I saw a comment elsewhere that Chauvin showed no emotion when the verdict was announced..

[TNNurse]

My first thought was that he did not appear to be capable of actual human emotion, Not at the scene of the crime and not in court.

Others some suggested that he knew he was convicted before it was announced..

[SheltieLover]

1. Antisocial pd

[MoonRiver]

53. This

[Act_of_Reparation]

54. Nope.

Very unlikely.

[SheltieLover]

56. Very likely, in fact

[Act_of_Reparation]

57. Not really.

His behavior is likely a combination of internal dispositional factors and having been placed in a position of authority with little to no expectation of accountability. Personality tests are largely ineffective at screening for potential abusive/sadistic behavior because the job itself encourages sadistic/abusive behavior in people who would otherwise not exhibit those personality traits.

Here, in 2021, what should be more than apparent to anyone paying even the remotest attention to police violence in this country is that the problem is not individual officers with psychological conditions, and no amount of punishing individuals is going to make things right. The problem is policing itself, and in particular, the culture of police offices across the country.

[SheltieLover]

58. Yes, really.

I presume you are refering to Zimbardo's Stanford experiment, which has been publicly exposed as a fraud.

https://www.gwern.net/docs/psychology/2019-letexier.pdf

While I agree with you on the systemic issues with the culture of policing, what types of persons would be attracted to or remain in such a hateful, racist, authoritarian system?

Those with anti-social personality disorder, or strong traits.

Prisons are full of people with this pathology.

[demtenjeep]

2. the mask helped hide

some emotion

[StarfishSaver]

3. He didn't show much emotion, but his eyes were sure darting back and forth like crazy

I don't think he ever expected to be convicted - just like he never expected to be held accountable for grinding his knee into George Floyd's neck as he stared down the witnesses and dared them to do anything about it.

[Dawgman49]

8. His eyes...

I noticed as well as the judge read the verdicts & shortly after his eyes were darting vertically , almost involuntary
very strange...I do believe he was expecting a hung jury(thanks defense), and was in shock...I think a change of clothes and some solitude will help

[TwilightZone]

16. I noticed that when the jury was being polled.

It seemed that he was going back and forth between the judge and the jurors who were responding to the judge's inquiries.

[mcar]

52. I read, though, that he wanted to plea to a lesser charge

and Barr would let it go through. He was probably cussing Barr out in his mind as the verdicts were read.

[moonscape]

4. His eyes started darting around a bit. That was it. n/t

[OnDoutside]

5. He didn't even flinch.

[pandr32]

6. He looked concerned to me

No doubt he was afraid for himself. He isn't remorseful, but he is concerned for his own ass.

[Leith]

14. That's what I saw, too

Other than that and the darting eyes, no emotion.

[Bev54]

19. To me he looked confused.

I don't think he expected it.

[shrike3]

21. I agree. I thought he looked puzzled.

[katmondoo]

7. His eyes showed shock.

[Deuxcents]

9. Welll

He showed no emotion while his knee was on the neck of George Floyd for 9 plus minutes. He may be devoid of emotion. I have no mercy for him

[ecstatic]

10. I saw confusion and disbelief

Isn't he like the first white cop in Minnesota to ever be held accountable? He was convinced a racist trumper would run cover for him. I think his attorney thought that too, based on the ridiculous defense he put up.

[a kennedy]

11. Yah, yah, I thought I saw that as well.......like I can't believe this is happening look. eom

[kcr]

17. Yes. The way his eyes darted back and forth

with his eyebrows slightly knit looked like utter disbelief. Is this really happening? He didn't see that coming.

[BradAllison]

12. He was shocked

I'm sure his lawyer prepared him but the way he looked around was fear.

[stillcool]

13. drugs...

all kinds of stuff to blunt emotions.

[TwilightZone]

15. He didn't show much emotion the entire trial.

Probably on the advice/direction of his attorney. That's pretty common.

[Jim__]

18. I didn't see him look at the jury once during the trial.

He was always "taking notes."

I thought the best shot he had was if he could testify and convince the jury that he did not intend to kill George Floyd.

I can't help but wonder about his personality.

[WA-03 Democrat]

20. I have got to believe this was considered for his defense

Him opening his mouth didn't go that well in their plans and they took a hard pass. He is awful but that is who he is.

[TwilightZone]

22. I'm sure that was by design.

It's a pretty common practice for defense attorneys to advise their clients not to show emotion, etc., during the trial.

I think it's also very likely that he was advised not to testify. Cross-examination would have been brutal.

[Solly Mack]

23. The way his eyes kept darting back and forth made me think him in disbelief. Like he was waiting for

the judge, or someone, anyone, really, to say just foolin'.

[Progressive Jones]

31. Same here. I think he was stunned. nt

[AZ8theist]

24. I'm not sure WHAT he was thinking...

Yes, his eyes darted back and forth, but..
As soon as the word "GUILTY" was spoken....NOTHING. NO REACTION.

I would have hung my head in despair or started crying. But NO EMOTION. NOTHING.

I believe the man is a sociopath. He will go right on killing others while in prison. And think nothing of it....

[WarGamer]

25. He agreed to plead guilty to Murder 2 before the trial.

He's been prepared for this day.

[SunImp]

26. The Tucker Carlson face

Link to tweet

[StarfishSaver]

27. ...

Link to tweet

[fescuerescue]

28. He's a terrible person for sure

But I don't know if it's sound to make deep extensive judgements on a 5 second block of pre-planned behavior.

In any event, you can bet he had rehearsed mentally what his reaction will be tens of thousands of times, based on a guilty or not-guilty verdict.

To me, people reactions to news when they DON"T expect to get news is much more genuine.

[Claire Oh Nette]

29. He wanted to plead guilty

to avoid federal civil suits. Barr said no.

He knew he would be convicted.

[Progressive Jones]

30. Chauvin and his wife are also facing some serious serious Fed problems with the IRS. nt

[msfiddlestix]

39. Interesting factoid, I wasn't aware of this

I wondered if he was married, and if she was ever in court. The broadcast of the trial never panned beyond him and his attorney and the view from behind were assistants of counsel I believe. Couldn't tell if he had family or friends present.

[Progressive Jones]

46. I can remember that back at the start of this

his wife filed for divorce around the same time he was charged, maybe even before the charges in the Floyd murder. It was mentioned in the articles that it looked really fishy. I recently saw that they are both facing some serious shit with the Feds/IRS. His life is fucked, and he brought it all on himself.
Justice is a mofo when it catches up...

[msfiddlestix]

40. duplicate deleted

[BoringUsername]

32. Not showing emotions doesn't mean someone isn't capable of them.

I hate it when people make assumptions like this. Think about people grieving a death of a loved one. No one does it the same way and being more emotional isn't more right. I honestly wouldn't care if this guy was more emotional in the trial. Some people are emotional for selfish reasons. Some people are good actors and they even fake emotions. Being emotional isn't the same as being sorry and it doesn't change the situation. All that matters is that he committed a crime and he will be imprisoned for it.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

33. People like to see what they want to see.

[BoringUsername]

34. Yeah, and that's how people fell for that QAnon crap n/t

[myccrider]

42. Agree.

People vary by culture and individual differences wrt how they deal with strong emotions. And threats to personal safety and survival almost always elicit strong emotions.

The whole "don’t judge a book..." thing applies here. He was a cop for a long time, he learned to suppress certain reactions. He’s a male raised in American culture, he learned to suppress reactions that could show weakness.

I wasn’t surprised he remained relatively stoic. Bet his internal voice was screaming and gibbering, though.

[BoringUsername]

45. Yes, you bring up a lot of good points

Last edited Wed Apr 21, 2021, 11:29 AM - Edit history (2)

Sometimes I get emotionally burnt out so I just can't get worked up about something that someone else might get really upset about. It's because I felt like that already too many times before and it just wore me out. Showing the strong emotion also sometimes only seems to make me more upset.

Anyhow, I don't see how speculation on his emotional state is helpful. It seems like people are trying make connections between murderers and lack of displayed emotions, like that's what you'd expect from a murderer. The two things are not related.

[myccrider]

50. It's a good point about burn out, too.

An example is that I was so prepared for this trial to end the way so many have ended, with the jury hung or giving the cop the benefit of the doubt, that I couldn’t react with joy, at first, to the good news of the guilty verdict. Happily, that only lasted a few moments, but had you seen my face in those moments, one could have concluded that I didn’t care.

There are lots of reasons that people outwardly react differently to similar stimuli.

I also think people are falling into the error, that we all are vulnerable to, of expecting ‘evil’ to look and act obviously ‘evil’. IRL it doesn’t always work that way, though. Most of us understand that intellectually, but emotionally is another story.

[canetoad]

60. A classic example

Is the demeanor of Lindy Chamberlain, before, during and after her trial.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_Chamberlain-Creighton

Of all the criticism aimed at Lindy, the most virulent was that she, "Showed no emotion."

[Solomon]

35. Having sat there and watched the entire

trial, i don't see how he could have ever been surprised by the verdict.

The best part for me was the fact that he had to sit there and actually see what he did, all the evidence against him. I'm sure he didn't think it was all that bad what he done until he saw the evidence and heard all the witnesses. That was pure schadenfreud for me.

[FakeNoose]

36. My first thought was that his lawyer had warned him not to react

Chauvin and his lawyer were close by as the jury deliberated. I believe they never left the courthouse, or if they did leave if was only briefly. That indicates they knew the jury would have a quick deliberation, and most likely it would be "guilty."

I say that only because a "not guilty" verdict would mean one or several of the jury were not convinced and needed to review the testimony thoroughly. Often the jury will ask the judge for clarification on a certain point, if they should be hung up on something. So the quick agreement on the verdict tells the defense what to expect.

Chauvin knew that the entire thing was being televised live, and he wasn't caught surprised by the verdict. Why should he react emotionally, and give the TV cameras something to show on the 6 o'clock news?

[Dave Starsky]

37. I disagree. He looked like he suddenly knew he was 100% fucked.

From a neurolinguistic programming perspective, his eyes were darting around like he was furiously trying to search his memory banks for any other time in his life when he was held accountable for his despicable behavior, and he was coming up completely empty.

His expression reminded me of Gollum's face for an instant in "The Return of the King" when he realizes he just jumped into a fucking volcano.

[Sunsky]

38. He showed the same emotion when he was

murdering Floyd- NONE. Flat affect. I often wonder if he's on medication or has an undisclosed disorder. He exhibited little to no emotion throughout the court proceedings, as well as during, and after the reading of the verdict.
Yes, I believe he knew he was going to be convicted. When they were asked to stand for the jury (before the reading of the verdict), he had his hands behind him. He did not do that throughout the trial. Some say he did that unconsciously, but I believe he did it consciously to signal that he was done play-acting and he knew his fate.

[Major Nikon]

41. ...

[Sunsky]

43. A still photo may seem like

He had displayed emotion, but if you analyze the video you will notice that this was his look throughout. This is Chauvin's everyday face. It is the same look he gave the bystanders while he was murdering Floyd. That's the same look he had when he took off his mask to garner sympathy from the jury. One person on HLN commented that taking off his mask served him no good and that he should've kept on his mask because he doesn't have a sympathetic look. He just stares with no emotion.

[Major Nikon]

47. The thing is he has spent the whole time looking at the jurors

No doubt he could already feel their judgement upon him long before the verdict was read. I don't think there was much surprise factor. He already knew he was fucked. Especially since the video speaks for itself and his former employer helped dig his grave.

[Towlie]

44. His lawyer may have convinced him that conviction was inevitable but he would win on appeal.

 
←

If so his lawyer was probably wrong, but Chauvin could have been convinced and therefore not surprised or depressed.

On the other hand, photos of him in the act don't show any emotion either.

[haele]

48. I thought he did. He showed arrogant disbelief. Anger when he was cuffed.

If he's a sociopath, there was no reason in his mind to even consider he did anything wrong. If a sociopath, he also believes he can handle or get out of anything thrown his way because sociopaths think they are above everyone else and are bulletproof.

Haele

[roamer65]

49. Sociopathic people are devoid of emotion.

...and it is always someone else’s fault.

[Sunsky]

51. Ding ding ding

I don't like when people are diagnosed without a thorough assessment but I do think of some sort of personality disorder when I observe him.

[DontBelieveEastisEas]

55. No emotional change and Nodded to the Judge when done

His eyes were looking around in the same way: both before and after the judgement.

If ever an example of no change in behavior after hearing, "Guilty", this was it.

At the conclusion, he nodded to the judge in a show of respect.

[Mr.Bill]

59. I think what surprised him

was the judge remanding him into custody immediately.