So much has happened lately that I have barely been keeping up with world events. I only just found out that Derek Chauvin has been convicted on all three charges of killing George Floyd. Wow. I was so, so happy I cried. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it must have been for George Floyd’s family, friends, and members of the black community who have been facing battles like this for so long without anyone else on their side.
No wonder the Black community wept tears of relief and joy and raised their voices in triumph when, finally, guilty verdicts were announced. It’s a momentous occasion indeed, and I hope that the sentencing in a couple months’ time is also appropriate. Biden put it well when he said, “Nothing is going to make it all better, but at least now there’s some justice.”
The most recent case seems to be that of Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16 year old child. She was a child. She held a butter knife in her hands. The police department has utterly, utterly failed if it has trained its officers that it’s acceptable under any circumstance to respond to a child ‘wielding’ a butter knife by shooting them dead. Should she have injured someone else with the knife, that’s all that could have happened – an injury, not a death.
I hope Chauvin’s conviction is the beginning of a new era where police are held accountable for their actions, where bad cops are justly convicted, and police in general think twice before wielding their guns at people of colour.