AN INCREDIBLE TWO WEEKS

AN INCREDIBLE TWO WEEKS

wow.

A single word to describe the events of the last two weeks and it's not a good wow.

Never in my lifetime have i seen such an avalanche of emotion and terror and head shaking actions that actually made me shut the television off for five days only to find it had gotten worse over the long weekend and spread all over the world.

GEORGE FLOYD'S death was a tragedy and as i said in my last blog, officer DEREK CHAUVIN deserved to be charged and sent to prison because at any level, his actions were unacceptable when dealing with a man who was already restrained by handcuffs.

But today, i want to discuss officer THOMAS LANE, the officer seen in the video holding the ankle area of the victim, who apparently had started kicking when they tried to put him in the squad car. Thomas, 37, was in his FOURTH DAY on the job and his training officer was none other than derek chauvin. Lane had been a cadet for one year prior.

and now back in time.........

When I was a rookie on the force, I had a training officer who was a complete dick BUT he held my future in his hands because ONE bad report could send me down the road and every rookie knows that. ass kissing? check. go in for his coffee? check. arrest people that he says to arrest even though i disagree with the call? check again. I watched him make fun of complainants on a regular basis and out and out lie to them, making up rules and regulations as he went along to avoid doing followup work. I have a dozen more examples but i'll tell those to you in person so we can save time here. I knew he was a jerk and that i would surpass him in my career but i had to survive probation first.

and now back to today.................

At no time did Thomas Lane aid and abet a murder. He held the ANKLES of george floyd and on TWO OCCASIONS asked his training officer if they should turn him on his side and was given a negative response both times by his training officer with chauvin stating that floyd was 'staying right where he is.' game, set and match. shut your mouth and hold his ankles until your training officer tells you to do otherwise.

If you watch the video closely, there is certainly room for debate as to whether lane could even see or hear anything going on at the top of floyd's body and all he did was hold the lower portion of the legs to prevent kicking and i don't think that qualifies as aiding a murder. Did lane know how much pressure was being applied on floyd's neck? of course not. Had he ever seen this type of arrest before in his four day career? probably not.

Now i know people are going to tell me that i'm just protecting a cop but the phrase "reasonable doubt" is going to come into play in that court room. 

You have to prove the following element for aiding & abetting conviction:  "person is criminally liable for a crime committed by another if the person intentionally aids, advises, hires, counsels, or conspires with or otherwise procures the other to commit the crime."

At what point does thomas lane do any of that??? Is there anyone reading this that thinks holding floyd's lower torso is aiding in his death? if lane DIDN'T hold his legs, would george floyd still have died? the answer is obviously yes.

And now let's take it the rest of the way home. 2ND DEGREE MANSLAUGHTER sounds absolutely terrible and it is, IF you've done the element of the crime, as follows:  "if you knowingly take a risk that results in the death of another" simply doesn't apply by any stretch of the imagination. Exactly what risk did lane take?

He made TWO requests to his training officer to turn him on his side PLUS he called the ambulance PLUS he performed cpr on george floyd before the ambulance arrived on scene. If the jury enters that court room with an open mind, thomas lane goes home to his family rather than a long stretch in the state penitentiary.

FYI---Is there a possibility of a plea bargain for lane in exchange for his testimony and no jail time? absolutely. His law enforcement career is over no matter what so if he has a chance to avoid prison for telling the truth, why not?? a sure thing over a roll of the dice. His attorney EARL GRAY, is one of the best defense attorneys around so at least lane has that going for him. Gray loves the media and loves the camera.

Good luck to a man caught in a vice.