When Judge Cahill read the guilty verdict earlier this week, Derek Chauvin sat in silence. Some commentators described his demeanor as “emotionless.” Others thought they saw shock in his expression. Since he was wearing a mask, it’s hard to know for sure.

If Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd, was surprised by the outcome, it would be depressingly sensible. When the New York Police Department’s Daniel Pantaleo choked Eric Garner to death for selling loose cigarettes, a grand jury let him off the hook, and federal investigators ultimately decided not to pursue the case. When Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann shot a twelve-year-old boy to death for playing with a toy gun, local prosecutors didn’t even bother pressing charges.

When Jeronimo Yanez of the St Anthony Police Department in Minnesota pulled over Philando Castile, a cafeteria supervisor at a local school where many of the kids saw him as a role model, Castile informed Yanez and the other officer on scene that he had a gun in the car. It was legally purchased, and Castile had a permit to carry it, but Yanez was spooked enough by the possibility that Castile was reaching for the gun (he wasn’t) to end Castile’s life as his girlfriend and their four-year-old daughter sat and watched.