George Floyd should be alive today. Yesterday’s verdict was the right one, enforcing accountability. It took a video filmed by a courageous young woman named Darnella Frazier in order for that accountability to happen, though. All too often, police just simply get away with it. We need change, and we can start by passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would eliminate Qualified Immunity.
George Floyd should be alive today
George Floyd should be alive today.
Duante Wright should be alive today.
Andre Hill should be alive today.
Rayshard Brooks should be alive today.
Breonna Taylor should be alive today.
Botham Jean should be alive today.
Walter Scott should be alive today.
Freddie Gray should be alive today.
Philando Castile should be alive today.
Tamir Rice should be alive today.
Sandra Bland should be alive today.
Eric Garner should be alive today.
Michael Brown should be alive today.
So many bodies
So many Black people should be alive today, and they are not, because police murdered them.
I am grateful that twelve people in Minnesota found Derek Chauvin guilty of murder. I am enraged that we even for a second doubted the outcome of the trial.
Darnella Frazier’s courage
Seventeen year old Darnella Frazier filmed Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd, in an act of incredible courage that her court testimony revealed has haunted her.
The entire world watched Frazier’s video of Chauvin choking the life out of George Floyd for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds, and yet still many thought that Chauvin would get away with it at trial.
Without Darnella Frazier, he very likely would have.
Not justice, but accountability
This guilty verdict isn’t justice; justice would have George Floyd alive. It is, however, accountability. I hope that holding Derek Chauvin accountable for his crime will bring George Floyd’s family some peace.
We need to stop defending the police and instead hold them accountable. We must recognize that we cannot fix it by pruning “a few bad apples.” Policing in America is a rotten, racist, tree.
End Qualified Immunity
We could start by stripping police of their Qualified Immunity, which makes it almost impossible to hold them accountable. No one should be above the law. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the House after Ayana Pressley, my Representative, introduced it. It faces the typical hurdles in the Senate, and we should make our elected officials hear us demand justice. Click on the link below to get your senators’ contact information and call them.
George Floyd should be alive today. May he rest in power.
