In this screen grab from video, defense attorney Eric Nelson, left, defendant and 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 Tuesday, March 23, 2021, presides over jury selection 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, via AP, Pool)
Why is it so difficult to prosecute police officers for killing unarmed civilians? Even with powerful video evidence, grand juries usually don’t indict, and trial juries usually don’t convict. Do police officers, because of their status, receive a special kind of informal immunity from these juries, even when the jurors can see with their own eyes the willful and unjustified use of deadly force?
Probably the most famous video—at least until the video depicting Derek Chauvin’s knee locked into George Floyd’s neck—showed seven Los Angeles police officers in 1992 savagely beating Rodney King, and the ensuing five days of the bloody “Watts” riots after the officers were acquitted.
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