There is no defense for George Floyd’s murder
I spent my career in public safety working with criminals, some of whom were drug addicts. I never felt I had the right to murder one of them for bad behavior. Minnesota Officer Derek Chauvin was not hired to be a judge or executioner. Portraying George Floyd as being responsible for his own murder, as Mr. Chauvin’s defense attorneys are doing, is repugnant (“Derek Chauvin trial: Store cashier expresses ‘disbelief, guilt’ as prosecutors detail the incident that led up to George Floyd’s arrest,” March 31).
Many people who come in contact with law enforcement have conditions which cause them to be more vulnerable. Some are addicts. Others are on maintenance drugs or are obese, pregnant, old, etc. Anyone who has spent any time in court dealing with criminal cases will recognize the problem facing Officer Chauvin’s attorney. There is no defense. The defense attorney has no material defense.
The best that the former Minneapolis police officer can hope for is a light sentence. That is truly a lost cause. He should receive the maximum sentence.
Edward McCarey McDonnell, Baltimore Nearly 72% of our city’s kindergarten-to-5th grade students are not reading on grade level. One effective strategy to combat this literacy crisis is intensive, one-on-one tutoring, which is why I’m grateful to see the Abell Foundation’s latest report explore Baltimore’s tutoring landscape and urge leaders to expand these services to more students (“Baltimore schools should expand tutoring to compensate for COVID disruptions, Abell Foundation says,” March 30).
As the leader of Reading Partners, one of the nonprofits highlighted, the Abell Foundation report reaffirms much of what we know to be true: one-on-one tutoring works and this intervention is needed more than ever to close opportunity gaps exacerbated by COVID-19 school closures. I’ve experienced firsthand students’ confidence soar as they mastered a new skill, witnessed tutors swell with pride as they reflect on a tutoring session and celebrated AmeriCorps members as they pursue teaching careers after a year of service.
The six other programs included in this report can likely share similar stories, ones that add color to the rigorous research proving the effectiveness of individualized tutoring. While there is always room for growth and improvement as nonprofit partners, it’s heartening to see Baltimore embrace the potential of tutoring programs to support these 18,000 students on their reading journeys.