Disclaimer: all the below is my own biased limited view-point of course.
I'll always be on the side of the underdog, even whilst keeping open-minded and seeing different sides of the situation.
I like with what Dr. Todd Grande has to say (I recommend checking out his videos, he analyses the personalities and mental states of various public figures involved in well-known cases).
He believes Chauvin has the Four “Dark Personality” Traits (4 tetrad), namely psychopath, narcissist, Machiavellian, and sadist (altho' he admits the machiavellian part is not apparent), and explains why he thinks Chauvin is guilty of 1st Degree Murder. Amen.
I've looked at everything Leo has written about the case and I don't see anything that could be said to be necessarily "untrue" or non-sensical in itself, and I believe he realistically understands quite well the grassroots level of things on a politico-social level.
But I was disappointed at the stance he took in the significant historical context of this one, seemingly spending an inordinate amount of time "justifying" the murder and explaining the tough cop work and underfunded resources than showing any sorrow for an actual human life taken away flagrant delit by a cop conscious he was being filmed for the whole world to see as though that human life had no value, cold-bloodedly murdered in broad daylight ... because he knew he could ... and get away with it. This is an important point. Like hey, who's gonna bat an eyelid? Plenty of folk'll sympathize with me offing the crazy dude, black lives don't matter, perps scum don't matter, I mean hey, look what I've gotta put up with? Being "part of the problem" actually entails falling for this bait, Chauvin is counting on us (and our prejudices) to justify his murder as the video circulates internationally. Bad calculation on his behalf! So, in this context, no way am I going to excuse Leo's "problematic opinions". For me, him and his ilk are "part of the problem", aka white privilege.
I watched the video in May and felt angry and cried over the scene, then came on this forum and the first thing I see from Leo is "police work is hard", followed by "police brutality is just love" and "policing assholes is difficult" (I'll spare you the rest), which made me even more angry. In my rage, I wrote a barrage of F-words, which were swiftly deleted by the mods who warned me to "take a chill pill". Came back when the mods "were out" and attacked Leo with a string of silly belligerent limericks, which I later deleted after doing some personal work, and realising they were more to do with my own personal projections of anger, which I would be well to deal with through some self-analysis. Personal responsability and all that.
When other influencers on social media were using their platforms for the Black Lives Matter message in this historical moment in time in order to herald all-important change and better opportunities for blacks, (and we suddenly saw great things happening everywhere, like racist people being abruptly fired from jobs, etc) Leo didn't use that opportunity. On the contrary, his rhetoric was sounding more and more Trump-like with its lack of emotion, compassion and humanity, not a word of empathy for Floyd or the black movement, no Blackout Tuesday on this forum lol. Leo should have been invited to the Oval Office, he'd have had a great bonding conversation with the president. Sorry Leo, you must cringe reading that, but I just can't help imagining Trump loving what you'd have to say, you'd be his n°1 BFF for sure.
I believe Leo has put himself in the cops' shoes, but nothing yet indicates to me that he's put himself in Floyd's shoes (or a black's, or a criminal's shoes). Surely merely for credibility's sake, you would do that if you want to present an unbiased perspective.
I know if I were Leo, responsable for an influential platform, I wouldn't have leaned so heavily on sympathizing with the "system" but would have definitely had some compassionate words for Floyd and his plight and would have done my upmost to express my outrage and been part of the so-important movement. I haven't even seen any empathy for Floyd (and "his like") on Leo's behalf, which is a shame to me. Why not, I wonder?
After all, he doesn't hold back on Trump (hasn't he called him a "narcissist sociopath"?). Why not give Trump the same privilege as Chauvin. After all, Trump's surely got a tough job too (like Chauvin), he's only got a huge country to govern lol. It's strange to me, Leo can run down Trump, but he "protects" Chauvin, albeit subtly and indirectly .
I'm all for providing alternative ways of viewing things in a more balanced way, but c'mon man.
A bit of heart in this cold, cruel world. Gotta be a human before attempting Superhuman (or God lol).
But hey we know Leo's all about radically maverick and non-conformist opinions and helping people open their minds and see different perspectives, so what he said was to be expected I suppose.
I have a lot of deep respect for Leo, I love him, he really is an awesome guy (if he didn't exist, you'd have to invent him), but this is my last message and my last visit on this forum in solidarity to Floyd among other things, cos the head honcho let me down badly on this one. I know what it's like from personal experience to be the helpless outraged bystander in a matter-of-life-and-death situation screaming at the sadist not to kill someone and be "threatened with pepper spray" if I utter another sound, I've been there, so this is a personal thing linked to my own personal trauma and probably less really to do with Leo. So yeah inexcusable, gotta agree. Sorry I haven't expressed myself that well in all this, I'm still a work in progress lol, but something's really got stuck in my throat concerning Leo's Floyd opinions. Again all this is just my own personal biased and emotional reaction. I hate with a vengeance cowardly bullies like Chauvin and will always stand up to them.
Sincerely wish you all the very best tho' and thank you for all the rest.
Turn anger to action #RIPFloyd #november votes #blacklives matter duh