I, along with millions of other people, do not doubt that Minneapolis Policeman Derek Chauvin was railroaded during his trial over the death of George Floyd. 

While I believe that the overwhelming evidence shows that Floyd died of a meth-induced heart attack and that he was innocent of the charges, I don't dispute that the jury had a right to find differently or that they may have reached that conclusion based on the evidence and arguments put before them. 

The trial itself, on the other hand, was decided based on a pack of lies pushed by the prosecution. It's clear that high-level Minneapolis police officials committed perjury and got away with it. 

I came to this conclusion after watching the much-criticized and "fact-checked" documentary The Fall of Minneapolis by Liz Collin (well worth the watch!). While critics claim that it was full of lies, those critics are as reliable as all fact checkers, meaning they are nothing but propagandists. The evidence is clear and in black and white, supported by other police officers. 

NEW: More on bombshell court filings:

Dr. Chaix believes that in filing her lawsuit, Blackwell has unwittingly helped bring more of the truth to light. https://t.co/th7AZ07mtz

— Liz Collin (@lizcollin) January 8, 2025

There are many evidentiary issues with the case, but one of the most significant was Chauvin's claim that the restraint technique he used with George Floyd was trained as safe and effective by the MPD. MPD officials denied this, despite training manuals demonstrating it and MPD officers confirming it. 

In a statement, MPD Chief Brian O'Hara told Alpha News: “Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell exemplifies the unparalleled character and integrity that exists within the Minneapolis Police Department. I have absolute and unwavering confidence in her leadership. Her honesty, courage,…

— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) January 7, 2025

While most people think that Floyd was asphyxiated, the reality is that there is no evidence that this is true. Quite the opposite--Floyd COULD breathe and showed no signs of asphyxia; rather, he had fatal doses of methamphetamine and fentanyl in his bloodstream because he swallowed his drug stash to hide it from the police. 

MPD Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell testified under oath that the restraint method used on George Floyd was never taught by the department, while dozens of officers have denied this, training manuals showed it, and now photographs of the training have been uncovered. 

Blackwell is suing Liz Collins for defamation, but there is a problem. 

In a court filing over a dozen officers have provided sworn statements that Blackwell lied during the trial, and her lies are pretty obvious. 

WHOA: Fourteen current and former police officers with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) have signed sworn declarations which say they believe MPD Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell perjured herself when testifying in former MPD officer Derek Chauvin’s murder…

— Peter Schweizer (@peterschweizer) January 8, 2025

Alpha News, a terrific independent news outlet here in Minnesota, has the receipts. Liz Collins is associated with Alpha News, so obviously they have a reason to defend her, but you can see the photos of MPD officers training the technique. The photos are pretty hard to dispute. And the sworn affidavits are quite compelling evidence that Blackwell simply lied to the court. 

Fourteen current and former police officers with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) have signed sworn declarations which say they believe MPD Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell perjured herself when testifying in former MPD officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

Specifically, the group of former officers say they believe Blackwell perjured herself when she testified in court that the restraint method Chauvin used to subdue George Floyd in May 2020 was not a part of MPD officer training. In that trial, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

However, many say the knee-on-neck restraint Chauvin employed was trained under the maximal-restraint technique (MRT), a restraint the MPD taught and allowed until 2023.

Those 14 statements were among dozens of declarations submitted by lawyers representing Alpha News in a defamation lawsuit brought by Blackwell last October against Alpha News, Alpha News reporter Liz Collin, producer J.C. Chaix, and a publishing company. In her lawsuit, Blackwell alleged that the Alpha News documentary film The Fall of Minneapolis and a book authored by Collin wrongly accused Blackwell of lying.

This week, lawyers for Alpha News filed a 113-page motion with 592 footnotes to have the case dismissed with prejudice.

What would her motive be?

Chauvin is a victim of Woke’s miscarriage of justice. He should be set free and he should sue his persecutors. That won’t restore the years, good health, personal dignity they took from him but it will make them pay a price and make the rest of us happy.

— Annie Bond (@annlillianbond) January 8, 2025

It's pretty obvious, even if you dismiss the accusation of "wokeness" (which I believe is an essential part of the story). 

A vast swathe of Minneapolis was burned down, including a police precinct (the first time in America). Crime skyrocketed, and the City Council had voted to "defund the police." Crowds of protesters gathered outside the court, shouting "No justice, no peace." And the city was on edge. The Attorney General's Office itself was prosecuting Chauvin, and of course, the governor--Tim Walz, of course--was clear that he was seeking "justice" for George Floyd. 

Chauvin was an easy scapegoat. He was the officer who restrained Floyd, the video was seemingly damning, implying something that turned out to be false--that Floyd was asphyxiated--and the best way to protect the politicians and the city was throwing Chauvin to the wolves. 

“Specifically, we were trained that when two officers were trying to handcuff a person that was resisting arrest, one officer should use his or her knee to employ a knee-to-neck/upper shoulder restraint to control the subject’s head, and the other knee should be used to control one of the subject’s arms during handcuffing.”

Describing how Blackwell said “that’s not what we train” when examining images of Chauvin restraining Floyd, Tidgwell wrote:

“If by ‘we’ Katie Blackwell referred to the MPD, then I believe that she perjured herself. Every MPD officer knows that restraint was trained, and every MPD officer knows it was trained as part of the MRT process. We were trained that ‘where the head goes, the body will follow.'”

The former patrol sergeant also mentioned that he and another member of MPD put together a “virtual museum” of the department. This museum chronicles over 100 years of department history with various photos and documents. In his declaration, Tidgwell produced a photo from the museum project which depicts Blackwell arresting a man in 2014.

“It appears that Katie Blackwell was employing the knee-to-neck/upper shoulder restraint that I described in this declaration in the picture I included in paragraph 5 above,” wrote Tidgwell.

As alluded to in that quote, Katie Blackwell, who testified that Minneapolis doesn't train the technique, had been photographed using it during a riot 6 years earlier when she was a patrol officer. 

Chauvin wasn't the only officer railroaded. A rookie on his first day of patrol whose job was only to hold the crowd back that day was convicted and sent to jail, despite having nothing to do with the incident directly. 

It may be that the "Maximum Restraint Technique" is a bad one--I am no police officer and have no experience in the matter--but it's clear that the trial of Chauvin was a farce. The people who testified knowingly lied and/or distorted the facts--for instance, the autopsy of Floyd originally did not specify homicide but was modified later--and there is no doubt in my mind that Chauvin didn't get a fair trial. 

Yet the coverup continues. It, shockingly, turns out that government officials lie. Who knew?