Is Derek Chauvin’s Verdict a Step Forward? It’s Too Soon to Tell.
A guilty verdict does not always equal appropriate consequences
When Judge Peter Cahill read off three guilty verdicts in the trial of Derek Chauvin on Tuesday, much of the world took a collective exhale.
The former Minneapolis police officer — now guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter for the murder of George Floyd — is the first officer in Minnesota to be held accountable for killing a Black man, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
It had been a long year since a video of Chauvin pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for eight minutes overtook the news of the pandemic and pushed crowds into the street in what would become the largest protest movement in U.S. history, with an estimated 15–26 million participants.
We know that a guilty verdict does not always equal what can be considered appropriate consequences.
Legal experts estimate this verdict means Chauvin could face up to 40 years in prison. But most Black people I know are still moving slowly to count Tuesday’s verdict as a win, hesitant to completely let go of the anxiety we’ve been holding onto so tightly…
