Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro petitions to pardon convicted Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin who was found guilty in murder of black man, George Floyd as Elon Musk also weighs in. The danger and dilemma of setting convicted criminals examined.
Has law and order in America entered a slippery slope? Putting aside questionable pardons outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden cast in his last days of office comes now the conservative’s political wing seeking their coterie of pardons, including that of disgraced, Minneapolis cop, Derek Chauvin who was convicted in the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
Case in point, the Daily Wire’s (pseudo intellectual cheat sheet for all things conservative) Ben Shapiro who has taken the cause of petitioning against the rampant institutional bias and racism that leads to the disproportionate deaths of black men and minorities at the hands of police for the pardoning and release of ‘rogue cop’ Derek Chauvin.
“We write to urge you to immediately issue a pardon for Officer Derek Chauvin, who was unjustly convicted and is currently serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence for the murder of George Floyd and associated federal charges,” Shapiro wrote in a letter addressed to President Donald Trump.
🚨#BREAKING: Daily Wire Pushes Trump to Pardon Derek Chauvin, Serving 22.5 Years for George Floyd’s Alleged Murder, as Elon Musk Weighs In: ‘Something to Think About’ pic.twitter.com/RiiRZsV5Qm https://t.co/MPwwOEDVWE
— The Veritas Report (@veritasalerts) March 4, 2025
Better a guilty man rot in prison than a just moral society undone?
The letter claims that Chauvin did not murder Floyd because he was ‘high on fentanyl’ and ‘had a significant pre-existing heart condition,’ complaining of trouble breathing before the incident that ended his life.
Shapiro also cites that Chauvin was never accused of targeting Floyd for his race and that ‘for large segments’ of the video showing the encounter, his knee was on Floyd’s shoulder or back, not his neck.
‘Perhaps most significantly, there was massive overt pressure on the jury to return a guilty verdict regardless of the evidence or any semblance of impartial deliberation,’ Shapiro stated.
Shapiro in his letter further claimed that ‘even’ elected lawmakers ‘pre-judged the outcome of the trial and took to national media to create pressure on the jury to go along with their preferred narrative.’
‘Under these circumstances, there was no opportunity for blind justice to work, and a man is now rotting in prison because of it,’ Shapiro said in the letter.
Shapiro added that the incident would allow the country to ‘turn the page’ on the ‘Woke era‘ and end ‘the weaponization of the American justice system.’
The politics of pardoning convicted criminals
Shapiro, in a separate video describing his petition, noted that Trump cannot pardon Chauvin in the state murder case but still said it was important Chauvin be pardoned on federal charges.
Not to be underdone is DOGE darling and uber billionaire (and seemingly the real president in the Oval office) Elon Musk who has now also joined ranks with Shapiro in calling for Chauvin’s release.
Weighing in, Musk reposted a video of Shapiro arguing for Chauvin to be pardoned by the president, writing: ‘Something to think about.’
Floyd’s death ignited nationwide protests in 2020, after video footage was widely circulated showing Floyd pleading, ‘I can’t breathe,’ as the then-Minneapolis police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nearly ten minutes
The episode led to months of protests and coincided with the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
Chauvin was convicted in two separate trials and is simultaneously serving a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22.5-year state sentence for second-degree murder. He has tried to appeal his conviction numerous times. But to no avail. Until perhaps now…
Yes, a petition to pardon murderer Derek Chauvin is pathetic & embarrassing, par for the course for @benshapiro & Co. Icing on the cake is super tiny text that immediately signs you up for 5x+ daily marketing spam. “And our sponsors” means they sell your data, as well. pic.twitter.com/rsxHuFsAE0
— 🚀 John Bourscheid (@johnbourscheid) March 4, 2025
Moral dilemma and slippery slope of pardoning Derek Chauvin
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement that Trump’s potential pardon wouldn’t ‘free’ Chauvin since he’s still concurrently serving a state sentence.
‘The only conceivable purpose would be to express yet more disrespect for George Floyd and more disrespect for the rule of law,’ Ellison told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Chauvin’s anticipated release date is December 10, 2035.
While Biden was busy ramping up his own questionable pardons, Donald Trump stirred controversy when he issued sweeping pardons for defendants convicted on charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 capitol riots, attack on the Capitol.
But what did the public and social media think? Would pardoning Chauvin lead to a slippery slope of who gets to decide (no doubt after a jury of one’s peers tries and convicts one of its own) who ultimately should be found guilty?
And then there were these comments below posted on social media that caught this author’s attention. See what you think?
‘The Jury must be respected when it comes to such a conviction. A man died, if we allow the wealthy to decide the merit of convictions afterwards we are doomed.’
‘America has entered the land of make believe where the law is just an inconvenience and truth an irrelevance.’
‘If you look at the charges Chauvin has, and there’s a whole list, not one of them relates to the racism he was accused of. He should not be released.’
‘The penalty for passing a fake $20 is not death, at least in this country. If Chauvin had not knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes, despite being told that it was extremely dangerous by an EMT , there would be no death. Dude is where he belongs, paying his debt to society.’
‘MAGA – Make A Guy Asphyxiate’
‘Elon and Shapiro must have watched a very different video from the one the entire world watched. What everyone else watched was cold blooded murder. And yes, Chauvin is exactly where he belongs.’
‘Musk calling the shots now?’
