While a jury was still deliberating the fate of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the alleged murder of George Floyd, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey couldn’t keep himself from weighing in during a press conference by saying that it doesn’t really matter what the jury ultimately decides, George Floyd “was killed at the hands of police.”
Which is exactly what the jury is there to decide based on actual facts and evidence – but Frey’s got some political points to score.
“There’s been pain and anguish, anger and frustration that is undoubtedly and acutely felt by our black and brown communities,” Frey said.
“Regardless of the outcome of this trial, regardless of the decision made by the jury, there is one true reality, which is that George Floyd was killed at the hands of police,” he continued.
Jacob Frey, the Mayor of Minneapolis, couldn’t even wait 10 minutes to do what Judge Cahill just asked elected officials not to do! Another appeal gift! Amazing. pic.twitter.com/QrTUbWpl1x
— Starscream CIA-Simulation Warlord 🇺🇸🦈🇺🇸 (@zerosum24) April 19, 2021
Frey’s comments fly directly in the face of the entire judicial process, which is set up to determine if Floyd was, in fact, "killed at the hands of police" after Chauvin, a white (now-ex) cop, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while detaining him that May day in 2020. Chauvin’s defense has argued that Floyd died from a lethal overdose of drugs in his system, and has suggested that Chauvin’s knee was on Floyd's shoulder and not his neck, and therefore couldn’t have caused a fatal lack of oxygen.
Those details and others offered throughout the lengthy trial process are what the 12-person jury now has to sift through to determine whether Chauvin is indeed guilty of the second-degree manslaughter and/or third-degree murder with which he's been charged.
But apparently, according to many elected Democrat lawmakers and officials, the verdict – and the entire justice system that’s been set up to render it – doesn’t even matter: their minds are already made up.
In a clip that immediately sparked outrage across social media and throughout the judicial and legislative world over the weekend, Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters demanded that Chauvin be found guilty of first-degree murder (with which Chauvin hasn’t even been charged), saying that if a murder conviction isn’t handed down, protesters should ‘get more active and get more confrontational” to let law enforcement know that “we mean business.”
Shortly afterward, the judge overseeing Chauvin’s trial said Waters’ inflammatory comments may have given the defense grounds to have the whole trial overturned on appeal.
Related: Minneapolis Protesters Boo & Shame Mayor for Not Agreeing to Defund Police
"I'll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned," Judge Peter Cahill told defense attorneys.
"I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch and our function,” he alter added. "I think if they want to give their opinions, they should do so in a respectful and in a manner that is consistent with their oath to the Constitution, to respect a coequal branch of government."
Apparently, Frey didn’t get the memo.
Then again, the embattled mayor - who's white - has had an uphill battle with protesters in his city and the rioters who've tried repeatedly to burn it down. Following Floyd's death last May, Frey was at one point booed out of a rally for failing to promise protesters that he would completely defund and dismantle his city's police department.