Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder. Most cops who kill go unpunished.

Derek Chauvin Was Convicted Of Murder. Most Cops Who Kill Go Unpunished.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on Tuesday of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for killing George Floyd, a Black Minnesotan whose death set off nationwide protests against racist police brutality. Chauvin could face decades in prison.

The fact Chauvin was arrested and charged was itself unusual. Each year, police shoot and kill roughly 1,000 people, according to The Washington Post, which has been tracking fatal shootings by on-duty police officers since 2015. But between the beginning of 2005 and June 2019, just 104 non-federal law enforcement officers have been arrested on murder or manslaughter charges related to an on-duty shooting, researchers at Bowling Green State University found.

And of those 104 officers who were arrested, only 35 were convicted of a crime — 15 pleaded guilty and 20 were convicted by a jury. Chauvin’s conviction, therefore, was an anomaly.

Even when police officers are convicted of killing, it is rarely on murder charges. Instead, 31 of those 35 convictions were for lesser charges, including manslaughter, negligent homicide and reckless discharge of a firearm. Those charges generally carry more lenient sentences than a murder conviction.

Racism is a key reason why, in America, police officers rarely face criminal punishment when they take another person’s life. Black people are more than twice as likely as white people to be killed by the police, and white jurors may empathize less with a Black victim. And although public trust in the police is at its lowest point in decades, there are still plenty of Americans who are inclined to trust a law enforcement officer’s narrative and, if put on a jury, would be reluctant to convict a cop.

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