show in person.
Tweet your questions.
So if you need some Candace Owens in your podcast feed, look no further.
Head on over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Subscribe today.
Be sure to leave a five-star review if you like what you hear.
Join now so you can tune in Friday night for a closer look behind the hot takes.
You're listening to the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.
All right, so let's get to the actual testimony and the lawyer's cases in the Derek Chauvin-Trausman So the special prosecutor in this case makes the case that Chauvin betrayed his badge, that he acted in a way that was a violative of Minneapolis police policy.
It's going to be a bit of an uphill climb there for the prosecutor, to be frank, because again, Minneapolis police policy does allow the use of exactly the sort of hold that Chauvin was using on George Floyd in those particular circumstances, which is why Minneapolis changed the procedure after the George Floyd case.
Here's a little bit of the special prosecutor talking about the case.
You will learn that on May 25th of 2020, Mr. Derek Chauvin betrayed this badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of Mr. George Floyd.
That he put his knees upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him Until the very breath.
No, ladies and gentlemen, until the very life.
We're squeezed out of it.
Okay, so one of the witnesses that was called to this effect was a man.
Who is there?
His name was Donald Williams, who's one of the witnesses.
And frankly, I'm kind of amazed that the judge allowed this sort of testimony because it really is pretty prejudicial.
But the testimony that this guy gave was based on his extensive experience as an MMA fighter, which again, does not make him a doctor.
It does not make him a person who is an expert in medical autopsy.
Basically, he was allowed to give his quote-unquote expert testimony as an MMA fighter as to the kind of hold that Derek Chauvin was using.
And of course, he used the most colorful language and described the kind of hold that Chauvin was using.
He called it a blood choke.
Now, normally, There is an air choke and a blood choke.
When we're actually talking about MMA language, an air choke is where you're actually cutting off the trachea and somebody can't breathe.
There was no damage done to George Floyd's trachea in any of the autopsies.
A blood choke is usually just a sort of suppression hold.
That usually is meant to deprive oxygen to the brain long enough to suppress the person.
I've had this done to me.
This happens to you anytime you spar with anybody in MMA.
It is unpleasant.
It generally doesn't kill you.
It's considered much, much safer than an air choke, for example.
An air choke can absolutely kill you.
A blood choke typically is meant to knock you out.
And it's used frequently by police officers, by MMA fighters, etc.
So here was the witness, Donald Williams, who talked about how this was a quote-unquote blood choke or a kill choke is what he called it.
And of course, for people who are not familiar with any of the language, that sounds like significantly worse than, for example, an air choke, because blood sounds worse than air.
But here is Williams testifying.
The neck was diagonal across the throat, which on a blood choke, you would just tack the side of the neck, you know, in which you're in a camorra or side chokes or things like that.
You want to tack the side of the neck to cut the circulation.
Okay, well, here's the thing.
from your person and then to get the choke tighter you hit different shimmies which I felt the officer on top was shimmying to actually get the final choke in while he was on top to get the kill choke because a side choke or a blood choke can ultimately turn into death and that's what we've seen here. Okay well here's the thing in MMA you don't kill people. The reality is that a suppression hold a quote-unquote blood choke is not designed to kill people.
Again, there's a reason that many police departments have allowed suppression chokes.
Suppression holds is what they're typically called.
The reason they allow that is because it is a lot safer for the person they're attempting to suppress than anything like an air choke, for example.
So again, what they have to prove here is a felony.
They have to prove that Chauvin intended to commit a felony.
He intended to use excessive force against George Floyd, sufficient that it ended with the death of George Floyd.
So they have to prove two things.
One, that he committed a felony, and two, that it was that action that led to the death of George Floyd and not any of the intervening factors.
Because remember, if it was an intervening, non-known factor to Derek Chauvin, it's very difficult to claim that he should have known that what he was doing was going to lead to the death of George Floyd in any way.
And the autopsies tend to show that Floyd was chock full of fentanyl, that he had a serious, serious heart problem.
George Floyd was a large man who was a very big guy, and he was actively resisting arrest up to the point where he was on the ground and Shalvin was on him.
This sort of testimony is, having him use these sorts of terms, being a non-medical expert, is definitely an interesting move by the judge.
I'm frankly a little bit surprised that the judge allowed this sort of thing to go through, but I guess I shouldn't be that surprised because the judge did allow the reinstatement of a charge that clearly does not apply.
A second degree murder, that is the depraved heart murder, that clearly does not apply by black letter law.
So, we'll see how this thing progresses.
We'll continue to update you on the case.
Again, the reason it is a national case is because of two things.
One, the idea that white police officers are routinely doing this sort of stuff, brutality to black suspects.
That has yet to be proved.
And two, this is a racially driven act in the first place.
Again, that has yet to be proved.
But the narrative matters a lot more than the actual circumstances of the case.
And narrative always matters more than the circumstances of the case, as it turns out.
You can say pretty much anything so long as you are a backer of the left-wing narrative.
Shifting topics a little bit.
This is what you see.
Heidi Heitkamp, former senator from North Dakota.
She was on Bill Maher's show over the weekend.
And she just called Gina Carano a Nazi.
Like, for no reason at all.
Just called her a Nazi.
Because this is the way racial discourse in America works.
If you are on the left side of the aisle, you can say literally anything.
Because the only problem in America is white supremacy.
And thus, anybody who you don't like is a white supremacist.
And you don't need any evidence of that proposition.
And in fact, when informed that you are wrong about it, you just double down.
That's what Heidi Heitkamp did over the weekend.
Who was the woman in the Mandalorian?
What did she do?
She like something?
She was a Nazi.
Oh, that's different, right?
I'm thinking of somebody else.
Well, she's not a Nazi.
She's a white supremacist.
She's called other people Nazis.
She's the Nazi.
Okay, everyone's a Nazi now.
She does hang with white supremacists.
It's like a Mel Brooks movie.
She does?
Yeah.
Hangs with white supremacists?
I suppose I'm now subject to defamation.
Well, yes, you would be.
Yep.
And she's a public figure, so you have to prove malice, but the fact that you immediately say that you don't care if there's evidence, and then you say she hangs with white supremacists, I suppose when Heidi Heitkamp says she hangs with white supremacists, what she means is she hangs out over here at the Daily Wire while she'll be doing a movie with us.
Heidi Heitkamp is a bag of garbage, and Heidi Heitkamp was tossed from her seat in a year, 2018, where Republicans got shellacked because the people of North, she lost by like 1,000 points.
Her opponent won 55% of the vote.
There's a reason.
She's awful.
She's awful.
But this sort of language on the left is fine.
It's good.
It's fine and good.
And not just that, racism has now been boiled down in such a clear and overt way to whatever the left-wing agenda is, that it's now out in the open how exploitative these sorts of charges are, how much the narrative matters more than the fact.
Let me give you an unbelievable example of what is clearly obvious, a clearly obvious extortion case being guised as an anti-racism case.
Okay, so, the Detroit Free Press, Printed a story today.
This is an unbelievable story.
Full-page ad blasts GM CEO Mary Barra as racist.
Leaders of several major black-owned media companies, including Byron Allen and Ice Cube, are accusing General Motors CEO Mary Barra of being a racist for what they described as her refusal to meet with them.
They're asking for an hour-long Zoom meeting with her or, in the alternative, her resignation.
That's according to a full-page ad on page 3A in Sunday's Detroit Free Press, accusing Barra of refusing to meet with them, quote, consistently over time and after multiple requests.
So, Mary Barra wouldn't meet with them.
Why wouldn't she meet with them?
She wouldn't meet with them because what did they want?
They wanted her to sign millions of dollars over to them.
The ad is signed by the heads of seven black-owned media companies, including rapper and actor Ice Cube, who co-founded pro basketball league Big 3 TV, and film production company Cube Vision, and contract with Black America, which he started with the goal of initiating dialogues about racism.
Oh, was that the goal?
Also signing the ad is native Detroiter Byron Allen, head of Allen Media Group, and former NBA player Ulysses Jr.
Bluett Bridgman, who bought Ebony Media last year after bidding $14 million for it in U.S.
bankruptcy court.
In response to the ad, GM said it aspires to be the most inclusive company in the world, and that includes how it allocates its advertising expenditures.
We have increased our planned spending with both diverse owned and diverse dedicated media across our family of brands, said GM spokesman Pat Morrissey in an email.
The black-owned media group wants GM to allocate at least 5% of its ad budget to black-owned media companies, said Allen in an interview with the Free Press on Sunday.
The ad says less than 0.5% goes to media companies owned by African-Americans.
Allen said the group could recommend 14% of the budget be spent on advertising with black-owned media companies.
That would be economic parity.
We're not even asking for parity, we're asking for inclusion.
Alan said the men who signed the ad have known each other for years, and they've been reaching out to Byron, asking for a meeting to win more of GM's advertising.
But Byron does not respond.
So just to get this straight, there's a group of black-owned media companies who are asking for a meeting with GM's CEO so they can attempt to force her into spending her money on them.
And then if she says no, she's a racist.
That's just extortion.
Okay, that is just a soft form of extortion.
If you go to somebody and you're like, here's the deal.
You're going to meet with me.
And not only are you going to meet with me, you're then going to give me all the money in your wallet.
And if you don't give me all the money in your wallet, I'm going to go to the press and I'm going to call you a racist and your entire company racist and try and take down your stock price.
That's extortion gang.
But apparently racism has now been boiled down to anything that people of a particular left-wing bent do not like.
If Heidi Heitkamp doesn't like you, you're a Nazi.
If a black-owned media group doesn't get paid by you, you're a racist.
Alan said, if you say status quo is okay, that's wrong.
That is racism.
Status quo is racism.
Let me be clear.
That is racism.
But if you get to the table and you lean in to effectuate change, I love all of the newfangled synergistic terminology.
Then you are showing the world who you really are.
This is an opportunity.
The numbers will never lie.
You're either doing business with black-owned media or you're not in a fair and equitable way.
Now, fair and equitable means give us a check.
Give us a check.
And we're going to distribute those checks by racial subgroup.
Fan-freaking-tastic.
So, apparently, GM is now racist because they don't abide by the full agenda of a group that is attempting to essentially extort money out of them.
Amazing.
Meanwhile, if you even defend people for not being racist, you'll get ousted.
Sharon Osbourne, finally the other shoe dropped, and she has been forced off the show.
She's been forced off a talk show that she has been co-hosting for 11 years after defending Piers Morgan and saying that he wasn't a racist.
So she's been thrown off the talk.
The network announced on Friday Osbourne had decided to quit, saying their internal investigation found Osbourne's actions, quote, did not align with our values, which is mush mouth for people inside the brass were angry that she wasn't woke enough.
The events of the March 10th broadcast were upsetting to everyone involved, including the audience watching at home.
As part of our review, we concluded that Sharon's behavior toward her co-host during the March 10th episode did not align with our values for a respectful workplace.
Remember, Sharon Osbourne committed the great crime of saying that Piers Morgan was not a racist, her other co-hosts started berating her as a racist, she refused to acquiesce to their description that she was a racist, and now she is losing her job.
But remember, every time this stuff happens, an angel gets its wings and we become a less racist country, every time you think more in terms of race, every time you take a data point that is not racial and you make it racial, any time you ignore an act of crime by a person who's of minority group that is higher ranked on the intersectional hierarchy than the member of the victimized group who actually is the victim, every time you ignore that, an angel gets its wings, America gets more woke, and racism is solved.
Really, really exciting stuff happening in the country right now.
Okay, final note for you right here.
So, the Biden administration continues to promote doom with regard to COVID.
I just have to note this very quickly.
Rochelle Walensky over at the CDC.
She says that doom is impending.
Put on your mask, doom is coming.
No, doom is not coming.
Here's Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC.
Now I'm gonna reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom.
We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope.
But right now, I'm scared.
So I'm speaking today, not necessarily as your CDC director, and not only as your CDC director, but as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter, to ask you to just please hold on a little while longer.
I so badly want to be done.
I know you all so badly want to be done.
We are just almost there, but not quite yet.
I'm sorry, this warning of impending doom is a lie.
It is a lie.
We are not going to get impending doom because a huge percentage of the American population is vaccinated.
Soon, more people will be vaccinated, according to the New York Times and the CDC.
The coronavirus vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are proving highly effective at preventing symptomatic and asymptomatic infections under real world conditions, according to the CDC, which she runs.
So no, no, this is just, the panic is the point.
It's ridiculous.
The panic is the point.
Alrighty, we'll be back here today with an additional hour of The Ben Shapiro Show.
This week, Michael Knowles will be guest hosting.
Make sure to tune in.
Also, coming up at 1.30 p.m.
Eastern, The Matt Walsh Show.
You can watch it over at dailywire.com.
I'm Ben Shapiro.
This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by...
by Elliot Feld, executive producer Jeremy Boren, our supervising producer is Mathis Glover, and our assistant director is Pavel Lydowsky. Editing is by Adam Siavitz. Audio is mixed by Mike Coromina. Hair and makeup is by Fabiola Cristina.
Production assistant is Jessica Kranz.
The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production. Copyright Daily Wire 2021.
Joe Biden wants a new round of mask mandates.
Kristi Noem won't go all the way to fight gender ideology.
And Guatemala teaches the U.S.
how to deal with caravans of foreign nationals.
▲
Export Selection