Source: Minnesota Department of Corrections
Social media timelines exploded with cynical memes mocking following the news that the former police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd was stabbed in prison on Friday.
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While prison officials wouldn’t immediately confirm that Derek Chauvin was the victim of the reported prison violence, anonymous sources told multiple news outlets that the disgraced former Minneapolis police officer serving decades in an Arizona prison was the target of the stabbing.
Without naming any names, the Bureau of Prisons told CNN that “An incarcerated individual” was assaulted at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson before adding later that “Responding employees initiated life-saving measures for one incarcerated individual.”
Chauvin was in stable condition following the stabbing, according to CNN.
The reported stabbing happened around 12:30 p.m. local time on Friday.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Chauvin, 47, was “seriously injured” by the stabbing.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose state prosecution of Chauvin led to a 22.5-year sentence for the former cop, said he was “sad” to learn of the reported prison stabbing.
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But the reactions across social media were decidedly the polar opposite of Ellison’s as timelines were replete with suggestions that the reported stabbing was the result of karmic forces that have revealed themselves as jail justice — a slang term for an inmate administering out self-determined punishment toward another inmate.
Because Floyd’s murder was such a touchpoint along racial lines, social media users found some irony in the fact that Chauvin was reportedly stabbed on a day that’s been designated as “Black Friday” for reasons not having to do with prison violence.
Chauvin’s alleged stabber was not immediately identified, but social media posts suggested that the inmate or inmates responsible for the violence could be in for a reward of sorts from members of the public who may be interested in donating funds to the prison commissary in their name(s).
To add insult to a reported injury, Chauvin was stabbed just days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the latest appeal of his conviction for murdering Floyd. That development all but ensured Chauvin would serve every second of his concurrent state and federal sentences.
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That came months after the Minnesota Court of Appeals in April rejected an appeal of Chauvin’s conviction and instead ruled that he remains a murderer who killed Floyd by nonchalantly pressing his knee into the unarmed and handcuffed Black man’s neck for the better part of 10 minutes while a crowd (and eventually, the world) watched in horror.
Months before that, the Minnesota Supreme Court issued an order denying Chauvin’s appeal petition for further review, meaning his last hope was with the U.S. Supreme Court.
And now, after learning he would indeed be staying in prison for a couple of more decades, at least, Chauvin was reportedly stabbed.
It was decidedly in that context that the social media memes ruthlessly mocked Chuavin — though not nearly as ruthlessly as when the former cop ignored bystanders’ pleas for him to stop murdering Floyd on that fateful day in 2020.
SEE ALSO:
Civil Rights Leaders Mark 3rd Anniversary Of George Floyd’s Murder
Minneapolis Police Reform: What To Know About The Approved Public Safety Overhauling
