A NEW HEROINE
Teen ‘Rosa Parks of her generation’: lawyer
The high school student who recorded the moments leading up to George Floyd’s death is “the Rosa Parks of her generation,” her lawyer said.
Darnella Frazier, 17, pulled out her phone and recorded the video showing Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on the neck of Floyd, an unarmed black man, on May 25.
The footage quickly went viral and prompted widespread outrage and protests across the U.S.
Chauvin was charged last Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, with a criminal complaint accusing him of kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes.
“I believe that Darnella is the Rosa Parks of her generation,” lawyer Seth Cobin told the Daily News on Tuesday. “This is somebody who [is] totally innocent, totally unwittingly stumbled upon something, did the right thing … (and) just realized, ‘I’ve got to do something, I’ve got to stand up,’ and it’s changed history.”
Parks, an African-American woman, famously refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., after being told by the driver to move to the back of the vehicle. The incident helped spark the civil rights movement.
On Saturday, Frazier provided a witness statement to the feds and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
“She did talk to the authorities about the fact that when she saw this happening, she pulled out her phone because she realized that if she didn’t do something, no one would believe that it had happened,” Cobin said.
“That if she didn’t take pictures or record it in some way, who was going to believe this? This would just be another black person killed by the police with no repercussions.”
According to the lawyer, the teen was walking to the store with a young relative when she spotted Floyd tussling with police.
“She was taking care of her 9-year-old cousin, and boom, she gets to be the witness to a murder. It’s very, very shocking to her. I’m amazed she had the presence of mind to pull out her phone and record it. But she’s dealing with a whole lot of psychological fallout from witnessing a terrible crime.”
Frazier, a high school junior, has been getting therapy since witnessing the incident and has been dealing with backlash from critics online who claim she didn’t do enough.
“It’s very traumatic for her. She’s really just this normal, incredibly likable teenager,” Cobin said.
Frazier and her family, who live around the corner from where Floyd was brought to the ground by police, are currently staying in an undisclosed location.
“I think she feels good about having made a difference,” Cobin said.
“I think she realizes that if she hadn’t done this, we wouldn’t have the powerful, powerful image that resulted in four police officers being fired very, very quickly.”