{"id":3689,"date":"2021-05-09T20:48:42","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T03:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3689"},"modified":"2021-05-09T20:55:20","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T03:55:20","slug":"the-redundant-federal-charges-against-derek-chauvin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3689","title":{"rendered":"The Redundant Federal Charges Against Derek Chauvin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the Justice Department indicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the same conduct\u00a0 —\u00a0 the killing of George Floyd\u00a0 — for which a Minnesota state jury convicted him of murder.\u00a0 Contrary to the wailing of a goodly portion of the defense bar, such a successive prosecution by a different sovereign is permitted by the Constitution, as SCOTUS reaffirmed in its 7-2 opinion two years ago in Gamble v. United States<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0 But that does not end the inquiry:\u00a0 Although the prosecution is permitted, is it wise?\u00a0 Is it fair?\u00a0 Does it serve a distinct federal interest sufficient to be worth the cost and risks?<\/p>\n

I have considerable doubts about all those things, as explained below.\u00a0 But I want to say one thing by way of preface.\u00a0 This should not become yet another “oh-the-government-is-so-bad” festival.\u00a0 The trouble here started with Chauvin, not the government.\u00a0 If he had shown more restraint, judgment and professional care, we wouldn’t be in this situation.\u00a0 The best way to avoid having to deal with the outcroppings of criminal behavior is to avoid the behavior to begin with.\u00a0 In Chauvin’s case, as in most, it’s just not that hard.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Having said that, I think DOJ’s decision to undertake a successive prosecution in this instance was incorrect.\u00a0 As a friend of mine has noted (on Facebook):<\/p>\n

…the federal prosecution of the Minneapolis cops makes close to zero sense, unless…this is just my own opinion, and I would prefer to be wrong…it makes perfect sense…if you assume the Radical Anti-Cop Crowd is firmly embedded, and in charge, at the Harris-Biden-Obama Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

The Minnesota federal prosecution tells every single cop in America – even a cop lucky enough to be working in a Red City in a Red County in a Red State – that she can end up in prison, for life, for doing her job properly. How do you think the Columbus, Ohio cop – the one who saved a girl from being stabbed to death – is feelin’ right about now? ValJar herself, and ValJar is surely a prominent shadow member of the administration, informed Americans that an imminent stabbing is no reason for a police officer to pull the trigger.<\/p>\n

Indeed, multiple high profile Biden appointments tend to confirm my hypothesis. No need to defund the police when you can take many actions, and send many signals, aimed at thoroughly demoralizing cops, and very strongly encouraging them to resign, police weakly, and discourage new recruits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My friend’s language is more florid than what I would use, but the points are valid.\u00a0 This sort of prosecution can bring about the effects of defunding the police (e.g., more murder, especially of black men) without the Administration’s ever having to say that de-policing is what it’s doing, or having to bear the political costs of such a disastrous (and unpopular) policy.\u00a0 In other words, it’s dishonest in addition to being dangerous.<\/p>\n

Merrick Garland can do better, and should.\u00a0 Steve Haywood from PowerLine makes a similar observation in, “The Rising Body Count of Liberalism.”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, the Justice Department indicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the same conduct\u00a0 —\u00a0 the killing of George Floyd\u00a0 — for which a Minnesota state jury convicted him of murder.\u00a0 Contrary to the wailing of a goodly portion of the defense bar, such a successive prosecution by a different sovereign is permitted by the Constitution, as SCOTUS reaffirmed in its 7-2 opinion two years ago in Gamble v. United States.\u00a0 \u00a0 But that does not end the inquiry:\u00a0 Although the prosecution is permitted, is it wise?\u00a0 Is it fair?\u00a0 Does it serve a distinct federal interest sufficient to be worth the cost and risks? I have considerable doubts about all those things, as explained below.\u00a0 But I want to say one thing by way of preface.\u00a0 This should not become yet another “oh-the-government-is-so-bad” festival.\u00a0 The trouble here started with Chauvin, not the government.\u00a0 If he had shown more restraint, judgment and professional care, we wouldn’t be in this situation.\u00a0 The best way to avoid having to deal with the outcroppings of criminal behavior is to avoid the behavior to begin with.\u00a0 In Chauvin’s case, as in most, it’s just not that hard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policing","category-usdoj"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Redundant Federal Charges Against Derek Chauvin - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3689\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Redundant Federal Charges Against Derek Chauvin - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, the Justice Department indicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the same conduct\u00a0 —\u00a0 the killing of George Floyd\u00a0 — for which a Minnesota state jury convicted him of murder.\u00a0 Contrary to the wailing of a goodly portion of the defense bar, such a successive prosecution by a different sovereign is permitted by the Constitution, as SCOTUS reaffirmed in its 7-2 opinion two years ago in Gamble v. United States.\u00a0 \u00a0 But that does not end the inquiry:\u00a0 Although the prosecution is permitted, is it wise?\u00a0 Is it fair?\u00a0 Does it serve a distinct federal interest sufficient to be worth the cost and risks? I have considerable doubts about all those things, as explained below.\u00a0 But I want to say one thing by way of preface.\u00a0 This should not become yet another “oh-the-government-is-so-bad” festival.\u00a0 The trouble here started with Chauvin, not the government.\u00a0 If he had shown more restraint, judgment and professional care, we wouldn’t be in this situation.\u00a0 The best way to avoid having to deal with the outcroppings of criminal behavior is to avoid the behavior to begin with.\u00a0 In Chauvin’s case, as in most, it’s just not that hard.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3689\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-10T03:48:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-10T03:55:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill Otis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bill Otis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3689\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3689\",\"name\":\"The Redundant Federal Charges Against Derek Chauvin - Crime & Consequences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-10T03:48:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-10T03:55:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3689#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3689\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3689#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Redundant Federal Charges Against Derek Chauvin\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\",\"name\":\"Crime & Consequences\",\"description\":\"Crime and criminal law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e\",\"name\":\"Bill Otis\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Redundant Federal Charges Against Derek Chauvin - Crime & Consequences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3689","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Redundant Federal Charges Against Derek Chauvin - Crime & Consequences","og_description":"Last week, the Justice Department indicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the same conduct\u00a0 —\u00a0 the killing of George Floyd\u00a0 — for which a Minnesota state jury convicted him of murder.\u00a0 Contrary to the wailing of a goodly portion of the defense bar, such a successive prosecution by a different sovereign is permitted by the Constitution, as SCOTUS reaffirmed in its 7-2 opinion two years ago in Gamble v. 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