Was Chauvin found guilty because he was guilty

Hearing all this from 3000+ miles ago via news reports, I thought the verdict was more or less inevitable though the trial fit and proper - I did not note the judge's reminder that justice places the onus of proof on the prosecution.

I don't understand the US legal system in detail so not how someone can be found guilty of three different versions of the same crime of unlawful killing.

No-one is suggesting the jury acted improperly but I can't help feeling three verdicts in that way was inevitable.

I understand the wild jubilation outside afterwards, but it was hardly edifying and suggests avenging rather than justice.

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So what will be the outcome? Others have pointed out the poor behaviour of so many police officers in America but I would hope, and probably rightly, that they are in a minority of the nation's police forces. Nevertheless a minority that exists because so little action is taken against them.

Why is that? Is it just "racism"? Some States repealed their apartheid laws almost as recently as living memory, but deeply-ingrained social attitudes do not disappear at the thump of the "Repealed" stamp.

Is it very poor selection, training and supervision? I doubt most police recruits enter the service with the idea of cold-bloodedly shooting people as a matter of course. It's certainly lax actions afterwards, with families often just paid off instead by the local or State police-force that has bereaved them.

A result of a society that seems to accept casual domestic abuse and gun violence? I looked at the numbers there. The NRA's membership is a tiny proportion of the population, but has a lot of money for political purposes. About half of the American adult households have at least one registered, and though some have veritable arsenals of battlefield weapons, it also means about half do [i]not[/i] own guns.

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Whatever is going wrong in US society as seen by we foreigners, is not unique to the USA. All countries have their divisions and problems, and some countries are notoriously dangerous. Nevertheless, among the developed "Western" nations, the USA seems by far the worst for those, but only America can resolve its own.

If convicting one policeman who lost control, on three separate charges of a single unlawful, achieves anything it might be a huge wake-up call for all Americans, irrespective of race, religion or political affiliations.

One American, I think a journalist, I heard on the news yesterday, said the "whole world" is watching this case.

The "whole world"? Probably... but let's not get carried away. The coverage and reaction is any other country is likely to reflect that nation's attitudes towards the USA and American life; and in many countries, its Governmental line.

Countries like the UK and the other Western European countries are likely to see this as a chance for the USA to put itself right and move on into a less divided, less violent, more civilised society. The USA's opponents, particularly the most hypocritical tyrannies, might merely tell their citizens, "Look how rotten Western so-called democracies are".

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This is not a time for jubilation.

A man died needlessly by a wanton act of violence; and though the trial's multi-charge system is rather peculiar, his killer was rightly convicted by due and proper process.

The police officer responsible has destroyed his family's and his own, and dragged the service's name into the gutter.

The murder and trial has also revealed internationally, a festering social sore that goes beyond easy headlines and slogans. George Floyd was by no means the only victim of unlawful killings by police-officers; white as well as black victims though many more of the latter.

It is a time for sober reflection, analysis, discussion far beyond mere slogan-trading; and only by understanding what's going wrong can you at least drastically reduce the risk of any repeats.