Former Phoenix police official reacts to Chauvin trial verdict

The verdict is in the Derk Chauvin murder trial. Chauvin was found guilty in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May. For a perspective from law enforcement, we talked to Kevin Robinson, a retired assistant City of Phoenix police chief.

Robinson wasn’t surprised at the verdict due to evidence from the prosecutors, expert testimony, and the number of officers who testified against Chauvin. Instead, he was surprised at how quickly the jury came back after only deliberating for 10 hours.

Robinson also wasn’t surprised by the multiple officers who testified against Chauvin. “I understand that there is a blue wall of silence out there. There is and people get that. That’s the idea that police officers stick up for one another and are not willing to tell on somebody. I don’t think that is the practice. It may be a bit of a rule out there, but it’s not the practice. The majority of police officers that I know, both retired and current, they were appalled at the actions that they saw last May when Mr. Chauvin knelt on Mr. Floyd’s neck. There wasn’t anybody who came up with a defense for his actions. Law enforcement officers understood, both current and retired, knew that actions like that really give a bad rap to law enforcement. It’s not needed, it’s not necessary, especially in this day in age,” Robinson said.

Robinson describes this moment as a watershed moment. “Hopefully, people have trust or faith in our justice system and I understand why for the longest time why people don’t have faith or confidence in the justice system. What we saw play out here was extraordinary. Extraordinary from the standpoint you had a police officer that was charged, a police chief along with a host of other police officers all testified that his actions were wrong,” Robinson said.