Dear President Biden,
Yesterday I told you that I hope that Chauvin’s defense attorney, Eric Nelson, is forced to take down his shingle and use it for kindling for suggesting that his client couldn’t possibly have tracked that he was crushing George’s neck (spine, windpipe, carotid artery) because the concerned citizens who were imploring him to take his knee off of George’s neck (spine, windpipe, carotid artery) were causing him, Chauvin, to be afraid for his own safety. Well, today I think that somebody just needs to reduce his shingle to toothpick size shreds and mix those shreds with so much horseshit and bury the whole mess somewhere extremely remote. Maybe a stray seed will drift onto the pile and something worthwhile can grow from it, but it would be just as likely that the poor plant would be stunted or disfigured from the exposure to something having to do with Nelson.
As I said yesterday, Nelson must make a credible attempt at defending Chauvin, but to suggest that Chauvin and the other three police officers present during George’s execution were not trained to provide CPR and that is why they didn’t render him aid is beyond the pale. If that were true, then entire Minneapolis police department would need to go on trial for gross dereliction of duty. It’s an absurd supposition and my bet is that on appeal, Nelson is going to be found to have provided ineffective counsel. I don’t know how one could provide truly effective counsel in this situation, but to keep grasping at really stupid straws feels like he’s making a mockery of the trial and by extension, George’s death.
Who do you have making contingency plans for the verdict in this trial? If Chauvin is found not guilty of the two murder charges (or of any of the charges) or even if it’s a hung jury, all sorts of righteous hell is going to break loose. And if Chauvin is found guilty, you can bet the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, KKK, Three Percenters, and any other domestic terrorist groups out there are will make life even scarier than it already is for Black people. Much scarier.
In other words, we are going to need you and VP Harris to step up in a very big way because this case and what it represents is almost certain to tear US apart even more than we are already torn apart. And truly, if Chauvin gets away with murder, if the system gets away with murder again, you might as well shred your Executive Order on equity because it will be clear that we are still far too primitive to be able to move meaningfully in that direction.
May we all be safe from being made examples of (please see Eugene Robinson’s editorial).
May we all be willing to deal meaningfully with racism.
May we all learn what real strength is and stop buying into the myth of violent, pseudo-strength.
May we accept that our world is going to be rocked either way this goes.
Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson
The Biden Letters 