Gerald Horne on the Chauvin Verdict

The mass protests forced global media attention and sufficient state resources supplied to the prosecution; this may not be replicable. Chauvin may have been a bad apple, but the police barrel of apples is deliberately stocked with such rot. Gerald Horne joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news Transcript Paul Jay Hi, welcome to theAnalysis.news. I'm Paul Jay. Please don't forget there's a donate button at the top of the website, subscribe button on YouTube, and be back in the second. On Tuesday, Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all three charges of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, his killing of George Floyd was found by the jury to be a murder. Why was  on the police force? That's the question I'm left with. He joined the Minneapolis Police Department in 2001. He'd been involved in three police shootings, one of which was fatal.  had 18 complaints on his official record, two of which ended in discipline, including official letters of reprimand. According to the former owner of a Latin nightclub where  worked as an off-duty security guard, quote " was unnecessarily aggressive on nights when the club had a black clientele quelling fights by dousing the crowd with pepper spray and calling in several police squad cars as backup. In September he pinned a 14-year-old boy for several minutes with his knee while ignoring the boy's pleas that he could not breathe. The boy briefly lost consciousness. So again, why was Derek Chauvin on the Minneapolis police force? Because he's exactly the kind of sociopath police forces want. Someone who has no compunction in using force against blacks, especially poor blacks. Police forces act as a buffer between people who own stuff and people who don't. They enforce laws that defend the property of the rich and perpetuate chronic poverty that creates a pool of cheap labor. They act to contain the violence and social despair that are the consequences of this poverty and make sure that it doesn't enter the neighborhoods of mostly white and better-off people. Racist police culture is based on a broader American culture with roots and slave society. You must dehumanize those who you exploit the most. Chauvin may have been a bad apple, but the police barrel of apples is deliberately stocked with such rot. We should also not forget he was born into a society and culture that shaped him. It's this society and culture that must be condemned and transformed. If this deep-rooted racism is to be expunged, short-term practical steps could include community control of police and to purge overt racists and fascists from the level of command down to street cops and convict all police who murder black and brown men and women and poor people of all races. Now joining us to discuss the significance of the Chauvin verdict is Gerald Horne. Gerald is a historian who holds the John Jay and Rebecca Morris, Chair of History and African-American Studies at the University of Houston. He's the author of many books, including The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean, and most recently, the Bittersweet Science: Racism, Racketeering and the Political Economy of Boxing. Thanks for joining us again Gerald. Gerald Horne Thank you for inviting me. Paul Jay So let's start with your overall impression on the significance of this verdict. President Biden saying it will be, or maybe he used the word could be a great step in the healing of Ame...