By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph Police Chief Chris Connally says he looks at the guilty verdict handed down against former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in pretty simple terms.
“I’ve been in this business over 36 years. I’ve seen a lot of people tried; a lot of people not tried; a lot of people get away with things; and a lot of people not get away with things,” Connally tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “Our system is designed that when there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed, someone gets charged. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.”
Connally admits he didn’t watch the trial every day, but says Chauvin was tried before a jury in the death of George Floyd and the jury made a decision as it was supposed to. He cautions against overreacting.
Jurors deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days before finding Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
Connally says news media coverage of the death of Floyd and the subsequent trial has been misleading.
“If you watch the media, you think these shootings happen all the time, but they don’t,” according to Connally. “There are over 60 million contacts with police every year. Any one of them could turn volatile. Most of those contacts are when people are in a bad situation or at their worst or, for some reason, angry or frustrated.”
Connally says too many of the calls for police reform made in wake of the death of Floyd and other deadly classes with police do not take into account the plight of victims. He says any calls for reform need to be thought through.
“If you’re going to bring about change, do some research, find out what it’s impact is,” Connally says. “Our focus is always going to be on our crime victims first and what I hear the focus on, a lot, is on suspects at the expense of crime victims in a lot of these discussions and to me that is unacceptable.”