UPDATE: On Friday, June 25, 2021, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 270 months, or 22.5 years, in prison for the murder of George Floyd by Judge Peter Cahill, with a credit for 199 days of time served.
Cahill said he has included a 22-page memo with Chauvin's sentence that contains his legal analysis.
Following sentencing, Cahill says Chauvin cannot possess a firearm for the rest of his life and he must register as a "predatory offender."
Prior to the sentencing, Cahill denied Chauvin's motion for a new trial.
PREVIOUS REPORT: When the jury read its verdict finding former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of two murder charges and a manslaughter charge for the death of George Floyd on April 20, many turned to police unions, police departments and police associations across the country to see how they’d respond.
A screenshot of one purported response that appeared to show the Chicago Police Department aligning with Derek Chauvin after his conviction went viral following the verdict, gaining more than 200,000 likes and nearly 50,000 retweets in one post.
THE QUESTION
Did the Chicago Police tweet “we are all Derek Chauvin” after he was convicted?
THE SOURCES
Chicago Police Twitter feed and Twitter history
Statements from Chicago Police Department
THE ANSWER
There is no evidence that the Chicago Police Department posted the original tweet. The police department said it did not post the tweet and reported the screenshot on Twitter.
WHAT WE FOUND
The Chicago Police Department’s Twitter timeline shows no such post at any point in the last week or even since Chauvin’s trial began. While there is no single reliable archive of deleted tweets on the internet, no such tweet from the Chicago Police Department can be found in an internet archive search or in reporting by local Chicago media or national media.
The Chicago Police Department denied ever posting the tweet. It called the screenshot a “synthetic and manipulated image” and “misinformation” in one response, and noted it reported the viral tweet but was told no action would be taken in another response.
The CPD issued the same response to the tweet in an emailed statement to VERIFY. It said the message in the screenshot is “antithetical to our values.”
The screenshot does not include any timestamp to identify when it would have been posted, and cuts out where the timestamp, posting device and engagement metrics would appear underneath the tweet. Additionally, the font does not match Twitter’s font.
Faking a tweet is relatively easy. On top of simply photoshopping a screenshot, there are websites that allow people to generate fake tweets or Facebook posts.
A search of the Chicago Police Department’s Twitter post history shows that it doesn't currently have any posts on its account mentioning Derek Chauvin by name or making statements about the trial's outcome. The CPD did tweet about George Floyd last May, stating, “What happened to George Floyd is reprehensible.”
More from VERIFY: Derek Chauvin can appeal conviction, but he’s unlikely to win it
VERIFY
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