US braces for Floyd trial
Cop faces music over death that sparked Black Lives Matter movement
MINNEAPOLIS: Residents braced for the opening on Monday of the trial of the white policeman charged with killing George Floyd, a black man whose dying struggles were captured on a video seen around the world.
Derek Chauvin — the now former city officer who used his knee to pin a pleading, gasping Mr Floyd by the neck to the pavement for nearly nine minutes — faces seconddegree murder and manslaughter charges. He has been released on bail and will appear in court.
Mr Floyd’s death laid bare racial divides in the US, sparking months of sometimes violent protests against racial injustice and police brutality, both in the US and abroad.
Jury selection is expected to take up to three weeks, with arguments slated to begin on March 29.
But protesters already gathered near the courthouse on
Sunday, with many holding up “Black Lives Matter” placards and demanding “justice for George Floyd”.
The trial is likely to feature gripping testimony, as foreshadowed on Sunday by Benjamin Crump, a prominent civil rights lawyer representing the Floyd family.
“You look at the video, and you hear him say 28 times: ‘I can’t breathe,’ ” Mr Crump said. “The public is begging the police to take the knee off his neck. They say his nose is bleeding; he can’t breathe; he is going unconscious — you’re going to kill him.”
Social distancing rules mean seating will be limited, with the Floyd and Chauvin families given one seat a day.
Three other police officers involved in Mr Floyd’s arrest — Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao — face lesser charges and will be tried separately. All four officers were fired.
Mr Floyd’s arrest was prompted by accusations that he tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill in a nearby store.
Mr Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the force, is expected to plead not guilty to the murder and manslaughter charges.
“Mr Chauvin acted according to … his training and within his duties as a licensed peace officer of the State of Minnesota,” according to his lawyer, Eric Nelson. “He did exactly as he was trained to do.”
According to Mr Nelson, Mr Floyd died of an overdose of fentanyl. An autopsy did find traces of the drug in Mr Floyd’s system but said the cause of death was “neck compression.” It will take a unanimous verdict to put Mr Chauvin behind bars.
Authorities have mobilised police and the National Guard to provide security and the courthouse has been surrounded by concrete barriers and barbed-wire fencing.
IN MY 50 years of reading letters to the editor, I think it is very easy to recognise a letter from an ordinary concerned citizen from a letter that maybe harbours personal political ambition.
There is a possible Labor preselection low forming out Bushland Beach way. Whether it forms into a category one cyclone will most likely depend on the rusted ons who get to cast a vote.
Look out Phil Thompson, cyclone wannabe Jacob is brewing in anticipation of the next federal election.
The rusted ons may have the power to decide if it gets past a nothing low, but the good people of Herbert will decide if it ever goes past category one. Methinks Mr Thompson has no need to stock up on baked beans, batteries and bottled water.
A BOWEN man facing multiple animal cruelty charges did not appear in court when the matter was mentioned last week as there was a problem finding him.
Andrew Lee Silver has been charged with 15 counts of breaching a duty of care to an animal.
The offences are alleged to have occurred on various dates between May 25 and June 10 last year.
RSPCA Mackay regional inspector
Emma Abbott briefly mentioned the matter at Bowen Magistrates Court last Tuesday.
Ms Abbott requested an adjournment as she had not served Mr Silver, 29, with his court documents yet because she was having trouble tracking him down.
“I have not been able to locate him to serve him at his last known residential address,” she said.
Magistrate James Morton adjourned the matter to a date to be fixed.
COMING off the back of the world’s second hottest year on record, a professor with 25 years’ experience working in coastal ecosystems says “outside the box” thinking will be needed going forward to help protect the Reef.
Dr Scott Heron is an associate professor in physics at James Cook University and an associate of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for coral reef studies.
Dr Heron provided a Reef update after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration named 2020 the planet’s second hottest year on record.
NOAA also reported the world’s seven warmest years had all occurred since 2014, with 10 of the warmest years occurring since 2005.
Dr Heron said as at the end of January in the Whitsundays, there had been limited heat build-up, with no heat build-up in inshore areas and low temperatures in the offshore regions.
“Around the Whitsundays we are seeing some accumulation of heat stress but it is not much and that is really good news,” Dr Heron said.
“We are really pleased about that.” Dr Heron said during the hot 2020 there was widespread heat stress on the Reef and bleaching occurred broadly, but at a low level.
Across 2016 and 2017 bleaching also occurred in some areas, with the Far North particularly affected in 2016 and the central Reef mostly affected in 2017.
“The Reef does not come out of that unscathed,” Dr Heron said.
“Even if coral are able to recover and survive through the event they have reduced capacities for growth, reduced reproductive capacity.”
Looking into 2021, Dr Heron said the past seven years had been warmer than usual, which meant the Reef was closer to a point where bleaching could occur.
However, the La Nina system in place in 2021 meant conditions were less stable and there was a higher chance of monsoons and cyclones, which would be good news in terms of mitigating heat build-up.