March 17, 2025 - 8:00pm
In Donald Trump’s America, everything is up for renegotiation — no matter how controversial. This month, Ben Shapiro launched a campaign to convince Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd. As of today, the conservative media figure’s petition has gathered over 50,000 signatures while his five-part docuseries “The Case for Derek Chauvin” has added more fuel to the campaign.
In recent weeks, both Elon Musk and Charlie Kirk have also expressed their support. But there’s just one small problem: a presidential pardon would only affect Chauvin’s federal conviction for violating Floyd’s civil rights, not his longer state sentence for second-degree and third-degree murder. Unless erstwhile VP candidate and current Minnesota governor Tim Walz deigns to pardon him, he’d remain in prison regardless of Trump’s actions.
However, this campaign isn’t about Chauvin specifically — it’s about declaring a definitive end to an era in which racial justice concerns dominated public discourse. It’s a symbolic statement that the moral panic of 2020 is over, and that the pendulum has swung decisively back. As Shapiro writes in his letter to Trump, “the Derek Chauvin conviction represents the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics”.
Trump, for his part, has wisely feigned ignorance of the effort. That’s because the President must surely know that embracing Chauvin would risk alienating the black and minority voters he’s worked to cultivate, even as he likely recognises the political advantage in allowing his base to believe such a pardon remains possible.
The pardon push has created an uncomfortable tension within Trump’s coalition. While figures like Shapiro and Kirk enthusiastically promote the idea, and Elon Musk calls it “something to think about,” other prominent Trump supporters are horrified. Rob Smith, a black gay veteran and Turning Point USA figure, called the campaign “absolutely destructive,” stating pointedly: “It does nothing for Trump’s agenda, it would cause racial strife in America, [and] it is an idea so toxic and destructive I don’t know what Ben Shapiro is thinking.”
Although Smith’s points are well taken, it’s easy to understand what Shapiro is thinking: he and his supporters are eager to roll back every perceived victory of their ideological opponents, regardless of practicality or timing. Indeed, the conservative has already indicated his campaign might extend beyond Chauvin. He told Axios he’s “more than happy to look at” other cases of police officers who have been “railroaded,” specifically mentioning the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Breonna Taylor in Louisville. The potential for a wholesale revisiting of these controversial cases suggests a broader project: not just to free individual officers, but to rewrite the entire narrative of American policing.
Shapiro’s campaign arrives at a propitious moment because the Right has already secured its signature victory on the law enforcement front. The acquittal of Daniel Penny was celebrated across conservative media as the definitive end of the “defund the police” era. And evidently, most of the public agreed.
What matters here isn’t primarily criminal justice reform or police accountability, but whose version of 2020 will prevail in the national consciousness. Despite all evidence, many Americans have convinced themselves that whole cities burned to the ground during the “summer of rage.” Others have insisted the protests were “mostly peaceful” despite a wealth of documented violence. In this environment, Chauvin once again becomes less a fumbling police officer convicted of a regrettable murder and more a contested symbol in America’s increasingly incompatible versions of reality. Though Trump will likely maintain strategic ambiguity on this hot-button topic, the real victory for Shapiro and his allies is making Chauvin’s once-unthinkable crimes contestable again.
Oliver Bateman is a historian and journalist based in Pittsburgh. He blogs, vlogs, and podcasts at his Substack, Oliver Bateman Does the Work
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SubscribeI sympathize with Shapiro’s concern that a man is rotting behind bars for a crime he did not commit because we are too afraid to do the right thing.
But there is a legitimate concern about Chauvin’s safety that has been brought up by Andy McCarthy. Chauvin accepted a plea to serve time in federal prison to avoid serving in state prison. Cops are targets in state prison (close to their district) and he was safer in a federal lockup. He was still attacked and survived. I am not sure how a pardon would serve him with his state sentence. He just needs a new trial in a new venue.
That’s the problem right there: ‘incompatible versions of reality’.
On the basis of the information that came to light around the time of the trial, it seems clear to me that Chauvin was a sacrificial victim on the altar of a ‘version of reality’ that had no connection with reality.
You know, real reality. The old-fashioned sort. That one.
And we must not forget the other police officers in this case who were similarly stitched up by a ‘progressive’ prosecution system. Not sure if their convictions were state or federal but they also deserve a proper retrial or even pardon.
A political prisoner – where is Amnesty International?
Most African Americans seem to be recalibrating for the new reality of Trump rather than reacting strongly to his policies, recognizing that they are not a primary focus of his agenda nor do they even have any leverage. After Trump pardoned those involved in January 6, it’s unlikely anyone will raise concerns about a few police officers receiving pardons—perhaps even extending to figures like the South Carolina church shooter. It is almost as if black Americans are following the democratic party status – do nothing and wait out. Also many of them actually support Trump so he cannot do wrong! But maybe I am misunderstanding the point of this particular policeman!
You should watch The Fall Of Minneapolis documentary. It really changed my mind on the whole George Floyd situation.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eFPi3EigjFA&pp=0gcJCfcAhR29_xXO
Thank you for posting this link, it’s very interesting, very well made and very sad.
I note that the police body cam footage is edited – it doesn’t show Officer Lane (4 days on the job) asking Officer Chauvin (19 years under his belt) on 2 occasions, if he wants to turn George Floyd onto his side (the recovery position as outlined in the training manual viewable online and mentioned in this film).
The footage does show Chauvin’s knee positioned over George Floyds neck with Floyd grimacing and with Chauvin making no attempt to hold his weight back on his toes (detailed in both training manuals shown). In another shot his knee is positioned high up between Floyd’s shoulder blades again with no attempt to hold his weight back. The first position is a great way to compress the major blood vessels in the neck and render an individual unconscious in about 20 seconds – a technique taught to me in my judo class at the age of 11. The second position is a great way to limit chest expansion i.e. to limit the efficiency of breathing.
I am sure Officer Chauvin was trained in these techniques but either he wasn’t trained very well or had forgotten some of the more important aspects.
The acromegaly argument is a bit of a red herring. If he actually suffered from the effects of this undiagnosed and untreated condition it would simply have been yet another contributory factor to his death.
The arguments regarding the drugs in his system and specifically the fentanyl didn’t take into account his body mass (223 pounds) and his drug taking history and therefore his habituation status.
There is an argument for dealing with agitated / distressed individuals in a differnt and possibly more efficient way (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3298202/ and On the Death of Mr. George Floyd, the Dangers of Law Enforcement Restraint Practices, and Police Accountability: Reflections of a Psychiatric Nurse April 2021)
Putting all that factual stuff aside and given how the trial was conducted and the media feeding frenzy I am very sympathetic to the notion that what occurred here was what we call in the UK an “unsafe conviction”.
The most telling footage for me was the body cam footage of the rather agitated but obedient members of the public lined up on the sidewalk trying to persuade Officer Chauvin to get off the now subdued neck of George Floyd. Sometimes crowds have wisdom.
Chauvin should certainly be retried. There’s enough obvious malfeasance by prosecution and the court that the constitutionality of the original trial is dubious at best.
the only criteria is justice served, was he doing what he was trained to do, or did he go overboard, was he given a fair trial in that political envirnoment
No other considerations are important
Frank Floyd (or whoever that guy was who died while in police restraint) had fentanyl in his bloodstream, which contributed to his death.Just for reference, this is a drug that stops people from breathing, and a minute dosage can be deadly. Tens of thousands of drug addicts die from fentanyl each year in the US of A, which mostly comes from our Southern border with Mexico, produced from ingredients sent by China.
i followed a Substacker that summer, who followed the burning cities, and found amazing destruction and ruination. How many city centres need to burn for it to be seen to have happened?
Chauvin was the sacrificial lamb of America’s race riots. Liberating him would revive racial tensions, and be seen as an hostile act by the black community. So no pardon, no re-trial, until the case cools down.
Justice is not always, fair, and preserving social order might be worth some arrangements with the truth.
judges and politicians are not perfect. Maybe forget this one instance is called for.
This was and is a travesty of justice.