Analysis: He mattered
In the end, the jurors believed their eyes. They found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd.
The jurors believed the 9 minutes and 29 seconds of videotape that showed Chauvin with his knee pressed into Floyd’s neck as the frightened Black man cried out for mercy, for oxygen and then, in his final moments, for his mother.
They had faith in the medical experts, who one by one sat in the witness chair in a Minneap
olis courtroom and calmly explained that Floyd didn’t die of an unhealthy heart, the drug addiction that dogged him, or carbon monoxide poisoning.
They heard the truth in bystanders’ testimony that overflowed with grief and haunting guilt because they had been forced to stand helplessly by as they watched a fellow human die.
The 12 jurors — Black, white and mixed race; men and women; old and young — reflected the mosaic of citizens who had marched in the streets over the summer, here and around the world, roused from their nonchalance by the sheer callousness of a crime they had borne witness to from the quiet intimacy of their homes.
The rage of millions and the heartbreak of a family were given cooling comfort.
“History is here. This is monumental,” said George Floyd’s brother Terrence. “We got the verdict we wanted. We said, ‘God, we need justice. We need it now.’ And he answered.”
Floyd’s murder invaded our lives and haunted our dreams. It came at us from our televisions, their telephones and their laptops.
The heartlessness of it couldn’t be ignored or shrugged off. What we saw wasn’t grainy security footage or jittery police body camera video — although plenty of both served as evidence in the three-week trial.
The bystander video of Floyd’s death was in vivid, clear color. The dying man’s every agonizing cry echoed in the audio. It was cruelty writ large.
“George Floyd mattered,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. “He was loved by his family and his friends. His death shocked the hearts of our community, our country, the whole world. He was loved by his family and friends. But that isn’t why he mattered. He mattered because he was a human being. And there is no way we can turn away from that reality.”
Because the jurors believed what they saw, which is what the prosecutors had implored them to do, they also acknowledged a truth that Black and Brown Americans have seen up close for so long, which is that there’s good reason to fear the police.
That for all of the fine officers who risk their lives in service to their communities, there are also those who abuse their power and our trust and take lives — and all too often, the dead are people of color.
“No verdict can bring George Perry Floyd back to us,” prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said after the verdict was read. “But this verdict does give a message to his family that he was somebody, that his life mattered. That all of our lives matter.”
“I also hope that this verdict will help us further along the road toward a better humanity,” Blackwell said.
The verdict doesn’t correct the injustices that people have experienced in the past. It doesn’t breathe life into the dead. But it honors them, just a little.
Emmett Till “was the first George Floyd,” said Philonise Floyd, another brother of George. “Times, they’re getting harder every day. Ten miles away from here, Mr. Wright, Daunte Wright, he should still be here. We have to always understand that we have to march. We will have to do this for life. We have to protest because it seems like this is a never-ending cycle.
“I’m not just fighting for George anymore,” he added. “I’m fighting for everybody around this world.”
The verdict reminds us that the promise of “and justice for all” has not been forgotten, not completely. It’s ever present, it just requires many hands to pull it into the light: the passersby who stopped and cared, the police officers who refused to keep silent, a jury that could distinguish between a victim and a threat.
On at least one day, a police officer was not above the law. A grieving family was delivered the modest solace of justice. And a deeply divided country was reminded that we still have the capacity to see each other clearly.