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George Floyd modified the world.
One 12 months in the past, the world paused to witness the ugliness of racial hatred and white supremacy manifesting within the type of a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, who used his knee and physique weight to choke the life out of Floyd, a Black man, over an alleged counterfeit $20 invoice. Floyd’s lethal encounter with Minneapolis Police despatched shockwaves to those that had willfully refused to acknowledge the depths of police violence in opposition to Black folks on this nation.
It despatched a chilling reminder to Black those who we’re nonetheless not free and nonetheless not being handled as human beings in a rustic that our enslaved ancestors labored and toiled to assist construct.
Floyd’s homicide and circulation of the bystander video taken by then 17-year-old Darnella Frazier grew to become a neighborhood, nationwide and worldwide cry for justice and accountability inside hours. Demonstrations and uprisings came about in Minneapolis, throughout the nation and internationally.
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Some buildings have been burned, together with the Third Precinct Police station the place Chauvin and the opposite officers labored. Some protesters sustained critical accidents from the much less deadly and chemical weapons that have been deployed. White vigilantes attacked Black folks and different peaceable protesters.
And hundreds of thousands of individuals marched and demonstrated to demand justice. They demanded the swift firing of Chauvin and the three different officers who helped kill Floyd in addition to homicide expenses.
After being on trial for 3 weeks, on April 20, 2021, a various jury of his friends discovered Chauvin responsible of second-degree homicide, third-degree homicide and manslaughter. Black residents of Minneapolis and Black folks across the nation and the world breathed a collective sigh of aid when the decision was learn and Chauvin was led away from courtroom in handcuffs.
This was an consequence that many didn’t assume was attainable as a result of the system is designed to permit law enforcement officials to kill folks with impunity. That’s the reason that out of the hundreds of police killings which have occurred in recent times, only a handful of police officers have been convicted of murder. This should change, and the system of policing itself have to be drastically overhauled and reworked.
Since Floyd’s homicide, the Minnesota Legislature has handed a handful of watered-down police reform payments, that are a shame. Different jurisdictions have taken extra critical motion, resembling New York Metropolis turning into the primary locale to finish certified immunity. Maryland overhauled its police invoice of rights. Many jurisdictions have banned chokeholds and neck restraints just like the one used on Floyd.
The town of Brooklyn Heart (10 miles from Minneapolis) lately handed sweeping police reforms, together with putting vital limits on armed law enforcement officials conducting visitors stops after the police shooting death of Daunte Wright, a 20 year-old Black man and father killed throughout a bogus visitors cease within the midst of the Chauvin trial.
Floyd’s household and supporters have lobbied for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, whereas some argue that the proposed modifications can be incremental and never vital sufficient. On the conclusion of the Chauvin trial, the Division of Justice announced an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department, and federal civil rights charges have been brought in opposition to all 4 officers related to Floyd’s homicide.
These efforts are an necessary step, however there’s far more that must be performed to essentially rework policing on this nation to stop pointless lack of life, the overcriminalization of Black folks, racial profiling, and violence by the hands of police. The instances of those that have been killed earlier than Floyd and after must be opened and/or reopened and seen by a racial justice lens.
Justice is nothing with out ridding Black folks of oppression. Chauvin’s conviction is just not the top of the cycle however merely one break within the chain of systematic racism.
Nekima Levy Armstrong is a civil rights lawyer, activist and govt director of the Wayfinder Basis.