Image Courtesy:thehindu.com
Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, has been convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter for kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes during his arrest last May and killing him, reported BBC News.
A 12-member Jury deliberated on the case for less than 11 hours before holding Chauvin guilty and he may face a 40-year jail sentence. Three other former police officers present with Derek while Floyd’s arrest is to go on trial later this year. George’s murder had sparked worldwide Black Lives Matter protests against racism and excessive use of force by police.
George’s brother, Philonise, while speaking to CNN, described sitting in the courtroom and listening to the verdict as, “a moment I would never be able to re-live, I will always have inside of me.”
George Floyd had said, “I can’t breathe”, repeatedly when he was pinned down during the approximately nine-minute encounter with Derek Chauvin on May 25 last year, and the video of it was filmed by bystanders, including a teenage girl, whose footage went viral on social media. Witnesses to the incident had also pleaded with the police to stop and let go of George.
George’s lawyer Ben crump tweeted, “GUILTY! Painfully earned justice has finally arrived for George Floyd’s family. This verdict is a turning point in history and sends a clear message on the need for accountability of law enforcement. Justice for Black America is justice for all of America!”
GUILTY! Painfully earned justice has finally arrived for George Floyd’s family. This verdict is a turning point in history and sends a clear message on the need for accountability of law enforcement. Justice for Black America is justice for all of America!
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) April 20, 2021
According to the BBC, George bought a pack of cigarettes at a convenience store in South Minneapolis on the evening of May 25, 2020, and when a shop assistant believed he had used a counterfeit 20-dollar bill, he called the police after George refused to return the cigarette pack.
The four police officers handcuffed George and when he struggled against the force, the police officers wrestled him to the ground and pinned him under their weight. Chauvin pressed his knee into George’s back for over nine minutes while he kept begging that he could not breathe. He was motionless when the ambulance arrived and was pronounced dead after an hour.
Other media reports detailed how President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the first African American woman in her position, addressed the nation after the verdict was announced. The Hindu quoted Ms. Harris saying, “America has a long history of systemic racism… Black men are fathers, and brothers, and sons, and uncles, and grandfathers, and friends, and neighbours. Their lives must be valued in our education system, in our health-care system, in our housing system, in our economic system, in our criminal-justice system, in our nation.”
President Biden added, “It was a murder in the full light of day.. Let’s also be clear that such a verdict is also much too rare. For so many people, it seems like it took a unique and extraordinary convergence of factors. A brave young woman with a smartphone camera, a crowd who was traumatised… a murder that lasts [sic] almost ten minutes in broad daylight… officers standing up and testifying against a fellow officer instead of just closing ranks… for so many it feels like it took all of that for the judicial system to deliver… just basic accountability.”
Related:
In Memory of George Floyd
Indian feminists condemn George Floyd’s murder
Do all Lives Matter in India?