Malcolm Gladwell

It makes you a bully, a pariah. It makes even routine interactions deeply problematic. And nowhere is this dysfunction more problematic than policing, of course. Because if you are a police officer whose early life and experience has left them impaired in that way, who as a result makes hostile attributions all the time, then how can you be a police officer?

It makes you a bully, a pariah. It makes even routine interactions deeply problematic. And nowhere is this dysfunction more problematic than policing, of course. Because if you are a police officer whose early life and experience has left them impaired in that way, who as a result makes hostile attributions all the time, then how can you be a police officer?

I don't know what Chauvin's upbringing was like, but I know when I saw the tape again after talking to Dodge, I wondered if Chauvin wasn't just someone like Rocky, all grown up. And the one thing Rocky can't be is a police officer.

I don't know what Chauvin's upbringing was like, but I know when I saw the tape again after talking to Dodge, I wondered if Chauvin wasn't just someone like Rocky, all grown up. And the one thing Rocky can't be is a police officer.

Because being good at that job relies, maybe more than almost any other profession, on being able to distinguish in the heat of a moment between a hostile act and an ambiguous act. Between someone who is struggling because they can't breathe and someone who is struggling because they're resisting arrest.

Because being good at that job relies, maybe more than almost any other profession, on being able to distinguish in the heat of a moment between a hostile act and an ambiguous act. Between someone who is struggling because they can't breathe and someone who is struggling because they're resisting arrest.

Between someone who says, I'm going to die because they're trying to trick you and someone who says, I'm going to die because they are, in fact, going to die. If you can't do that, then you can only interpret the world one way. Then, in the middle of a fast-evolving situation, when there is new information coming in all the time, you have only one way to interpret it. A threat.

Between someone who says, I'm going to die because they're trying to trick you and someone who says, I'm going to die because they are, in fact, going to die. If you can't do that, then you can only interpret the world one way. Then, in the middle of a fast-evolving situation, when there is new information coming in all the time, you have only one way to interpret it. A threat.

In the course of the investigation into the death of George Floyd, a second case came to light. It happened in 2017, three years earlier. A woman calls 911. She says her son has assaulted her. The police arrive, talk to the woman at length. She says her son is down the hall in his room. In the body cam footage, you can see the officers walk down the hallway.

In the course of the investigation into the death of George Floyd, a second case came to light. It happened in 2017, three years earlier. A woman calls 911. She says her son has assaulted her. The police arrive, talk to the woman at length. She says her son is down the hall in his room. In the body cam footage, you can see the officers walk down the hallway.

The boy is on the floor of his bedroom, on the phone. He's 14. The lead officer in the group is lean, in his 40s, with a passive demeanor. It's Derek Chauvin. The officers enter the room, tell him he's under arrest. He says his mom was drunk. He gets up reluctantly. His voice is calm. He doesn't act out. He's not aggressive.

The boy is on the floor of his bedroom, on the phone. He's 14. The lead officer in the group is lean, in his 40s, with a passive demeanor. It's Derek Chauvin. The officers enter the room, tell him he's under arrest. He says his mom was drunk. He gets up reluctantly. His voice is calm. He doesn't act out. He's not aggressive.

He says his mother had done this before, called the police when she's the one who has a problem. That's why his uncle left the house, he says. He seems genuinely confused as to why he should be the one under arrest. He's a teenager.

He says his mother had done this before, called the police when she's the one who has a problem. That's why his uncle left the house, he says. He seems genuinely confused as to why he should be the one under arrest. He's a teenager.

That's Chauvin.

That's Chauvin.

Chauvin moves towards him, starts beating the boy over the head with his flashlight, opening a wound over his ear that will require stitches, puts him in a chokehold, throws him to the ground, and then things go from bad to much, much worse.

Chauvin moves towards him, starts beating the boy over the head with his flashlight, opening a wound over his ear that will require stitches, puts him in a chokehold, throws him to the ground, and then things go from bad to much, much worse.

Then his mother enters the room.

Then his mother enters the room.