Guilty, Guilty, Guilty on all three counts.

New blog post 21 april 2021

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty on all three counts.  I am still in shock and stunned by the verdict to convict the white cop of the murder of Mr. Floyd.  Shock.  Shock heard around the world, not just in Minneapolis.  I got up at 6:30 am this morning and brought in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, wondering if this had really happened yesterday.  I felt like I needed more proof.  In huge font…”CONVICTED. Jury finds Derek Chauvin guilty of murder.” I am still staring at the newspaper.  A white cop finally found guilty of murdering a Black man. Minneapolis will not burn as it did last spring when Mr. Floyd was murdered by this white cop.  

We have yet to bury Mr. Wright, also killed by a whit cop last week.  A white woman cop who thought she was using her taser, but actually used her gun.  Guns are heavier than tasers. I’ve learned that not from experience, but from reading.  This white cop had stopped Mr. Wright because he had an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror, and then she saw on her computer screen in her police vehicle that his tabs had expired.  White cops stopping men of color (and women of color too).  They scuffled outside Mr. Wright’s automobile, and then she used her gun, instead of her taser.  She was training another cop, and had been on the police force in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota for 25 years.  Was this racism at work?  An honest error?  Or both?  I don’t know if we will ever know that truth. This verdict yesterday will not end white police violence against people of color and indigenous people.  It is a start, and for that I am grateful as a white woman.  I have been stopped and ticketed by police officers.  However, I have never feared for my life.  This is because I am white.  I am absolutely sure of that.  

There are three more former Minneapolis police officers going on trial for the murder of Mr. Floyd.  They watched as Chauvin had his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck, and did nothing.  They will probably and hopefully be found guilty.  When the verdict was read by Judge Cahill, I sat in front of my TV alone, and yelled, YES…three times. Guilty of second-degree unintentional murder.  Guilty of third-degree murder. Guilty of second-degree manslaughter.  The image of this cop being taken away in handcuffs behind his back will be etched in my mind and heart forever. The world will know in several weeks what kind of sentence this white cop will receive.  He will go to prison.  We don’t know for how long.  Sentencing guidelines suggest he could be put away for up to 40 years, though he has never been convicted before.  Remember, he is still white.  

President Biden and Vice-President Harris spoke to the Floyd family, and then spoke on national TV.  Next steps?  Passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.  It has passed federally in the House, but not in the Senate.  We shall see.

I feel a modicum of hope, though this court case will not end white supremacy or white police violence against people of color.  Should I have hope today?  I want to say yes, but I just don’t know if change will happen.  I just don’t know how many white supporters of the former president, also known as “the orange man,” in my own writings, will be changed by this verdict. I want to have hope.