Derek Chauvin trial

 Ben Shapiro warns media are ‘paving the way for riots’ with their ‘skewed coverage’ of Derek Chauvin trial

Ben Shapiro, editor emeritus of the Daily Wire and lawyer, says that the media's coverage of the Derek Chauvin trial will end up causing riots.

Chauvin has been accused of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter in connection to George Floyd's May 2020 death.

His trial began last week.

What are the details?

Shapiro on Wednesday, according to the outlet, said that the media are largely "ignoring the prosecution's difficulties" and only reporting one side to the public.

"If you watch the actual Chauvin trial and then watch the media coverage of the Chauvin trial, the gap is stunning," he said. "The media are paving the way for riots by ignoring the prosecution's difficulties — and his acquittal is not a remote possibility based on those difficulties."

Pointing to a recent Washington Post headline that read, "Trial to resume after training officer says an unauthorized neck restraint was used on George Floyd," Shapiro argued that the story only served to detract from "the actual takeaway from the use-of-force expert's testimony."

Shapiro then addressed recent testimony by Los Angeles Police Sergeant Jody Stiger, a paid witness for the state, whose testimony "undercut the prosecution's case on several points during cross-examination, according to Law of Self-Defense Attorney Andrew Branca."

"The use-of-force officer admitted that Chauvin's procedure (use of body weight and pressure) was a lesser use of force than adopted in the past, that it wasn't a chokehold, that use-of-force standards change based on drug use or physical stature of a suspect, that he had personally restrained suspects until EMS arrived, that some suspects quickly regain consciousness and thus sometimes suppression is necessary despite appearances," Shapiro explained.

From the Daily Wire:

Prosecutors are attempting to make the case that Chauvin and three other officers killed Floyd through excessive use of force, while the defense alleges that Floyd's drug use and heart problems played crucial roles in Floyd's fate.

The defense is attempting to establish that Chauvin's actions, restraining Floyd with a knee on his upper body for nearly nine minutes, would not have resulted in Floyd's death without complications from those existing drug and heart problems. Prosecutors have admitted that Floyd had a history of substance abuse, but are arguing that Floyd's past drug use would have built up his immunity enough so the drugs in his system at the time of his arrest would not have had a major effect on him.

Prosecutors, in order to convict Chauvin on the more serious second-degree murder charge, will be tasked with proving that Chauvin was in the process of committing felony assault on Floyd during the detainment.

As previously reported by Blaze Media:

In order to prove the second-degree murder charge, prosecutors will need to prove that Chauvin was committing felony assault on Floyd, which will require proof that his actions in subduing Floyd were objectively unreasonable and outside the scope of his authority as a police officer. They will also have to prove that his actions were a "substantial causal factor" in Floyd's death. Alternately, the jury will be permitted to consider lesser charges of third-degree murder, if jurors find that Chauvin's actions were reckless and caused Floyd's death, or manslaughter, if they find that his actions were negligent and caused Floyd's death.

Chauvin's attorneys have indicated that they intend to argue two separate points to the jury. First, they intend to argue that Chauvin's actions in detaining Floyd were reasonable in the context of the full circumstances. Also, they intend to argue that Floyd either contributed to or caused his own death by swallowing a large quantity of fentanyl in order to prevent officers from finding it during his arrest. The autopsy report on Floyd's death blamed his death on "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression" but did note that fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use may have made his death more likely.

Three other officers who were involved in Floyd's death have also been charged criminally and are awaiting trial, which is currently scheduled to begin in August 2021.