What next forus policing?
London Williams stood in Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC moments before the verdict was read in George Floyd’s murder trial, wondering how he would cope if the white police officer who killed the black man was acquitted.
‘‘I feel very nervous,’’ said Williams, standing with a date in the space near the White House that was renamed after Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last May.
Then the verdict came for former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin: guilty on all counts. Williams, 31, doubled over with emotion, covered his face and wept.
Black Americans from Missouri to Florida to Minnesota cheered, marched, hugged, waved signs and sang jubilantly in the streets. But they also tempered those celebrations with the heavy knowledge that Chauvin’s conviction was just a first, tiny step on the long road to address centuries of racist policing in a nation founded on slavery.
Many said they had prepared for a different result, after watching countless deaths of people of colour at the hands of police go unpunished. The shooting death of another black man, Dauntewright, by officers in suburban Minneapolis during the trial, and of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago last month, heightened tensions and muted the court victory for many.
‘‘We are relieved but not celebrating, because the killing continues,’’ said veteran activist the Rev Jesse Jackson, who travelled to Minneapolis for the verdict. ‘‘We hope this is the breaking point to stop legal lynching.’’
‘‘Finally we did get some justice,’’ said Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, a black man who died at the hands of police in New York City in 2014. No criminal charges were brought in her son’s death – his last words were ‘‘I can’t breathe,’’ which became a rallying cry among activists.
Many saw the trial as a litmus test for how sincere Americans are about racial justice and consequential police reform after Floyd’s death set off global protests.
In the Third Ward of Houston, Texas, the historically black neighbourhood where Floyd grew up, a small crowd gathered under a tent near a mural of Floyd to listen as the verdict was read on television. People driving by honked their car horns and yelled, ‘‘Justice!’’.
Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020 as Chauvin pressed a knee to his neck, and the graphic bystander video that captured him pleading that he couldn’t breathe, shocked and appalled the world and triggered protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
Even as the conviction spread relief in many quarters, there were reminders of just how common killings by officers are in the US. Just before the verdict was read, police in Columbus, Ohio shot and killed a teenage girl as they responded to an attempted stabbing call, prompting protests.
Democrats in Congress and the White House are focusing on trying to pass national police reform through the proposed George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
It would see themost sweeping changes to US policing in many years, including a ban on chokeholds and ‘‘no-knock’’ warrants of the kind used before the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky last year. Taylor, an emergency medical technician, and her boyfriend were asleep when police burst in and shot her eight times on March 13.
So-called ‘‘qualified immunity’’ would also be ended, making it easier for police officers to be sued in civil courts.
There would be a new national registry of police misconduct, mandated anti-discrimination training, bans on racial and religious profiling, and requirements for body and car cameras, while deadly force would be a means of absolute last resort. Police forces would also be restricted from buying surplus military equipment.