I was surprised by the Chauvin verdict.

As I said on April 1, I thought there was a good chance that he would not be convicted of all three, if any, of the charges against him.

I don’t know what was in Chauvin’s heart when he put his knee down on George Floyd’s neck. Was he hateful? Was he racist? Was he scared?

What I feel more certain about is that if he had been exonerated of all three charges, it would have lit a fire among BLM and Antifa activists and supporters.

So now we this high profile conviction, which will surely give many police officers pause. If I were a cop, I’d definitely think about it. But what will come of it? Will cops, in the execution of arrests, no longer feel that they are immune to charges of brutality and even murder? That would be a good thing.

Will there be less thuggishness in the treatment of the public? And in the treatment of Black Americans in particular?

Will it change policing generally?

And if so, how?

3 Facts About Police Killings in the US 

* Since 2005, there have been about 1,000 fatal police shootings each year.

* During that same time period, a total of 139 police officers were arrested for murder or manslaughter due to an on-duty killing. That = about 9 per year or an arrest record of about 1%.

* Of those 139 cases, 42 are still pending. Of those adjudicated 44 were convicted. So that’s 44 convictions out of 98 cases. That is a conviction rate of about 45%.