‘More work to be done’: Derek Chauvin murder conviction brings relief, resolve to keep fighting for justice in George Floyd’s name
Derek Chauvin #DerekChauvin
Jury says Derek Chauvin guilty of all charges in George Floyd’s death
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The emotions ran the gamut when news broke Tuesday that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts in the murder last May of George Floyd.
Relief. Joy. Fatigue. Determination.
But perhaps most of all, people of color across the United States felt that, for a moment, they mattered.
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“This means everything, this is long, long overdue,” said Selena McKnight, 46, of Minneapolis, who after hearing the verdict threw her arms around her 18-year-old daughter as a crowd cheered. “But this doesn’t stop here. We have to keep going.”
In New York’s Times Square, Floyd’s brother Terrence told the USA TODAY Network that “given the history of these kinds of cases, I was surprised” by the verdict, which could find Chauvin in prison for up to 40 years for having knelt on Floyd’s neck until he died. “I know there’s still more work to be done.”
In Washington, D.C., Cheria Askew, 43, arrived in Black Lives Matter Plaza feeling “overjoyed and overwhelmed” by the news.
“I’d experienced racism as a child, but it’s very different when you get older,” she said. “It’s saddening, it can be depressing. You see growth, but then sometimes it doesn’t seem like it’s enough. So it’s bittersweet. But this is more on the sweet side, than anything.”
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At a Columbus, Ohio, barbershop, Emoni Hudson, 24, took a photograph of the TV after the guilty verdict was revealed. She said she was “very happy” about the verdict but warned a battle for equality still loomed.
“As Black people, we’re still angry,” said Hudson, who is pregnant and plans to name her daughter Faith. “It’s a battle of humanity. We just want equality, not revenge.”
Floyd’s death last year sparked protests both peaceful and violent in hundreds of cities and ignited a new civil rights movement focused on exposing systemic racism and pushing for police reform.
Since then calls for change have only become more strident given the growing list of people of color killed while interacting with law enforcement. They include Rayshard Brooks, killed last June in Atlanta, and in recent days Daunte Wright, 20, shot in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and Adam Toledo, 13, shot by a Chicago police officer while raising his hands at the officer’s request.
Over the past years, many such incidents have resulted in settlements or no charges brought against the officers involved, further inflaming tensions in communities of color and cementing a feeling that justice – even in the case where a video of an incident was available – would be hard to come by despite the world having watched the nearly 10-minute video of Floyd dying under Chauvin’s knee.
That skepticism has 30-year-old roots in the case of Rodney King, a Los Angeles man beaten by officers before being hauled off to jail. The event was captured on video by a plumber who lived nearby, bringing to life a reality many people of color say is commonplace when dealing with police. But when the King trial was moved from Los Angeles to a white suburb, the jury declined to convict the officers involved. South Los Angeles erupted in violence.
Similar concerns surfaced in the days leading up to the Chauvin verdict, as police and National Guard troops were mobilized in a variety of cities to quell any resulting protests.
But Chauvin’s guilt changed the tenor of the moment for many activists and civil rights leaders, who urged those fighting for social justice not to lose the momentum created by the trial.
The verdict “showed that everything that we fought for last year, all the marches, the protests, the rallies, arguments amongst each other, all the indifferences, all the seats at the table, all the voices mattered,” said Traci Fant of Greenville, South Carolina, where she is organizer of Freedom Fighters Upstate SC.
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“Hopefully, this right here is really going to start some true reforms, some true conversations about police brutality, and police justice and show them that Black lives truly matter,” Fant said. “It’s a great day in history. Let the healing begin.”
Shortly after the verdict, Rev. Al Sharpton, who joined Floyd family members, took a sober tone. “We don’t find pleasure in this. We don’t celebrate a man going to jail. We would rather George be alive,” he said.
But civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented a number of Black families in wrongful death lawsuits, felt the verdict had the potential to be a pivotal moment in the “legacy” of the nation, which continues to struggle with a 400-year-old history of slavery.
“America, let’s frame this moment as a moment where we finally are getting close to living up to our Declaration of Independence, that we hold these truths to be self-evident,” he said. “We frame this moment for all of us, not just for George Floyd.”
Meredith J. Duncan, assistant dean of diversity, inclusion and metropolitan programs at the University of Houston Law Center, said the verdict is historic because of the message it sends about prosecuting police officers for unlawful use of force.
“That is very encouraging, not just for George Floyd’s family, but for all Americans, not just people of color in this country and we still have a lot to work on, but this is very encouraging,” said Duncan. “Moving forward we know that it is possible to hold law enforcement to account for the killing of a person of color in this country.”
ACLU President Deborah Archer watched the outcome of the Chauvin trial with her two teenage sons and was “worried about the verdict – not only for what it meant for the United States, but also for what it meant for the ability of my boys to live lives of joy and to feel safe.”
“I breathed deeper than I had in weeks,” said Archer, the first Black person to head the ACLU, one of the nation’s major civil rights organizations. “Tonight, I think we are all rightfully celebrating Chauvin’s conviction. George Floyd’s family and his community finally have some measure of accountability.”
‘This means everything’: Minneapolis joyfully chants George Floyd’s name after Derek Chauvin is found guilty of murder
But, Archer added, “Ultimately, I think we are still a long way from justice. … There is momentary relief, but this does not change our system. Now we must renew our conviction to create a world where police do not have the opportunity or authority to used violence to harass, target, oppress, and kill Black people.”
Many civil rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers are pushing the Senate to pass the new George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Measures would include eliminating the immunity from prosecution that has protected many officers involved in shootings of civilians as well as mandating training and establishing a national database of police misdeeds.
Police advocates argue that the job of law enforcement has never been more dangerous given the number of weapons in American homes; the United States has 120 firearms per 100 residents, double that of any nation on earth. They also express concern that if the job of policing is no longer seen as appealing, recruitment of new officers will decline and require departments to hire applicants who do not meet their criteria.
The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis issued a statement after the verdict saying there were “no winners” in the case, adding a request for “the political pandering to stop and the race baiting of elected officials to stop. In addition, we need to stop the divisive comments and we all need to do better to create a Minneapolis we all love.”
But others begged to differ about the neutrality of the verdict.
“Justice won,” said the Rev. Charles Williams II, the pastor of Historic King Solomon Baptist Church of Detroit and the head of the Michigan chapter of the National Action Network, led by Rev. Al Sharpton. “We are relieved that Derek Chauvin will have to pay for his crime against a human.”
That sentiment echoed around the nation as people took to the streets to express themselves after the jury took less than 24 hours to render its verdict.
“Today a Black life truly mattered,” said Chivona Newsome of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, who was standing in the city’s Union Square when she heard the news and shouts of “Guilty! Guilty!” erupted around her.
“It showed the police that they can’t go on killing, that the government sanctioned killing of Black men will be no more, that police can no longer hide behind a badge,” she said.
Clear across the country, a man whose life has been permanently affected by police violence did not hold back when he heard the Chauvin trial news.
“Oh man, I was full of emotions,” said Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson of Love Not Blood Campaign, an organization he co-founded in Oakland, California, after his nephew, Oscar Grant, was killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer in 2009 who said he mistook his gun for his Taser. “I’m extremely glad that it came down the way it came down, and I’m hopeful that some changes are finally beginning to take place.”
For some, the moment was both personal and private. Brian Hilliard, 48, of Washington, D.C., was alone in his car when he heard the verdict. He said he just yelled, ‘Yes!’’
“It’s about time,’’ Hilliard said later as he walked through a neighborhood. “We don’t ever get justice.’’
He rattled off the names of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and other lives lost at the hands of police who did not suffer the consequences of their actions.
“There are so many others so justice hasn’t been served,’’ he said. “I’m still not satisfied. We got one. But how much more of this do we have to endure?”
Contributing: Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY; Roberto Villalpando, Austin American-Statesman; Tessa Duvall, Louisville Courier Journal; Maryann Struman, Detroit Free Press; Dean Narciso,The Columbus Dispatch; Chris Maag, The Bergen Record in New Jersey; Angelia L. Davis, Greenville (South Carolina) News
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘More work to be done’: Derek Chauvin murder conviction brings relief, resolve to keep fighting for justice in George Floyd’s name