![]() Only systemic changes that lead to less loss will bring justice. It speaks volumes about how unjust our justice system is, especially when the police are involved. The fact that so many of us were prepared for him to not be held accountable speaks volumes about how truly rotten our system is. A man killed another man, and he is now being held accountable. Chauvin’s guilty verdict shouldn’t feel like a “win.” It should feel like a given. What happened to George Floyd devastated me the same way what happened to Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, and countless others devastated me - I didn’t need to see it on video to feel outraged. At the same time, it struck something in Black people that was all too familiar. That’s not justice.įloyd’s murder struck something in non-Black people that I’d never seen before. White lawmakers have a history of finally, begrudgingly, moving the needle forward once a Black person is harmed or killed in a public way. The blood shed on Bloody Sunday as Congressman John Lewis and hundreds of others marched across Edmund Pettus Bridge gave us the Voting Rights Act the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Pelosi’s words are a reminder of the numerous moments throughout history in which white Americans are “awakened” or finally encouraged to make changes after violence is inflicted upon Black people. ![]() Any progress that has come or will come because of the impact of Floyd’s murder isn’t a reflection of his “sacrifice.” It’s a reflection of a society that is so broken that it continues to willingly pay the price of human life rather than make the obvious and necessary changes to become what it claims to be - a “land of the free” and a country to be proud of. He was a man, a father, a son, a partner, a human being who should still be here today. They are at odds with the reality: Floyd’s life was cruelly cut short by a police officer who was empowered by a system that had told him, since its inception, that taking the life of a Black person is acceptable. “For being there to call out to your mom - how heartbreaking was that - call out for your mom, ‘I can’t breathe,’” adding that Floyd’s name “will always be synonymous with justice.” These comments imply Floyd willingly gave his life for the cause of social justice. “Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice,” she said. ![]() Yet in a press conference yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thanked George Floyd for his sacrifice. Chauvin’s conviction, among a sea of non-convictions, is not justice. I’m relieved that Floyd’s family doesn’t have to experience the pain and trauma of a not-guilty verdict, but that’s not enough. Of the 95 cases that have closed, 44 ended with convictions. The New York Times reports that about 1,000 people per year are killed by law enforcement in the U.S., and only 121 officers have been arrested and charged for murder or manslaughter in on-duty killings since 2005. This is especially true when the person whose life was taken is Black.Īccording to the Washington Post, since 2015, more than 5,000 people have been shot and killed by the police in the United States, and in the past year, 984 people have been shot and killed by the police. ![]() I hadn’t anticipated how I’d feel with a guilty verdict because despite the very clear video footage of this murder seen around the world, I, like many others, knew all too well that a murder committed by a police officer - more often than not - doesn’t seem to count as murder in the court of law. ![]()
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