Free Republic

Tou Thao, the former Minneapolis police officer who held back a crowd of bystanders during George Floyd’s fatal arrest in May 2020, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison Monday for aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Thao gave a short comment on his role in Floyd’s death in a statement prior to his sentencing in a Minnesota courthouse. “Obviously, on that day, we didn’t intend on – I didn’t intend on doing any malice or anything like that, or try to hurt anyone. That was never my intent. I did the best I thought I could,” he...

When George Floyd was murdered, many Americans wanted to do something. Some protested; others pushed to defund the police. The business community, looking to do its part (and receive favorable media attention), went on a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring spree, bringing on highly-paid executives – mostly racial minorities – to create programs to make their workplaces more attractive for minorities. But then the economy began to slow. Want to guess what happened next? According to a recent report from HR consulting firm Revelio Labs, DEI executives were terminated at a much higher rate than all other executives in...

Fifteen jurors, four of whom are Black and two of whom are multiracial, were chosen during a weeks-long jury selection process earlier this month. The trial is expected to span two to four weeks at the heavily secured Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, after which the jury will launch into deliberations. Judge Peter Cahill is limiting attendees in the courtroom due to COVID-19 concerns and is allowing for the proceedings to be televised, a rarity in the state.

I wrote about all of that here. But now there is a new bombshell: on Tuesday, prosecutors who have charged Derek Chauvin with murder released a document that suggests that he had nothing to do with Floyd’s death, which in all likelihood resulted from a drug overdose. Not only that, prosecutors have known that fact for months. Former state and federal prosecutor George Parry has the story. It was linked earlier as a Pick, but I think deserves more attention: Former state and federal prosecutor George Parry has the story. It was linked earlier as a Pick, but I think...