Mini-thread.

1/ Social media can be such a cesspit at times. Headline: “ @AmyKlobuchar once failed to press charges against officer who killed George Floyd” cue tweetstorms of condemnation, nobody bothers even to look up the case. I did though. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/minneapolis-police-officer-center-george-floyd-s-death-had-history-n1215691

2 /The @AmyKlobuchar 2006 case was as follows: That officer and several others responded to a domestic violence scene where a male abuser, Wayne Reyes, a drug addict who said he was suicidal, had stabbed his girlfriend in the leg, trying to kill her.

3/ Reyes and his victim were staying at their friend’s house. This friend was also stabbed and called police. At the time, he said Reyes had done drugs and was calling it a murder-suicide pack. Six police officers including Chauvin attended. Reyes fled in a car.

4/ The contemporary local media accounts were copy pasted here on a shooting forum. https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Police_Shooting____involves_SBS/5-512520/ The six police found Reyes in his car, he had both the stabbing knife he’d used on the woman victim and a sawn off shotgun.

5/ Reyes came out of that car not with his hands up but brandishing a sawn-off shotgun. The police shot him. The news accounts do not record which officer shot him, or if several did. All were placed on standard admin leave when a death occurs.

6/ So, yeah, @AmyKlobuchar didn’t prosecute Chauvin for that. Nor should she have. Righteous anger should be directed at George Floyd’s killer. And it has been including by Klobuchar. But miss me with your snide implications she should have prosecuted him back then.

7/ Because, no, she should not have. Because when a male stabs a woman and tries to kill her, stabs a male friend too, flees with a knife and a gun and then brandishes a sawn off shotgun as he exits a car towards armed police, he is a deadly threat.

8/ So do not smear a fantastic US Senator, person, and leader, @AmyKlobuchar, because you saw a single line on Twitter with zero facts behind it and instantly conclude “she should have prosecuted him”. No, not in 2006, she shouldn’t have.

9./ Anger at the killing should go to the murderer and the other cops who did not intervene. Anger at the culture that devalues lack life is well-placed. Turning that anger on a female oprogressive leader who DID HER JOB RIGHT in 2006 is not OK. It gives @realDonaldTrump a pass.

10/ I am grateful to @AmyKlobuchar, @KamalaHarris, @RepValDemings, and *all* the strong women around @JoeBiden who have raised their voices to demand justice, investigations and action, both in this heinous case and against systemic, dehumanizing racism.

11/ Aside from the immediately guilty racists that perpetrated these horrors, I know who is responsible for the festering culture of racism in this country. It’s not @JoeBiden, it’s not @AmyKlobuchar, and it’s certainly not @KamalaHarris who is also being smeared by trolls.

12/ final The man responsible for this racist culture, who festers it, excuses it and encourages it, as @DonLemon said tonight, is @realDonaldTrump and his sidekick Bill Barr. George Floyd’s murderer must be punished by @FBIMinneapolis and the courts. I’ll turn my fire on Trump.

PS: thank you @cliffycycles for finding archived versions of the contemporary news reports on the violent domestic abuser who stabbed a woman and tried to murder her before brandishing a gun at police. Nesting it here. https://twitter.com/cliffycycles/status/1266182047082729472?s=21 https://twitter.com/cliffycycles/status/1266182047082729472