George Floyd Aftermath
On may 25th 2020 George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis police during an arrest after a store clerk alleged that he used counterfeit bill. Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, he was one of four police officers on the scene. After George’s death, protests against police brutality erupted across the United States and globally.
On May 29th 2020 Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and the lesser included offense of second-degree manslaughter. He is the first white police officer in Minnesota to be charged in the death of a black civilian. Chauvin was found guilty on three charges: Second-degree murder, Third-degree murder, and manslaughter. His bail was immediately revoked and he was placed in custody, Chauvin is likely to spend decades in jail.
Even though Chauvin was found guilty, this is not entirely considered justice, if justice was truly served, George Floyd would still be alive. According to MappingPoliceViolence.org black civilians are three times more likely to be killed by police and in 47 of the 50 largest U.S. cities, black civilians were killed at a higher rate than white people. Most of the killings by the police begin with traffic stops, mental health checks, domestic disturbances, or reported low level offenses. It has also been proven that it is not about the crime, levels of violent crime in the U.S. cities do not determine rates of police violence. Another disappointing fact is there is no accountability, 98.3% of the killings by police between 2013-2020 have not resulted in being charged with a crime.
In result of the continuous mistreatment and murders of Black civilians in the United States, the Black Lives Matter movement was created. BLM is a political and social movement originating among African Americans, they focus on emphasizing human rights and racial equality for black individuals while campaigning against various forms of racism that is still prevalent today. BLM is a movement that has started to create change across the United States as well as the globe. The murder of George Floyd was a big part of that movement becoming a huge uprise against police brutality. Reform and defunding has been a big focus for many cities and police are no longer welcome in a lot of safe spaces including the New York Pride parade (2021).
If you want to educate yourself or get involved in the movement, please review the links below.
