Nearly a year after dying beneath cop Derek Chauvin’s knee crushing his neck for nearly nine minutes, George Floyd has gotten justice. A prime prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that, no, Floyd did not die because of his drug use and that, yes, Chauvin did not use the practices endorsed by the law enforcement who make the country a safer place every day.
As a result, a jury of his peers deemed Chauvin guilty of all charges against him: second-degree manslaughter, third-degree murder, and, most seriously, second-degree murder.
Now that Floyd got justice in the courtroom, his allies ought to push for progress in our lawmaking, not rioting in the streets. Those of us wishing that another Chauvin never murders again should consider his conviction a second chance to take advantage of the opportunity that was squandered last year by the violent rioters hijacking legitimately peaceful protests.
After Floyd’s death last May, within two weeks, support for the Black Lives Matter movement increased by as much as it had in the previous 21 months, and nearly 7 in 10 people in the United States believed that the killing of Floyd was a sign of broader problems in the treatment of black Americans by police, including almost half of all Republicans. But instead of turning pain into power, it was turned into problems in the streets. While South Carolina’s Tim Scott saw his police reform bill languish in the Senate, crime exploded over the summer, resulting in the murder rate surging to levels not seen since the 1990s. Hardest hit were the lives and businesses of people of color.
A sane society would admit trading a legislative opportunity for months of rioting was a moral and financial failure. But let’s at least be an opportunistic society by capitalizing on Floyd’s win.
Chauvin was an obvious bad apple who managed to accrue 18 complaints on his record with little punishment. Floyd, who was obviously distressed and intoxicated, was accused of using a counterfeit bill, not of any violent crime, and any reasonable person could see that once he was prostrate on the ground, handcuffs rendered him utterly harmless. Yet cops feel empowered to use disproportionate force because of the protection of qualified immunity.
So let’s reform qualified immunity. Let’s decriminalize victimless behaviors that are best treated by medical and mental health professionals and let the police focus on actual violent criminals. With bipartisan bills such as that of Scott and Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey in the Senate, clearly, progress can be made.
Floyd finally got justice. The next step is with pen and paper, not the sort of violence from last summer that should have never occurred.
