jury convicted<\/i><\/a> former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd. Floyd\u2019s death, after being\u00a0 pinned to the pavement with a knee on his neck, set off a furious reexamination of racism and policing across the U.S.<\/i><\/p>\nLet\u2019s say that Derek Chauvin is convicted and appropriately sentenced for the murder of an unarmed Black man named George Floyd. Even if the best-case scenario is realized, it\u2019s just one. One man. One conviction. One appropriate sentencing. Countless unarmed Black people continue to die at the hands of police officers. Twelve jurors cannot balance the scales of 400 years of White violence against Black bodies and spirits. I can\u2019t find hope in one conviction. It\u2019s bad math. Hope happens when we change the equation. When every Black person encounters White officers and the outcome is respect, recognition of each other\u2019s humanity, and life not death. One trial, regardless of the outcome, cannot do that.<\/p>\n
\u2014Ebony Utley<\/p>\n
I\u2019d love to say I\u2019d be shocked if another killer cop is found innocent. But I won\u2019t be. And neither will anyone else. It won\u2019t be the first time we watched a senseless and brutal crime on camera, and then believed it never happened, because it was a cop. Some of us already believe no crime was committed, because it was a cop. We watched a man strangled to death by the full weight of another man on his neck. We all saw it happen. But we\u2019ll deny our own eyes, because, well, because it was a cop. That\u2019s the sad irony of oppressive systems. We end up trusting in them more than in ourselves.<\/p>\n
\u2014Shilita Montez<\/p>\n
Until the majority of White people agree that over-policing and systemic racism play key roles in the deaths of George, Breonna, Daunte, Adam and whoever, sadly and inevitably, is next, we will continue to have streets soaked with the blood and tears of Black and Brown people. My children will continue to ask their dad to be careful when he puts on a hoodie and jogs in our \u201cgood\u201d neighborhood. My husband will continue to run wide circles around people unloading their groceries. And as a White woman, when I\u2019m driving solo in my minivan, I\u2019ll never fear death when I see lights flashing in my rearview.<\/p>\n
\u2014Amber Hopper<\/p>\n
As a mother and education advocate, I have hopes for the verdict but based on my life and work experience\u2014I don’t believe much will change.\u00a0 We all watched 9 minutes and 29 seconds of a man\u2019s life leave us. One doesn’t have to look to Minneapolis to see the injustice, the disregard for life, the lack of investments in communities of color.\u00a0 It’s in our very own backyard. Today’s outcome won’t change what’s already in motion for so many other Black men and children of color across our nation.\u00a0 We tell ourselves we’re progressive enough, we care enough but verdict after verdict, leader after leader, policies, systems and budgets speak to me.\u00a0 It shows our values. We failed George Floyd long before that fateful day. We continue to fail Black children across America. There is so much more we need to do to create a better future for our children. Until we make more investments in our children, George Floyd, sadly, will be one more life lost, full of potential who was caught in a system that never gave him a fair chance.<\/p>\n
\u2014Mariela Salgado<\/p>\n
I hope Derek Chauvin is convicted for the murder of George Floyd. The video evidence and the testimony of expert and eye witnesses is overwhelming. It\u2019s gut wrenching. If Chauvin can\u2019t be convicted, what police officer can be found guilty of using excessive force to kill a suspect? Chauvin literally pressed the life out of George Floyd. The whole world watched it. I fear what could happen if the jury does not convict him. I lived through and reported on the riots that followed the acquittal of four LAPD officers in the beating of Rodney King. As White man, I have a much better understanding now about the fear Black Americans feel when they are pulled over by a police officer. I pray that justice will be served in this case and many others.<\/p>\n
\u2014Jeffrey L. Rabin<\/p>\n
I want to feel like the final guilty verdicts might be a sign of hope, a promise for change, or a small breath of relief. But all I can do in this moment is grieve, thinking about all of the lives that have been lost, knowing that there is still a long road ahead in the fight for equality, equity, and justice.<\/p>\n
\u2014Murriel Perez McCabe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Members of the Long Beach Post\u2019s Community Editorial Board shared their thoughts on the Derek Chauvin trial before the verdict was announced Tuesday. Here\u2019s what they had to say about the larger issue of injustice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":275,"featured_media":1117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[70],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[67],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-editorial-board","tag-editorial","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}