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Friend, A jury has convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd – an appalling act of police violence that shocked and horrified millions of Americans and led to global protests calling for racial justice and police accountability. “We’ve all seen the sickening video of Derek Chauvin with his knee on George Floyd’s neck. Today’s verdict is an acknowledgment that police officers cannot get away with murder, but we still have a long way to go to achieve the justice demanded by so many protesters in the last year,” said Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Chauvin, who is white, was filmed putting his knee on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for nine and a half minutes, holding Floyd face down on the asphalt while he pleaded for his life. The video shocked and galvanized a worldwide audience. But most cases involving police killings don’t have video capturing what happened. The fact that justice was done in this case cannot allow us to forget so many other deaths: Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Dion Johnson and more. Following George Floyd’s murder, the country was swept by the largest demonstrations for justice in decades, rooted in longstanding demands for a reimagining of a criminal legal system built on anti-Black racism and white supremacy. Today’s verdict is not the culmination of that movement; so much remains to be done. Lawmakers at the state and federal level must continue holding officers accountable for police violence. The time to act is now. The March Continues, The Southern Poverty Law Center |
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