Bay Area reflects on Derek Chauvin verdict
The fight for racial justice is far from over, say local leaders, activists
Bay Area residents celebrated the conviction of a former police officer Tuesday in the murder of George Floyd while also taking time for deep, quiet reflection — and recommitting to the fight for justice.
Across the region, people’s day-to-day lives came to a halt in the early afternoon as they waited to receive word. When it came, some cried. Some rejoiced.
Prepared for a possible acquittal after similar trials of law enforcement officers in the past, some looked on disbelief. Others simply vowed to continue their work to curtail police violence, especially against Black people, a goal still far from completion.
“Tonight we celebrate justice. We celebrate the achievement of getting justice done,” said the Rev. Kaloma Smith, a community leader and pastor in Palo Alto. “But we can’t only get that for one Black man or one Black child. It has to be the system.”
Derek Chauvin, the White former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing Floyd, was found guilty on all charges: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The verdict, following nearly a year of Black Lives Matter protests, a nationwide racial reckoning and calls for police reform, unleashed an outpouring of emotion in the Bay Area.
Floyd’s death in May 2020 sparked a wave of Bay Area protests that occasionally coincided with property damage and looting and several times drew an intense police response involving tear gas and rubber bullets.
Multiple protesters were injured, and Bay Area police departments have faced criticism and lawsuits over their handling of the situation.
The killing also galvanized a police-reform movement that led local leaders to champion cutting police budgets and investing in new forms of emergency response.
Diane English, a 75-yearold retired San Francisco businesswoman, said she cried when the verdict was announced Tuesday — just as she did when she first watched footage of Floyd’s murder.
“I expected (Chauvin) would be guilty,” she said. “The prosecution presented a wonderful case, and the defense just tried to deflect blame.”
Still, English said she doubted the verdict would change the behavior of police in the future.
“We go through these things all the time,” she said, “and it will never change until you change people’s hearts.”
Smith agreed Tuesday’s verdict wasn’t enough and said the fight for racial justice is far from over. One of the most critical things to come out of this moment, he said, was “seeing a generation of people that organized, that marched, that voted, and now they get to see the results of that work.”
Even as the nation’s attention was held by the Chauvin trial, there were other deaths involving police: A man in Alameda died Monday after police took him into custody. Police officers killed a man in Minneapolis and a boy in Chicago within the last month; almost simultaneous to the verdict being read, a 15-year-old girl was reported to have been shot by officers in Columbus, Ohio.
Smith said activists must use building momentum to push for significant changes in policing across Silicon Valley and the nation.
As a Black woman with what she called a traumatizing experience with police violence in her past, 23-year-old Elizabeth Kamya, of San Jose, said watching the trial live was too difficult. Instead, she checked social media regularly for news of a verdict.
Once the verdict came in, she said, she was left processing a range of mixed emotions.
“It’s a little victory, but it’s also so sad because he is not alive. George Floyd is not alive, Breonna Taylor is not alive,” said Kamya, who serves on the executive committee of the San Jose/ Silicon Valley branch of the NAACP. “It’s definitely going to be a long road from here, but creating change is never going to be easy or comfortable.”
Chadwick Butler, 28, of Fairfield, was making his rounds as an Amazon driver in San Francisco when he heard the news. He said that he, an African American man, felt no safer after the verdict than he did before Chauvin was found guilty.
“Sure, it’s definitely better than what usually happens, but it doesn’t change the fact that George Floyd is dead,” he said. “I think in this case there was so much pressure, and that’s the only reason justice is happening now. People are speaking up, so they had no choice but to find him guilty.”
San Francisco investor Marlon Short, 45, echoed Butler’s thoughts.
“It’s good symbolism, but I don’t think it’s going to change anything,” he said.
Short, who was waiting for a dentist appointment near Washington Square Park on Tuesday evening, said he was surprised by the verdict, because he thought the defense team had succeeded in highlighting Floyd’s health problems, criminal history and character defects and downplaying Chauvin’s culpability.
“I just know a million George Floyds, we all do,” he said. “‘He’s a dope fiend, he’s trying to pass counterfeit bills, he’s out there hustling,’ So yeah, I didn’t think they would find him guilty. So for me, it’s a pleasant surprise.”
Even before the verdict was announced Tuesday, the Bay Area was making arrangements for the possibility of mass protests. The San Francisco Police Department canceled days off for officers and planned to ramp up patrols. San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata tweeted that his department “will be prepared to respond when needed.”
In Oakland, Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong urged people gathering to do so peacefully. Last Friday night, a protest with several hundred people in downtown Oakland over the deaths of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago ended in broken windows, spraypainted buildings and a car set on fire.
As of about 7 p.m. Tuesday evening, no large protests had developed in the Bay Area, though people were gathering to reflect and process the news in public places around the region. A blues band played outside San Jose City Hall following a vigil held by the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP.
“This whole process was so triggering for the Black community and the BIPOC community as a whole,” Kamya said after the vigil. “But hopefully we can take today to celebrate, remember, mourn, heal — and then get back to work.”