Letters to the Editor: The utter bankruptcy of Derek Chauvin's defense is on full display

Los Angeles Times Opinion
·1 min read
In this image taken from video, defense attorney Eric Nelson, left, and defendant former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, right, and Nelson's assistant Amy Voss, back, introduce themselves to potential jurors as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides, prior to continuing jury selection, Monday, March 15, 2021, in the trial of Chauvin, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd. (Court TV, Pool via AP)
Defense attorney Eric Nelson, left, and defendant former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin at the Hennepin County Courthouse. (Associated Press)
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To the editor: The utter bankruptcy of Derek Chauvin’s defense is on full display for a second day.

Unable to deny Chauvin's responsibility for George Floyd’s death, the only strategy left is to blame the onlookers, to claim they were a dangerous presence, that they distracted Chauvin and rattled him.

But the video clearly shows a calm, unruffled, 18-year veteran squeezing the life out of the man on the ground. That will be a hard truth to deny.

Bart Braverman, Indio

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To the editor: There is only one word that described Officer Chauvin's actions on the day Floyd died: "terrorism."

Chauvin's defense is going to try to argue that Floyd brought about his own death. That won't wash. Floyd may be responsible for his own arrest, but nothing he did was threatening or dangerous to police officers or the general public.

There is no way for a handcuffed and physically restrained person to present any kind of threat to the officers. If this is what Chauvin was taught to do as a policeman, then the entire police department of Minneapolis is a terrorist organization.

Patrick Sullivan, Reseda

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.