In a Los Angeles Times Op-Ed on Thursday, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., vigorously defended her earlier call for protesters to "Get more confrontational" if former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin hadn't been convicted of killing George Floyd.
Waters, in her Thursday Op-Ed, described how she attended a peaceful rally before the verdict and was asked: "What do we do if we don't get a guilty verdict? What should protesters do?" She responded: "We got to stay on the street. And we've got to get more active, we've got to get more confrontational." On Tuesday, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
Waters, a civil rights activist, drew parallels between the protests before the Chauvin verdict and the Rodney King riots.
Though Cahill did not grant a mistrial, he was critical of Waters' comments.
"I'll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned," Cahill said as arguments in the case concluded and the jury began deliberations.
Some legal experts and observers now argue that Cahill was right, and that such comments may have swayed jurors eager to avoid having their verdict trigger violent protest.
"Every mayor in the city, every police chief, the president of the United States, all understood that if there was a verdict less than murder in this case it would mean violence in the streets," Dershowitz said.
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/derekchauvin-maxinewaters-protests/2021/04/23/id/1018805/
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