Derek Chauvin, the officer seen kneeling on George Floyd’s neck until he died died, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter

This had to happen. Riots are almost as inexcusable as the callous way George Floyd was killed, but they were an inevitable reaction.

The cellphone footage showed Floyd repeatedly moaning and gasping while he pleaded to Chauvin, kneeling on his neck, “Please, I can’t breathe.” After several minutes, Floyd gradually grows quiet and ceases to move.

Several minutes of casual callous killing.

– Officer seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck in video facing murder, manslaughter charge, officials announce

Reuters: Former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder of George Floyd

The white Minneapolis policeman who pinned an unarmed black man with a knee to the throat before the man died was arrested and charged with murder, a prosecutor said on Friday, after three nights of violent protests rocked the Midwestern city.

Derek Chauvin, the officer seen on a bystander’s cellphone video kneeling on George Floyd’s neck on Monday before the 46-year-old man died, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman told a news briefing.

“He is in custody and has been charged with murder,” Freeman said of Chauvin. “We have evidence, we have the citizen’s camera’s video, the horrible, horrific, terrible thing we have all seen over and over again, we have the officer’s body-worn camera, we have statements from some witnesses.”

The cellphone footage showed Floyd repeatedly moaning and gasping while he pleaded to Chauvin, kneeling on his neck, “Please, I can’t breathe.” After several minutes, Floyd gradually grows quiet and ceases to move.

Chauvin and three fellow officers at the scene were fired on Tuesday from the Minneapolis Police Department. The city identified the other officers as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J Alexander Kueng.

Freeman said the investigation into Chauvin – who, if convicted, faces up to 25 years in prison on the murder charge – was ongoing and that he anticipated charges against the other officers. He said it was appropriate to charge “the most dangerous perpetrator” first.

•  When cops kill, redress is rare – except in famous cases

Tucker Carlson (Fox News): Our leadership class is fanning racial flames. They’re doing nothing to calm the situation

If you were watching any of the coverage from Minneapolis about what happened Wednesday night, you know perfectly well that what’s happening on the streets there. No matter what it may look like, is actually a quest for justice.

It’s long overdue search for answers by legitimately frustrated protesters who, if we are going to be honest about it, have been oppressed for so long they can no longer stand idle. What you’re seeing in Minneapolis is democracy in its purest form.

Effectively, it’s a political rally.

“Now, wait a second,” you may be thinking. “That didn’t look like a political rally. Those people look like looters. They were smashing cash registers with hammers to steal other people’s money.”

Well, yes, technically they were doing that. And yes, as a factual matter, they were smashing the cash registers because they had already stolen everything else in the store. So no, it doesn’t look like conventional political activism.

But before you judge them, keep in mind, it could have been far worse. It’s not like they were doing something immoral, like protesting Gretchen Whitmer‘s coronavirus lockdowns in Michigan. That would have been a different story.

Defiant armed protests against life protection measures were encouraged by President Trump.

Joy Reid, MSNBC host: Black people’s right to protest is secondary to white people’s right to be an armed protest with long guns, terrifying-looking war weapons.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC host: This is how the protest of George Floyd’s death ended up. Police in riot gear, flooding the streets with teargas and shooting rubber bullets into the crowd.

Another example of how this pandemic has been a kind of black light, exposing all the inequalities in American life.

Eddie Glaude, Jr.. chairman of African-American Studies at Princeton University and MSNBC contributor: It says if some people are accorded the rights of citizenship and other folks are just expected to be obedient.

Reid: Europeans came to this country to get away from being subjects of the kings in Europe. But what they did was they created for themselves sort of a kingdom — every man a king, but the subjects are black people.

These armed white men who can get armed up and walk into a state capitol [in Michigan], and that’s okay and the police are benign. They don’t even act afraid.

But let black people show up and protest the death of an innocent black man, and suddenly, you know what, we need tear gas. We’ve got to go full force.

Charlottesville, the same thing. The police were there to protect the people who were marching as Neo-Nazis, not to protect the black people.

…

But the problem is much bigger this time than mere hypocrisy. We’re very used to that. This problem is far more ominous.

Here it is in three sentences. There are 320 million of us in this country. A lot of us are very different from one another, yet we all have to live together. In fact, most of us want to live together. But suddenly our leaders are making that dangerously difficult.

But after the riots subside and Chauvin works his way through the legal system will anything significant actually change? This sort of thing has happened before, and has kept happening. US leaders either don’t want to to address this pox on then country, or don’t know how to.