Famously, Donald Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in full view of everyone and nothing would happen to him. Derek Chauvin must have thought he could kill someone he knew and hated and nothing would happen to him. Chauvin was a cop. George Floyd was accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin had him by the neck. As we have seen.
What we did not see and did not learn right away was that Derek Chauvin and George Floyd worked together. Security at the same night club, El Neuvo Rodeo Club. The press initially reported they worked different nights. =
Not so. David Pinney, a former Club employee, spoke to CBS news on June 9 (the day of George Floyd’s nationally televised funeral). Pinney said the two worked together at El Nuevo Rodeo Club and did not get along, that Derek Chauvin was much too aggressive with some patrons for George Floyd. Maya Santamaria, the Club owner, said Derek Chauvin worked security outside while George Floyd worked inside, that Derek Chauvin treated black patrons differently, more aggressively than he treated whites. A product of a lack of confidence, she said. Maya Santamaria said Derek Chauvin was afraid of and intimidated by blacks. Philonese Floyd, George’s brother, simplified that relationship in his presentation to Congress. He said Derek Chauvin just didn’t like George.
Derek Chauvin may have thought he had his chance to deal with a nemesis. He could arrest him; he could hold him. Could he do both without fear? He used a murderous technique to hold him. Was Derek Chauvin afraid every second of the 8 minutes and 46 second he had his knee on George Floyd’s neck? Was Derek Chauvin so afraid of George Floyd, the George Floyd who had probably told him repeatedly to stop being so tough on black patrons of the club where they both worked? If Derek Chauvin had been able to see the future, he would have realized that he was no Donald Trump. He could not get away with shooting someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue or the equivalent in Minneapolis.