John,
Yesterday, Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd just 11 short months ago. Listening to the verdict, we wanted to be overjoyed. But the truth is we should not have had to wait with bated breath to find out whether accountability would be served.
This verdict was accountability, but it's not yet justice. For us, justice would be George Floyd alive today. Instead, this guilty verdict is a stepping stone to get to the place where we can really do the work to start saving lives.
This trial was nothing short of a traumatizing, painful, and gut-wrenching reminder of how difficult it is to hold police accountable when they murder members of our community. And as we were bearing this pain, we witnessed a police officer murder 20-year-old Daunte Wright just miles from the courthouse. We witnessed militarized police invade the Minneapolis area, dropping tear gas and shooting rubber bullets upon people exercising their right to protest.
Today, all of the conditions that led to George Floyd’s death, to Daunte Wright’s death, to Adam Toledo’s death remain in place. We live in the country with the highest rate of police killings of any other wealthy country in the world, and where less than 1% of police officers are convicted for murdering civilians.
The officers who murdered Breonna Taylor were not convicted.
The officer who murdered Mike Brown Jr. was not convicted.
The officer who murdered Stephon Clark was not convicted.
The list goes on and on.
As the first activist from the movement fighting for Black lives elected to the House of Representatives, Cori came to Congress to save and to legislate for Black lives. Together, we will continue working on an ambitious set of policy proposals to transform public safety and to ensure communities like St. Louis no longer live under the constant threat of police violence.
Our work is to save Black lives, and our work continues.
In solidarity,
Team Cori