‘Never deny, seldom affirm, always distinguish.’ We should dust off that old Jesuit adage in this season of American rioting.
It may not be quite as mellifluous as ‘persistent perversity provokes the patient pedagogue to produce particularly painful punishment’, but it does suit the case. The death in Minneapolis of George Floyd at the hands – or the knee – of now ex-cop Derek Chauvin was an outrageous abuse of police power.
It is right and just that Chauvin should be charged with third-degree murder – homicide that is unintentional but nonetheless exhibits ‘a depraved mind, without regard for human life’. The fact that Chauvin has a history of complaints – and at least one previous incident of using fatal force – raises the ante. As far as I can tell from the evidence currently available, Chauvin seems to have been an equal opportunity brute.
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