The Police Killing of George Floyd, One Year On

 
 
In a post commemorating the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death, Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, affirms some of the unsung heroes that played pivotal roles in securing justice for Floyd and his family over the past year. There’s 17 year-old Darnella Frazier, whose righteous indignation in choosing to record rather than walk past allowed the world to bear witness to an evil that may otherwise have gone unnoticed and unpunished. And there’s Christopher Martin, the 18 year-old cashier who took Floyd’s $20 bill on that fateful day, whose recent interviews painfully demonstrate the long arc of our extraordinarily broken justice system. We may never know or understand the full toll this atrocity has taken on the people close to it, but we can seek to honor the remarkable courage of those who showed up when it mattered most.

Upon reflecting on the statistics Huang presents on police accountability, it seems clear that the outcome of Derek Chauvin’s trial was far from certain, and if anything represents an extreme outlier in the history of such cases. Indeed, were it not for two key elements — his fellow officers coming forward and testifying against him, and a more diverse jury — Chauvin would likely have joined the 99% who walked free following similar episodes of police brutality.

When police kill a civilian, a series of obstacles stand in the way of achieving justice for the victim, from the messy procedural nightmare that is police investigating themselves to the laws in place that grant considerable discretion to on-duty officers in the use of force. Accountability in modern policing is a fleeting and scarcely observed phenomenon precisely because the system is inherently designed to give special protections to law enforcement (see the doctrine of Qualified Immunity for more on this). Even with footage uploaded to YouTube, replete with matching autopsy evidence, holding police officers legally liable for their misconduct is nearly impossible in most cases.

The people of Minnesota know this all too well. Four years before Floyd’s death, an officer from a different police department in Minneapolis was charged in the shooting of Philando Castile. Same city, different ending. Castile, a 32 year-old Black man, was shot at point-blank range five times in his car during a routine traffic stop. Video of the encounter taken by Castile’s girlfriend, who was also in the car, later showed that Castile actually had the wherewithal to inform the officer he had a gun in the car before reaching for his license and registration — a decision that in hindsight proved to be fatal.

That officer, Jeronimo Yanez, walked after his trial in 2017. Unlike Chavin’s trial, the officers in Yanez’s department, including the police chief, all testified on his behalf. And the resulting verdict was decided by eight jurors, just two of whom were Black, compared to the twelve jurors, four of whom were Black and two of whom identified as multiracial, in Chauvin’s trial.

That the Chauvin verdict came as such a surprise despite the many courageous young women and men who captured the carnage on video and shared their stories both in and out of court is a testament to the massive reforms needed to hold those within the orbit of law enforcement more consistently accountable. We shouldn’t have to count on officers breaking ranks or judges to press for diverse juries, when history shows us this almost never happens. To turn the Chauvin outcome from a vanishingly rare exception to the rule requires a top-down rethink of not just policing but our entire justice system. Ultimately we must remove the discrepant veil of protection around those serving in a public capacity and make it more difficult for law enforcement and other state officials to escape legal consequences for clear, egregious abuses of power.

Instead of teaching generations of young Black men how to navigate a society that doesn’t respect Black life and a policing culture that seems hell-bent on killing them year in and year out, we should be addressing the systemic factors that feed the cycle of racial injustice in America.

Excerpts:
 

“The events of that day and the rise of Black Lives Matter protests across the globe have been seared into our minds and the history books for decades to come – and that’s because of the remarkable courage of many people and the conviction of one.

The courage was demonstrated by Darnella and other witnesses who stepped forward to counter the excuses of the legal defense team. In addition to Darnella, who testified in the trial of the killer, others who showed great courage were Jena Scurry, a 911 dispatcher who reported her concerns about the treatment of Floyd; Alisha Oyler, who was working nearby and took video recordings; Donald Williams II, a mixed martial arts fighter who warned the police that they were killing Floyd; Judeah Reynolds, Darnella’s 9-year-old cousin who also witnessed the murder; Alyssa Funari, another 17-year-old girl who recorded the killing; Kaylynn Gilbert, also 17, who witnessed the murder; Genevieve Hansen, a firefighter who offered to render aid to Floyd and was rebuffed by the police officers; Christopher Belfrey, who videotaped the murder; and Christopher Martin, a 19-year-old store clerk who had reported Floyd’s use of a counterfeit bill and later observed the murder.

It’s especially notable that so many of the witnesses who came forward were young people, people who had reason to fear the consequences of their bravery. Many of these young women and men were Black – and all were familiar with the frequent stories of police harassment and violence against their community. These witnesses took the stand seeking justice for Floyd, regretting their inability to stop the murder and anxiously calling for accountability. Their courage should serve as an inspiration to all of us. What if each of us were given the chance to stand up to police brutality? Would we be as brave? As Dr. Martin Luther King noted, “we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Our country was well-served by these brave young people who spoke out to demand justice.”

[…]

“This story is also unusual because it resulted in a conviction. According to Mapping Police Violence, 7,666 police officers killed someone in the U.S. between 2013 and 2019. Mapping Police Violence defines a police killing as “a case where a person dies as a result of being shot, beaten, restrained, intentionally hit by a police vehicle, pepper sprayed, tasered, or otherwise harmed by police officers, whether on-duty or off-duty.” Of the 7,666 cases, only 25 officers were convicted of a crime. In another 74 cases, the officers were charged with a crime but not convicted. In 99% of the cases, officers were not charged with any crime whatsoever.”

 

Further reading:

Feature image credit: Flickr / Lorrie Shaull

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