We must see the Derek Chauvin verdict for what it is: accountability but not true justice
When the guilty verdict was read out in court yesterday, 20 April, Derek Chauvin looked confused. ‘This wasn’t meant to happen,’ his facial expression said. We’re so used to seeing the criminal justice system reward white police officers who commit unlawful killings of Black people that, although we knew that Chauvin should be convicted, we didn’t know that he would be. For many of us, we had to balance the hope of that happening with the reality that police officers being convicted for killing Black people doesn’t really happen. There is no real legacy for it. But the Derek Chauvins of this world – all the racists who believed that he would and should get away with it – know now that the tide is turning.
It’s important to mark the difference between accountability versus justice. Derek Chauvin was held accountable for murdering George Floyd, and while that is a step towards justice, it isn’t full justice. True justice requires that we not only hold racist murderers accountable, but that we eviscerate institutional racism and eradicate the power construct that is white supremacy. Full justice would mean that no Black men or women are ever killed unlawfully by police officers again.
There is a lot more work to be done. You can’t look at the Derek Chauvin case without thinking about similar cases in the UK where Black men and women have been killed in police custody in questionable circumstances – I speak of Sarah Reed, Sean Rigg, Joy Gardener, Christopher Alder, Rashan Charles and Jimmy Mubenga, to name but a few. We have too many cases of unlawful killings of Black people in this country for us to act like this is a US problem. Black people account for eight per cent of deaths in police custody, while accounting for only three per cent of the population. They are dying disproportionately.
We live in a country where those in power don’t even believe institutional racism exists in the UK, as proven in the recent race report, commissioned by Boris Johnson – a man who denounced the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. The existence of racism is not a matter for debate, it is not a point of view. It is a truth. The Derek Chauvin verdict proves that report is a lie. People talk about America being put on trial over the death of George Floyd, but really it was white supremacy that was on trial; racialised police brutality was on trial. People seem to think that it comes down to the legalisation of guns in the US that causes all police brutality, but George Floyd was killed with a knee. Black British people who have been killed at the hands of the police were killed with other instruments – there are many ways to kill a person. It doesn’t always have to be with a gun.
We need to learn from the passers-by who witnessed George Floyd’s murder, the 17-year-old who filmed his death proving vital evidence in the trail, those who shouted at the authorities to stop and those who called the police on the police. They called out an atrocity when they saw it and we must do the same, whether that means writing a letter to your local MP, protesting or using your voice to educate family and friends on these issues. Silence is complicity.
In the past few weeks, Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo and Ma'Khia Bryant - all young people – have been killed by US police in the last few weeks. Two of them were children. This verdict has not solved institutional racism. We have to remember that this is just one case and we have far to go. We must see the verdict for what it is – an example of a police officer being held accountable for murdering a Black man, but it is not justice. We have to a way to go before we start tackling the centuries of Black pain that we have and are still experiencing. We must strive for accountability and justice.
I am a woman of faith and it amazes me how God uses people who society deems as unimportant to do the greatest things. Many people were ready to discredit George Floyd because of his fight with drug addiction or his prior criminal convictions. Although he did not choose to be murdered, his death has blown the lid off the cauldron of silencing the experiences of Black people. In the US, Joe Biden has agreed to name a new police reform bill after him. As his daughter said, ‘my dad has changed the world.’ There is something about the manner of his death, the way he cried out for his mother, that reminds us of our combined humanity. He was just trying to breathe. The legacy of George Floyd goes beyond America, it speaks to us here in the UK. We still have unlawful killings of Black people in police custody. We are quick to dismiss people we don’t see as influential, or wealthy, people whose lives might not have always been on the straight and narrow. We think these people aren’t worth talking about. George Floyd has shown the opposite to be true.
As told to Ella Alexander
This is Why I Resist by Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu (Headline, £20) is available to buy at amazon.co.uk
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