Friday on CNN’s Newsroom, contributor Van Jones expressed his passionate opinion that the 22.5-year sentence of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the “murder” of George Floyd is “very disappointing.”
“Very disappointing, very disappointing,” Jones said. “15 years, I know people doing 15 years for victimless crimes of drug possession. Very disappointing, the level of any one of those aggravators [factors the judge could consider for harsher sentencing]. What this man did, it should’ve been the maximum of the maximum. This is disappointing. I don’t think it’s going to cause outrage. But it’s a punch in the gut. This guy’s [Floyd’s] life is worth more than 15 years. It was. What that officer did is worth more than 15 years. Law enforcement across the country should look at something like this and say, look, you can’t do this type of stuff. You’re never going to come back home. It’s disappointing.”
When the CNN legal analyst pointed out that there were two federal indictments still pending against Chauvin, Jones said, “The feds can come in and do more, and they should do more because this is not justice.”
True — it’s not justice, but not in the way Jones means. Chauvin did not murder Floyd, who died not from Chauvin’s legal restraint but from a Fentanyl overdose and bad health. There was no evidence whatsoever that Chauvin’s intent was to kill. His conviction was purely the result of unconscionable political intimidation on the part of leftist politicians and the domestic terrorists of Black Lives Matter. A 22.5-year sentence handed down to satisfy the woke mob’s racist bloodlust? Injustice, indeed.