court proceedings get underway again. this is live coverage on c-span2. we'll get to your thoughts in a minute. let's begin with the minnesota special assistant attorney general, jerry blackwell in these opening statements making the case against derek chauvin yesterday. >> because you will learn that on may 25th of 2020, mr. derek chauvin betrayed his badge. when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of mr. george floyd. that he put his knees upon his neck and his back, grinding and crushing him until the very breath, no, ladies and

gentlemen, until the very life was squeezed out of him. you will learn that he was well aware that mr. floyd was unarmed, that mr. floyd had not threatened anyone, that mr. floyd was in handcuffs, he was completely in the control of the police. he was defenseless. you will learn what happened in that nine minutes and 29 seconds, the most important numbers you'll hear in this trial 929 what happened in those 9 minutes and 29 seconds when mr. derek chauvin was applying this excessive force to the body of mr. george floyd. >> that was the minnesota special assistant attorney general jerry blackwell making the case against derek chauvin. now, the attorney for derek chauvin also addressed the death of george floyd in his opening statement. here is what he had to say. >> the evidence will show then that dr. andrew baker of the hennepin county medical

examiner's office conducted the only autopsy of mr. floyd. and you will hear of several interviews that dr. baker had with law enforcement, where he discusses the cause and manner of death and what that actually means according to what he saw present in mr. floyd's body. and some of this evidence is extremely important, to the final determination of mr. floyd's cause of death. the medical findings include things such as the blood gas test taken that revealed mr. floyd had an exceptionally high level of carbon dioxide. dr. baker found none of what are referred to as the tell tale signs of asphyxiation. there were no bruises to mr. floyd, either on his skin or when peeling his skin back

to the muscles beneath. there was no petechial hemorrhaging, nothing that determined his airflow was restricted or a mechanical asphyxia death. >> that was from day one in the trial for derek chauvin against-- in the death of george floyd. the world was watching yesterday as the judge allowed cameras to broadcast the proceedings. we will continue our coverage here on c-span with an 8 p.m. time slot, eastern time, you'll be able to watch the entire trial every day on c-span2. jerry in detroit, michigan. jerry, did you watch yesterday? what were you thinking as you watched? >> first of all, greta, good morning and greetings yet again from motown. what i thought, you know, especially as listening to the

defense, there are shades of, i think, the eric garner trial, of the eric garner case in new york in which they attempted to try and blame mr. garner's health, excuse me, issues for his death rather than daniel pentlo's choke hold. and what you hear is a lot of victim blaming because they always blame the victims for their death rather than the officer's actions and they'll try to excuse that in many cases. i think, i'd like to elaborate if i could, if i may. racists tend to blame the police officers in the deaths, in their own deaths in many

ways and as i said that's what you're going to hear from a lot of racist white people on the republican line and i'm sure trashing me for that. because what they're trying to claim is that derek chauvin didn't kill george floyd, george floyd killed george floyd, as if he wanted to die. i mean, that's what's the difference here. you're going to hear a lot of victim blaming on this and i thank you for letting me on. >> jerry eugene robinson, in his opinion piece i can could he-- echoes what you're saying, derek chauvin is on trial not george floyd. think about it, how could anyone treat a fellow human being, stopped moving, stopped breathing. he never posed a threat to anyone let alone the officers. chauvin keeps his knee on him,

why? to keep an inert man immobile or to those, and used his opening statement to try to make floyd the defendant and onlookers his accomplices. several times he highlightled floyd's physical size which sound-- which should come to no surprise. throughout u.s. history the idea of black men as super human in their strength and subhuman how they used it has been used to justify our restraint, our incarceration and our lynching. doug in south dakota. go ahead. >> when they showed me that nine minutes, it brought me up pacing, and ticked me off. throughout my life i worked hard and young played hard and sat in jail before and sat in church some and i feel i have

learned what is right and what is wrong and what these two cops shown in the video did was wrong. i observed and deserve to be called pigs in blue, and need to spend time behind bars if it was wrong. also if i was there and seen this i would have stepped in and ended up in jail again and this was over $20. the and people in texas let your water run so it's cold-- >> okay, joy in oak hill, west virginia. >> welcome to the conversation. >>...

>> as you're watching what's going through your mind, how are you feeling? >> well, i'm kind of conflicted because god put all of us here together different races for a reason, and we seem to be failing the test, especially when the police were put here to protect us. that is -- but as of late the police have been killing so many of us. >> why are you conflicted, joy? >> i really, really couldn't say. >> all right. we are getting your thoughts on the derek chauvin trout. here are the phone lines. 202-748-8000, mountain/pacific

202-748-8001. you can text is as well. join the conversation that way with your first name city and state or send us a tweet with your handle and you can go to facebook.com/c-span as well. we are going to air the court proceedings every day here on our c-span networks, on c-span2, on c-span2 is where you'll be able to watch it every night at 8 p.m. eastern time as well as our website c-span.org. anthony in sierra vista, arizona, anthony. >> thank you, greta. greta, one question that i would like to know is whenever law enforcement or even in the first responder comes up on a scene they very rarely turn off their vehicles. and if you look at the position of the deceased had come it is

toward the rear of the vehicle where the exhaust system is. so that doesn't help. if you've been around any diesel vehicle, even when you turn it off there still residual evidence of a diesel or even in an automotive shop. so when you turn your vehicle off, that area is still going to be smelling and distributing out of the exhaust system those fumes. so that's one important question whereas the defense will say his neck didn't show any signs of choking. well, people died just from the smell of exhaust or secondhand smoke. so that's an important question. i am pretty sure even though the vehicle moved and may be the parking wasn't on, my question

is was the vehicle running? >> okay, anthony. did you watch yesterday all day? >> not all day, greta. but the most important thing i did was just make sure that i didn't get totally consumed by, in other words, everybody needs to take a break. attention span is summer between 25 and 35 minutes, and the and the judge was very good with the brakes. so i just think it just sits or watch it on and on, it's just not even going to be able to function the next day? >> why do you think -- what is watching this trial doing to you? >> well, 550,000 deaths in the pandemic, a new resurgence on some states like michigan up

60%, or 600%. i mean, that's how confusing it can get. and then we have people losing their homes. we have people who own homes and can't even get the rent money from it because so many different issues. so you've got -- >> but anthony, i asked about the trial. >> right, but that's why i'm saying, if i'm sitting there watching the trial constantly, you know, waiting for the judge to break them, my whole day is being controlled by the trial. >> got it, got it. bob in missouri. hi, bob. >> morning. >> good morning. >> i think this is all about police disrespect myself. you had a person bring up arizona picky fought the police,

the jails. he realized same deal. all he had to do was get in the police car. he would be alive today. police disrespect is what, i'm tired of police from doing their jobs. >> okay. new york next, dan. hi, dan. >> yes good morning. it's unfortunate to see another person die, and it does look like the police probably pushed it too far again. we have seen enough of that over the last two decades alone just to make the average person turn away a a nazi end of it. i'll tell you the truth come c-span. you could do much better than the tabloid tv thing everyday with this trial. go down to the border every day and show people what's going on there because our country is being invaded. take your kids up to washington, d.c. -- cameras and see with

these people are doing along with wall street to destroy this country. look at the debt we have. our children have been in the school for almost, well, it will be two years this fall if they don't get them back again. they are not taking their cats come all kinds of things that really mattered. now this menu that died, died because of drugs and because the cops having to do with a bad situation. and guess what? it all starts at the border. if we can send our military around the world to bomb people into patrol their cities we sure as hell can send down to the border and stop this. maybe not 100% but enough to avoid the george floyd the next time. thank you. >> dan from new york. the minnesota special assistant attorney general mr. blackwell addressed the issue of drugs found in george floyd's death. here's what he had to say. >> you also learned, ladies and

gentlemen, that george floyd struggled with an opioid addiction. he struggled with it for years. you will learn that he did not die from a drug overdose. he did not die from an opioid overdose. why? because you can look at video footage and you will see he was absolutely nothing like a person who would die from an opioid overdose. you will learn opioids are tranquilizers, and when a person die from an opioid overdose, what do they look like? first and foremost asleep, in a stupor and they never come to again. and they simply pass away. opioid overdose. they are not screaming for their lives. they are not calling on their mothers. they are not begging and pleading please, please i can't breathe. that's not what opioid overdose looks like. now you will learn that mr. floyd had 11 milligrams of fentanyl in his system when he died and they say that's a fatal amount. well, what you have to learn something about tolerance.

select for a person who has never been exposed to opioids or fentanyl, that may be a lethal level but for others who have been struggling with the four years, they have different tolerance level. >> from yesterdays trialed e opening day of the trial for derek chauvin and the death of george floyd. your thoughts on it this morning. garrett in texas. >> yes. i would first like to make a comment about the gentleman who talked about the border. having lived by the border most of my life of various countries, there was a great president is that mr. gorbachev, please take down that wall, and we don't want to go in the direction and that's all i will say about that. >> okay. >> this situation is a travesty. whether or not george floyd was on opioids, whether his skin is blue, black, green, purple or yellow makes a difference. my mama taught me that skin

didn't matter. i was a midshipman in the united states naval academy in 1972. i was in the class of 72. in 1968 a great leader, a man who said, let's just say he followed a president who said ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. that's what drove me into the navy. now, fred coffee came to me was on my very first leave and told me that martin luther king had been assassinated. he asked me if we had a gun in the house. i said i didn't know. i'm sitting in the hospital right now with cancer and doesn't really matter but i'm talking you to let you know that

i witnessed things that day that i changed my life. as fred and i took off with my little brothers blank gun and he asked me to sit on the outside of the station wagon and drive through the key bridge that are so familiar with, riding my bicycle over as a boy and city on the lincoln monument and we drove by the white house. we turn on pennsylvania avenue carrying loads of grocery from grocery stores and basically part at the episcopalian church and i was numb. i couldn't even get up. i was a midshipman. i had seen everything you could see physically that summer. i have been to boot camp. i've been to great lakes boot camp and by golly i i had nevr seen anything like it. i studied that situation. i found out the -- causing people to run into buildings and take tvs and come out on fire. i fired my blank gun at a black

lady and to this day i have dreams that i killed her. i was just trying to one or not to go, i did want to see another burning body come out of a building. and by golly, there is no reason for any policeman, my nephew, stephen williams is a lieutenant over the terrible situation in arlington, texas, and he struggles every day. he just offered to retire and get my brother, bill williams, who went four for four at southwestern georgetown texas and then joined the marines and is now needing a liver transplant. when he turned 70 p can't get one but his son was willing to give it half of his liver. i have just been saved by a new procedure called -- for prostate cancer at the money i had kidney cancer earlier in the year. by golly, p put it up to we are not read, we are not blue, we

are purple. we are all pancreatic cancer people. we have cancer in this country and if we don't come back and the americans like all the north told us to be when he was being challenged, this nation has no hope. the constitution is hanging by a thread in the name of jesus christ, amen. >> jeffrey and parkersburg, west virginia. jeffrey, you are next. >> yes, ma'am. thanks for taking my call. i'm a little nervous first-time caller longtime listener and watch her. as a black man it's just so troubling because at the time when that happened last year i didn't have cable at the time said didn't really see it until yesterday and i kept hearing them say eight minutes 46 seconds, obviously nine minutes 29 seconds but just to see the smoke on the officers face when he had his knee on his neck and the bystanders just asking can you, you're killing him, he

can't breathe, and just watch the trial i'm going to watch it all the way through and it's just always seems like sometimes the officers just get off. i believe 99% of police officers are good officers, but that 1% just taints it for everybody. it -- i just cried yesterday when i just watched how the officer had his knee on his neck and he is begging for his mother, i can't breathe, i'm sorry. it's just troubling. i just don't know what to do, but every time these things come up here we go again. is he going to get off? it seems like they always get off with the benefit of the doubt. that's all i have to say. >> jeffrey. the attorney for derek chauvin addressed

address the biggest and as the jurors to not only look at that now famous video of george floyd death but also the other evidence. here's what he had to say. >> they have interviewed over 50 members of the minneapolis police department including the officers who responded to the scene after mr. floyd was brought to the hospital. they interviewed members of the minneapolis police department command staff. they interviewed officers who oversee training and policymaking decisions within the minneapolis police department. they have interviewed nearly 200 civilian witnesses in this case. some of these witnesses saw the entire incident. some who saw a portion of the incident, many who saw nothing. and some who had some piece of information to give to the officers, and others who have nothing.