Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast Nick Bryant: BBC correspondent on Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict
Apr 21, 2021
04:24
There was quiet, just for a moment, as hundreds of people standing in the intersection at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue crowded in to listen to the news.
“They’re announcing the verdict!” someone shouted, calling for silence.
Then thunderous cheering filled the place where George Floyd was pinned beneath a police officer's knee nearly a year ago, begging for air and his mother. Many people wept. Some sobbed.
They were cheering the first guilty verdict for the fired officer, Derek Chauvin, who was charged with murder and manslaughter. Moments later, another wave of cheers swept the crowd as the other two verdicts — both guilty — were announced. Moments after that, Chauvin put his hands behind his back and was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
In the place now known as George Floyd Square, a spot that millions around the world have seen in videos shot by bystanders during Floyd's arrest, there was relief.
Venisha Johnson jumped for joy when she heard the verdicts. Minutes later she could barely speak, she was weeping so hard.
“It means so much to me,” said Johnson, who was wearing a mask that memorialized some of Floyd’s final words: “I can’t breathe.”
“I’ve been praying for George every day, every morning at 6 a.m. I’m just so happy. The way he was murdered was terrible, but thank you, Jesus,” she said.
Some 300 people gathered in the intersection, home to Cup Foods, the corner convenience store where employees had called police on the evening of May 25, saying Floyd had paid for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. It was Memorial Day.
Since then, thousands have come to lay flowers, poems, photos and letters at the site where Floyd had the air choked out of him. They came to stand beside the sculpture that now fills the middle of the street, a huge metal fist raised as a cry for justice. They came to look at the now-closed gas station, where the sign had been covered long ago with a demand: “Justice for George Floyd.”
On Tuesday, a protester climbed onto the sign to add two more words: “Justice Served?”
For those gathered on Tuesday, they had seen at least the beginning of justice.
“Let the healing work begin,” said Jennifer Starr Dodd, a Minneapolis woman, speaking through her tears. “Repentance, accountability, respect. You can’t have healing without repentance.”
By early evening, the square was a scene of celebration, prayer and community relief. More and more people streamed in. Someone played a tuba. There were occasional chants of “Say his name! George Floyd!” People danced to “We Gon’ Be Alright” by Tye Tribbet and DMX's “Party Up.” Parents brought children, showing them that, at least sometimes, a Black man could get justice.
Chris Gober, 17, brought his younger brother to talk about how Black men can face dangers from the police.
“Watch your back. Watch everything you do,” he told the 7-year-old. But Gober also said the verdict was “a start to a change” for a movement to racial justice.
Criminal convictions of police officers are exceedingly rare. There have been thousands of police shootings in the U.S. since 2005, but fewer than 140 officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter, according to criminologist Phil Stinson. Before Tuesday, only seven were convicted of murder.
Toni Hamilton, who brought her daughters to the intersection to hear the verdict, was deeply relieved at the news.
“I feel like for this whole time we’ve all been breathing with half of our breath,” she said. “Now there’s opportunity for the future. ... There’s power when we all come together.”
It remains unclear what will happen to the square, which sprang up organically in the days after Floyd’s death, when community members put up homemade barricades to close it off. The city later replaced them with concrete barriers. It has been a place of pilgrimage and picnics, with people painting slogans and portraits on walls and the...
“They’re announcing the verdict!” someone shouted, calling for silence.
Then thunderous cheering filled the place where George Floyd was pinned beneath a police officer's knee nearly a year ago, begging for air and his mother. Many people wept. Some sobbed.
They were cheering the first guilty verdict for the fired officer, Derek Chauvin, who was charged with murder and manslaughter. Moments later, another wave of cheers swept the crowd as the other two verdicts — both guilty — were announced. Moments after that, Chauvin put his hands behind his back and was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
In the place now known as George Floyd Square, a spot that millions around the world have seen in videos shot by bystanders during Floyd's arrest, there was relief.
Venisha Johnson jumped for joy when she heard the verdicts. Minutes later she could barely speak, she was weeping so hard.
“It means so much to me,” said Johnson, who was wearing a mask that memorialized some of Floyd’s final words: “I can’t breathe.”
“I’ve been praying for George every day, every morning at 6 a.m. I’m just so happy. The way he was murdered was terrible, but thank you, Jesus,” she said.
Some 300 people gathered in the intersection, home to Cup Foods, the corner convenience store where employees had called police on the evening of May 25, saying Floyd had paid for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. It was Memorial Day.
Since then, thousands have come to lay flowers, poems, photos and letters at the site where Floyd had the air choked out of him. They came to stand beside the sculpture that now fills the middle of the street, a huge metal fist raised as a cry for justice. They came to look at the now-closed gas station, where the sign had been covered long ago with a demand: “Justice for George Floyd.”
On Tuesday, a protester climbed onto the sign to add two more words: “Justice Served?”
For those gathered on Tuesday, they had seen at least the beginning of justice.
“Let the healing work begin,” said Jennifer Starr Dodd, a Minneapolis woman, speaking through her tears. “Repentance, accountability, respect. You can’t have healing without repentance.”
By early evening, the square was a scene of celebration, prayer and community relief. More and more people streamed in. Someone played a tuba. There were occasional chants of “Say his name! George Floyd!” People danced to “We Gon’ Be Alright” by Tye Tribbet and DMX's “Party Up.” Parents brought children, showing them that, at least sometimes, a Black man could get justice.
Chris Gober, 17, brought his younger brother to talk about how Black men can face dangers from the police.
“Watch your back. Watch everything you do,” he told the 7-year-old. But Gober also said the verdict was “a start to a change” for a movement to racial justice.
Criminal convictions of police officers are exceedingly rare. There have been thousands of police shootings in the U.S. since 2005, but fewer than 140 officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter, according to criminologist Phil Stinson. Before Tuesday, only seven were convicted of murder.
Toni Hamilton, who brought her daughters to the intersection to hear the verdict, was deeply relieved at the news.
“I feel like for this whole time we’ve all been breathing with half of our breath,” she said. “Now there’s opportunity for the future. ... There’s power when we all come together.”
It remains unclear what will happen to the square, which sprang up organically in the days after Floyd’s death, when community members put up homemade barricades to close it off. The city later replaced them with concrete barriers. It has been a place of pilgrimage and picnics, with people painting slogans and portraits on walls and the...
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