Hank Williams spoke of the "cold, cold heart!"

FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2020

Last evening, we saw one with Lawrence: Long ago and far away, Hank Williams introduced the concept of the person with the "cold, cold heart."

Many such people are out and about playing on our own liberal team. Consider what happened last night on Lawrence O'Donnell's program.

Midway through the program, O'Donnell discussed the three new arrests in Minneapolis. He described a remarkable situation involving two of these officers:

O'DONNELL (6/4/20): In Minneapolis today, a judge set a bail of $750,000 for each of the three police officers who were arrested and charged yesterday in the murder of George Floyd—Thomas Lane, Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao.

Defense lawyers told the court that Thomas Lane and Alexander Kueng had been on the police force for only four days when the incident occurred and that Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee into George Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, was a training officer.

Defense lawyer for Thomas Lane said in court, "What is my client supposed to do other than follow what the training officer said?"

As we've been noting this week, two of the officers—Lane and Kueng—were rookies. They found themselves at the scene of an incident with a superior officer who seems to be out of his mind.

According to O'Donnell, defense lawyers tried to sharpen the moral dilemma. They said that Lane and Kueng were in their fourth day on the job, and that the crackpot Chauvin was a training officer.

Had Chauvin been assigned as Lane's training officer in some formal sense? We can't answer your question. We're not sure that Lawrence got every fact right. A fuller report of yesterday's hearing appeared on the front page of today's New York Times.

Back to what happened on the day George Floyd was senselessly killed:

Somewhat oddly, the two rookies seemed to be on patrol together. They arrived at the scene in the first car to respond to the call concerning a possible crime.

Chauvin and Thao, both experienced officers, arrived in a separate car a bit later. Eventually, Chauvin took control of the situation and began choking Floyd to death.

Were Lane and Kueng really in just their fourth day on the job? The Times report quotes Lane's lawyer saying this:

BARKER ET AL (6/5/20): Earl Gray, the lawyer representing Mr. Lane, 37, told the court that Mr. Chauvin was a training officer for new officers. He said that the day Mr. Floyd died was Mr. Lane’s fourth day on the force.

“They’re required to call him ‘Sir,’” Mr. Gray told the court. “He has 20 years’ experience. What is my client supposed to do but to follow what the training officer said? Is that aiding and abetting a crime?”

According to the Times report, Kueng's lawyer said that Kueng was only on his third shift as a full-fledged officer.

O'Donnell seemed to see a moral quandary here.. But O'Donnell's guest has a cold, cold heart, and her responses to Lawrence's questions provide a lesson for us modern liberals.

O'Donnell's guest was Professor Murray of the NYU Law School. Lawrence asked her what she thought about this unusual situation.

Below, you see what was said:

O'DONNELL (6/4/20): Professor Murray, what do you make of what we heard, from the defense attorney anyway, in Minneapolis today, saying that these two officers were only on the force for four days, and that they were simply obeying what their training officer was telling them to do?

PROFESSOR MURRAY: Well, I guess we're getting a glimpse of what the defense will be for these three officers as they mount their defense to these charges of aiding and abetting. And the idea here is that these are junior officers following the chain of command.

Chauvin was a more experienced officer and he was setting the pace and the tone of this encounter.

For starters, the august professor didn't seem to have the basic facts right. Only two of the officers were rookies (junior officers), not three.

Thao, an experienced officer, was patrolling with Chauvin that day. According to the Times, he has already "cooperated with investigators" in some undisclosed way.

That's a mere factual matter. We were more struck by the robotic way the professor offered a useless recitation, one an alert third grader could have provided for Lawrence.

Aside from her mistake about Officer Thao, the professor simply regurgitated a few blindingly obvious facts. Most strikingly, she showed no sign that she was being asked about a situation which may have an unusual moral component.

Later, Lawrence gave her a second bite at the apple. Again, she showed no sign of understanding. We give Lawrence some credit for seeming to see the moral dilemma here, but he didn't require his august guest to address it.

Let us explain what's happening:

Those four-day wonders have been assigned the role of scapegoats in this horrible matter. They're being asked to pay the price for a wide range of failed elites.

What happened can't be the police chief's fault. After all, he took a knee last weekend. CNN declared him a hero.

It can't be Attorney General Ellison's fault. Heroically, he decided to lock them all up, the very task the crowd had once asked of Pilate.

Last night, along came Professor Murray with a cold, cold heart. Warning to modern-day liberals:

Our tribal elite are often like this. They'll run with the current tribal line, full and complete total stop.

They'll recognize nothing else. They'll display no wisdom and no compassion. They'll offer no reaction which lie outside the current ideas of the tribe.

Their tribal standing, and their career status, will always come first. Those rookie cops were in the wrong place. They'll just have to get killed now in jail.

More from the Times report: Much as we have noted:

BARKER ET AL: [Kueng's] lawyer also argued that Mr. Kueng, who is African-American, and Mr. Lane, who is white, had tried to stop Mr. Chauvin.

“At multiple times, Mr. Kueng and Mr. Lane directed their attention to that 19-year veteran and said, ‘You shouldn’t do this,’” Mr. Plunkett said.

We're afraid that won't be enough. And, of course, these basic facts have gone unreported and undiscussed all week.

It can't be the police chief's fault for leaving a person like Chauvin on the force and in charge out on the street. Lane and Kueng have been cast in the scapegoat role, and no one will break with the tribe.