April 25, 2021
A Pyrrhic victory. How else can we describe Derek Chauvin’s conviction Tuesday on charges of 2nd degree unintentional murder, 3rd degree murder and second degree manslaughter when the murder of 20 year old Daunte Wright by a police officer after pretextual traffic stop and laid to rest Thursday looms so large?
How else do we describe a conviction that only happened because 17 year old Darnella Frazier had the courage and presence of mind to film all excruciatingly long 9 minutes? During the trial, Darnella testified that there were “nights I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more,” (Source: “Darnella Frazier, The Teenager Who Filmed George Floyd’s Arrest, Testifies at Trial,” by Nicholas Bigel-Burroughs and Tim Arango, The New York Times, 3/30/21). No such anguished insomnia troubles the cops who kill with impunity, or those who empower them.
How can we feel even a shred of relief when the pace of killings has not slowed since protests erupted after the video of George Floyd’s murder went public? In 2021 alone, 319 people have been killed by the police thus far. 28% of those killed were Black, despite being only 13% of the population. Overall, Black people are three times more likely to be killed by the police than white people, despite being more likely to be unarmed, (Source: Mappingpoliceviolence.org).
The starkness of those statistics was brought home by the police killing of 15 year old Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio moments before the verdict was read in the Chauvin trial. Although the police were called because Ma’Khia was in danger, instead of helping, the police shot her four times at point blank range, (Source: “Police in Ohio shoot and kill teenage girl, shortly before Derek Chauvin verdict,” by David Matthews and Brian Niemitz, The New York Daily News, 4/20/21). It is heartbreakingly hard to hail Chauvin’s verdict as a victory as we watch the age of Black and Brown victims of police violence get younger and younger.
As we watch the reaction to the Chauvin verdict, it appears that even that small measure of accountability was too much for the myriad forces of white supremacy in this country. The killing of unarmed Black people continued apace. In addition to Ma’Khia, police in Elizabeth City, North Carolina killed Andrew Brown on Wednesday, (Source: “Civil rights leaders want Pasquotank sheriff to resign in the wake of Andrew Brown shooting,” by Adam Wagner and Danielle Battaglia, The News & Observer, 4/24/21).
Beyond those individual killings which apologists tried to rationalize, states introduced a raft of new laws seeking to criminalize the exercise of First Amendment rights by Black citizens or those who believe in the humanity of Black people, (Source: “G.O.P Bills Target Protestors (and Absolve Motorists Who Hit Them),” by Reid J. Epstein and Patricia Mazzei, The New York Times, 4/21/21). Although 96% of Black Lives Matter protests were peaceful, 34 states have introduced 81 bills criminalizing protests and limiting liability for vigilantes who target them.
This past week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a harsh new law that escalates “public disorder” violations from misdemeanors to felonies and allows the state to override local decisions to reduce police budgets. Given Florida’s extensive felon disenfranchisement, this law is clearly designed to strip Black people of two vital Constitutional rights— their First Amendment right “ to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” and their right to vote under the 14th and 15th Amendments.
In this dispiriting environment, the Supreme Court’s decision in Jones v. Mississippi on Thursday was the coup de grace. In Jones, a 6-3 conservative majority of the Court ruled that judges had broad latitude to sentence juvenile offenders to life in prison without parole. In an opinion that Mark Joseph Stern aptly called “appalling” and “barbaric,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh dishonestly overturned recent Supreme Court precedent which sharply limited the ability to sentence juveniles to life without parole, while disingenuously claiming that the Court was adhering to precedent, (Source: “Brett Kavanaugh’s Opinion Restoring Life Without Parole Is Dishonest and Barbaric,” by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate.com, 4/22/21). Justice Sotomayor pointed out in her scathing dissent that 70% of juveniles sentenced to life without parole are nonwhite. Thus, Kavanaugh, who was rewarded with a Supreme Court seat despite his “youthful indiscretions,” cavalierly condemned kids of color to consequences that he managed to avoid.
At every level, from local police officers to the highest court in the land, the forces of virulent racism are determinedly constructing a Gordian knot to ensnare people of color and strip them of every inalienable right, including those of life and liberty. It is no surprise that we couldn’t celebrate the Chauvin verdict. This country is already making us pay.
#AbolishtheFilibuster
#PassTheForthePeopleAct
#PasstheGeorgeFloydAct.