Derek Chauvin has been declared guilty on all three counts--two second-degree murder, and one third-degree--and that's that. The evidence was overwhelming, and the defense had a tough road to hoe. George Floyd, hands cuffed behind him, face down on the pavement, had his windpipe closed gradually over nine minutes by a cop who didn't care.
It's awful to write that. But twelve people just ratified it.
That doesn't answer all the questions. In fact, some dangle there, outlining the work we all have to do:
- If Keith Ellison, a black man, isn't the Attorney General of Minnesota, does Derek Chauvin face the same charges? What if he's white and Republican?
- Is Al Sharpton leading prayers post-verdict an intentional slap at the white supremacist evangelicals, who are only too eager to pray for the political victories they want and get? Or just a demonstration, as in the days of Martin Luther King, Jr., that the Almighty can be summoned in the cause of racial justice just as much as he/she can by right-wingers wanting to demonstrate their chauvinism?
- Did Joe Biden do the best possible thing when he told reporters, pre-decision, that he was praying for the "right" verdict?
- What now of Kim Potter, also a very experienced police officer, up for second-degree murder in the same metropolitan area for the police shooting of Daunte Wright? Did she commit the same kind of crime? Or was the immediacy of the moment such that she might have room to plead down to third-degree negligence, which drawing the wrong weapon in the heat of the moment might have represented?
- Was there too much celebrating? Or, considering the injustices that have been committed, was this a kind of 'climbing Mount Everest' moment for the black community, as sad as that is to contemplate?
- Following that up, is this the apex of the Black Lives Matter movement, or a preview of future developments?
- Will there be a significant pushback by such right-wing groups as the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, and Oath Keepers? Will there be someone listening when they defend the police, seeing as how members of all three groups lent major help to the January 6 raid? Will there be pushback to that pushback? How will George Floyd now fit into the total conversation?
- Why did all this take eleven months to process? Is the right to a speedy trial, one of the hallmarks of the Sixth Amendment, just another one of those parts of the Constitution that are present but no longer relevant? If this was speedy, what's slow?
- Again, if it's a black person on trial, does it happen faster? Was it better that it took that long to mount an ongoing level of protest that couldn't be denied? Did that unwittingly, but definitely, help the state of Minnesota?
- Will police departments act differently, or are they locked into their responses by training, practice, and human expedience? Will the concept of 'qualified immunity,' verified by the Supreme Court, now come into greater question? There are far more do-or-die situations by the day, or those that look like it.
I'm sure there are more pertinent questions, but these will do. The country is exhausted by all this. We need to rest.
But there is no rest. There are too many guns out there, too many reasons for too many police officers to be jittery, and not for bad cause. Some guy loses a fight in a bar in Kenosha Saturday night, then returns with a gun because he can and kills three people. Will that take eleven months to adjudicate?
Yesterday was one of victory but also a sad one, a bittersweet demonstration of what facts can do if the rest of the dissonance is swept away. It is evidence, too, of the onrushing, undeniable effects of more people of color in our nation, now 41%, according to Fareed Zakaria on his Sunday show "GPS." That wave is building and can be clearly seen.
Not only police cameras are unmasking the inequities of enforcement; sheer numbers of others who are watching are, too. In 1957, Milwaukee police got away with the murder of Daniel Bell. Were that to happen today, way too much would have been made of that way too quickly and way too loudly.
The white supremacist militias can't stop that. The previous president knows that and ginned them up. It continues. But people of color also now have George Floyd. He lives on in perpetuity. Too.
Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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