Ben Shapiro, the prominent conservative commentator, launched a petition on Tuesday calling for President Donald Trump to grant a pardon to Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer currently serving a prison sentence for the death of George Floyd in May 2020, according to the New York Post.
Chauvin is currently serving two sentences concurrently: a 21-year federal sentence and a 22 1/2-year state sentence, both at the low-security Federal Correctional Institution in Big Spring, Texas. A pardon from Trump would specifically cover the two federal convictions for violating Floyd’s civil rights, to which Chauvin pled guilty in July 2022.
Shapiro, who co-founded The Daily Wire in 2015, launched the “Pardon Derek Chauvin” petition on the website, urging Trump to “immediately” pardon Chauvin, claiming that the former officer was “unjustly convicted.”
The petition asserts, “Yet the evidence demonstrates that Derek Chauvin did not murder George Floyd,” citing several factors that Shapiro believes should have influenced the verdict. “George Floyd was high on fentanyl. He had a significant pre-existing heart condition. He was saying he could not breathe before he was even out of the car.”
It also states that Chauvin’s knee was not positioned on Floyd’s neck for much of the encounter, contrary to the widely circulated video footage. “Derek Chauvin, for large segments of the widely circulated video of the encounter, had his knee on George Floyd’s shoulder or back, not on his neck; this was confirmed by the autopsy, which showed no damage to George Floyd’s trachea.”
The petition goes on to argue that “there was no opportunity for blind justice to work” due to the “overt pressure” placed on the jury during Chauvin’s state trial. Shapiro accused Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey of undermining the fairness of the trial by settling with the Floyd family for $27 million a month before the jury returned its guilty verdict.
“Perhaps most significantly, there was massive overt pressure on the jury to return a guilty verdict regardless of the evidence or any semblance of impartial deliberation. This pressure took the form of threats, coercion, and intimidation,” the petition states.
Shapiro concludes that “a man is now rotting in prison” as a result of the trial.
In a video shared on X, Shapiro acknowledged that pardoning Chauvin would be “incredibly controversial,” but emphasized that it was “absolutely necessary.” He described the trial as a “railroading” of Chauvin, suggesting that media and political forces had a major influence on the outcome.
“I think it is worthwhile to remember that there is a man who’s rotting in prison because the media decided in the middle of 2020 that they were going to turn a tragic law enforcement stop … into the raison d’être of the entire 2020 election,” Shapiro said in the video.
In April 2021, Chauvin was convicted of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison in July 2021 for the state charges.
In November 2023, Chauvin was stabbed 22 times at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, leading to his transfer to the Texas facility.
Floyd’s death occurred after he was accused by a store clerk of attempting to pass a counterfeit $20 bill on May 25, 2020. Chauvin was convicted for kneeling on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, a detail Shapiro contends is contested.
Shapiro also pointed out that the maneuver Chauvin used, known as the maximal restraint technique (MRT), was included in the Minneapolis Police Department’s training materials at the time of the incident. However, the trial judge did not allow this information to be presented as evidence. The department only banned MRT in March 2023.
{Matzav.com}
Derek Chauvin should have received a commendation for taking killing that useless criminal drug addict.
am I missing anything? Didn’t they brag that they actually killed israeli patients? Was there an investigation and there was no evidence found? I didn’t see this either in any news. Is there any reason this is unimportant? (perhaps I missed the news that day?)
Ben Shapiro, do Jews a favor and shut up
George Floyd was no tzadik or role model, he was far from it and he was legitimately being arrested for trying to pass a counterfeit bill. This has nothing to do with Derek Chauvin’s conviction. I saw the video and it’s horrific. If Floyd was resisting or if he had a condition, either medical or due to being under the influence, that caused his death in a circumstance that couldn’t have been anticipated, I could accept Chauvin being acquitted or possibly being found guilty of a lesser charge. But based on what I saw and based on the evidence, including medical reports, that came out in the trial, I’d also have convicted Chauvin.
I am generally pro-cop, appreciative of the hard and often dangerous work they do as part of their job, and inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. Cop-haters and the foul “ACAB” protesters disgust me. At the same time, I believe a job as a law enforcement officer carries lots of responsibility and has the potential to be abused by bad cops. Good cops, as most are, deserve our appreciation. Bad cops, like Chauvin, deserve condemnation, not just for their actions but for the harm they create to the overall perception of all cops.
I disagree with you.
I saw the video and i believe he was NOT on his neck. furthermore, even if he was it should not have killed him. I actually had a freind of mine get on my neck in the same manner to test it BTW, it hurt, but did not restrict my breatihng.
Floyd died because of all the illegal narcotics that were in his body at the time. He was overdosed with drugs. No need to burn down the local Target store and grab a free 72 inch plasma tv as a reward.
George Floyd died in a hospital in Texas 5 years before it “happened”. I remember Obama tweeting about it a week before this staged murder. Why in the world are they bringing up this false flag with the crisis again now? Will they start going back to all the false flags including 9/11?
Now we have the latest false flag, the measles pandemic, wreaking havoc on the American sheeple.