Daily Wire: BLM ‘Fuming’ After Chauvin ‘Guilty’ Verdict

According to Trendolizer.com on April 21 2021, one of the most viral links of the day was DailyWire.com outrage bait headlined, “Black Lives Matter Activists Following Conviction: ‘We’re Never Gonna Be Satisfied,’ ‘Burn It Down!’”:

black lives matter fuming chauvin verdict

An automatically generated subheading read:

Black Lives Matter activists fumed on Tuesday afternoon [April 20 2021] after a Minneapolis jury returned a verdict convicting former Minneapolis police Derek Chauvin on all counts, manslaughter and murder, in the death of George Floyd […]

DailyWire.com’s Reporting

The balance of the piece primarily involved embedded tweets with video and transcriptions of partial comments made by individuals present at the Minneapolis courthouse where jurors were expected to deliver a verdict.

Chronology is a factor in the honesty of the Daily Wire’s claims, as at least one embedded tweet demonstrated.

For example, DailyWire.com embedded seven tweets with short videos, six of which were tweeted by Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive). One of the tweets shared by Hernandez and embedded in the article (purportedly showing the assembled crowd’s reaction to the guilty verdict) was published at 3:12 PM Eastern Standard Time on April 20 2021 — 2:12 PM in Minneapolis:

That tweet read:

“I cannot be anymore [sic] peaceful.. this movement has made it’s way to your front door and we are no longer knocking..”

BLM CHANTS: “BURN IT DOWN”

I think BLM’s intentions are clear from this video out of Minneapolis.

Hernandez’s commentary was at 2:12 PM on April 20 2021; the original video was shared at 1:52 PM Minneapolis time on that date:

Timeline of the Chauvin Verdict

A verdict in the Chauvin trial was reached just after 5 PM Eastern Standard Time on April 20 2021, or 4 PM in Minneapolis:

Hernandez tweeted about the verdict at 5:17 PM Eastern. Three hours later (8:45 PM, 8:49 PM, and 8:52 PM Eastern, and during the seven o’clock hour in Minneapolis), Hernandez tweeted three of the videos embedded in the DailyWire.com piece.

Another tweet by Hernandez involved full daylight, but it was tweeted after sunset on April 20 2021:

It was unclear at exactly what time the clips were filmed, but the rapid succession in which they appeared suggested that if Hernandez filmed the clips himself, he uploaded them in a batch. Sunset in Minneapolis was at 8:05 PM local time on April 20 2021, suggesting the full-daylight videos were recorded a few hours earlier.

Scenes Outside the Courthouse When the Verdict Was Announced

Some were clear reactions to the verdict, but as mentioned, the DailyWire.com snippet claimed, “Black Lives Matter activists fumed on Tuesday afternoon [April 20 2021] after a Minneapolis jury returned a verdict convicting former Minneapolis police Derek Chauvin on all counts.”

For a more balanced view of the crowd outside the Minneapolis courthouse after the verdict was read, we looked for videos from various sources and perspectives. For example, a video from NBC News (“Watch crowd react to Chauvin verdict outside Minneapolis courthouse”) captured the moments just before, during, and after the verdict was read.

In that clip, the crowd was murmuring just prior to the verdict; photojournalists held video cameras, and individuals filmed on smartphones. A barely audible voice shouted “guilty,” and the crowd cheered for quite a while.

Videos of that moment were very easy to find on Twitter. A clip shared at 8:31 PM Eastern on April 21 2021 provided a different angle:

Several clips from individuals at the scene circulated on Twitter:

An April 21 2020 video from the New York Times described the crowds as “jubilant”:

It read in part:

Jubilant residents in Minneapolis honked horns and banged pots and pans after a jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of murder in the death of George Floyd.

Far from fuming, individuals speaking in that video were quoted in text on the screen. It read:

“Today we made history.”

“I am overjoyed.”

“We actually get to celebrate.”

“But it’s just one step.”

[Clapping]

“This is like real-life history. Especially here in the State of Minnesota. So, yeah, they need to rewrite the textbooks and all that.”

The Times also included footage of crowds in Minneapolis that night, captioned “fireworks” and “crowd cheering”:

BLM angry floyd chauvin verdict

Summary

According to Trendolizer.com, DailyWire.com’s assertion that “Black Lives Matter activists fumed … after a Minneapolis jury returned a verdict convicting former Minneapolis police Derek Chauvin on all counts” was both thinly sourced and misleading. The piece strongly suggested that Black Lives Matter activists and individuals present at the courthouse expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict, a claim undercut deeply by extensive reporting and documentation of the moments before, during, and after the verdict was announced to the crowd. Additionally, at least one of the six tweets from Hernandez was recorded hours before the verdict was even reached, and it clearly did not represent a reaction to the jury’s decision.

It is true that some participants expressed dismay about broader systemic issues plaguing the American justice system, but the verdict itself did not cause activists to “fume.”

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