I give away no secrets when mentioning that the Democratic Party is heavily dependent on the Afro-American vote. This is simple arithmetic. If the Democrats’ usual 90% share of this vote fell to 60% and the turn-out slacks off they have no hope of getting a lock on national power. All political scientists and strategists know this. Most comment on it from time to time.

This dependence can be a burden, even a danger at times. Consider the consequences of the cellphone video showing Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for more than eight minutes during his arrest on suspicion of passing a counterfeit bill. Floyd died in custody on Monday. Chauvin was fired Tuesday and arrested Friday. He was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other officers who took part in the arrest were also fired, and remain under investigation.

The video was clear enough. It shows Chauvin’s knee and Floyd’s neck. It allows the viewer to count the eight minutes of pressure. Floyd’s pleas that he was suffocating are audible. A person doesn’t need an unusual gift of empathy to imagine the desperation of a man struggling for breath.

On May 29 the Hennepin County’s Medical Examiner had this to say in an attachment to the criminal complaint against Chauvin: The Hennepin County Medical Examiner (ME) conducted Mr. Floyd’s autopsy on May 26, 2020. The full report of the ME is pending but the ME has made the following preliminary findings. The autopsy revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. Mr. Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. The combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.

The complaint’s Statement of Probable Cause recites that Floyd complained of being unable to breathe well before Officer Chauvin put his knee on Floyd’s neck: While standing outside the car, Mr. Floyd began saying and repeating that he could not breathe.

The M.E. statement seems to raise questions about the charges of third degree murder and manslaughter. These questions may be asked by the officer’s defense attorney, but no Democratic politician will ask them in public. I don’t expect any Republican to either. It would invite charges of racism.

The video provoked immediate protests in Minneapolis. Initially peaceful, these called for Chauvin’s arrest. These were peaceful in the beginning but things turned ugly by nightfall the emphasis of justice for George Floyd was replaced by wholesale condemnation of police, white supremacy, and the United States of America. Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, joined in these condemnations.

Every public official who joined in condemning police mistreatment of Blacks is a Democrat – the governor, the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. It is not as if this progressive Democratic predominance is a novelty. Progressive political domination has been long established in Minnesota and the twin cities.

Check the other cities where condemnation of police “genocide” is loudest and most violent: Chicago, Oakland, Cal., Portland, Oregon, Louisville, Ky, Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Columbus, OH. Washington, D.C. All have been politically dominated by progressive Democrats for years. All have a large Black presence in their police departments, many are run by Black police officials

Although this seems to imply that these vicious, racist police departments were the creation of progressive Democrats, they dodge this charge by the pretense that they are elected to stamp out the legacy of racism. They accept no responsibility for anything they denounce. We can’t expect politicians to denounce their own constituencies but it wouldn’t cost them too much to distinguish demands for justice from demands for verdicts and punishments. There’s are important differences between the rule of law and the rule of an indignant mob. There is no common law tradition that moves a trial briskly from a 10-minute video to the gallows. Some politician ought to point this out.

John Frary of Farmington, the GOP candidate for U.S. Congress in 2008, is a retired history professor, an emeritus Board Member of Maine Taxpayers United, a Maine Citizen’s Coalition Board member, and publisher of FraryHomeCompanion.com. He can be reached at jfrary8070@aol.com.

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