You will have to forgive me for not celebrating the conviction of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis last May.
Of course I’m gratified by the three guilty verdicts meted out by the jury this week. But I know better than to breathe a sigh of relief until the judge issues his sentence.
I’ve seen this all before.
Six years before George Floyd’s murder, in 2014, Laquan McDonald, a 17 year old Black boy, was shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago. The chant of “16 shots and a cover-up,” rang out from the South Side to the West Side, from the North Shore to the 100s. Much like with George Floyd’s murder, we watched the video over and over on television. The murder was discussed around water coolers and in barber and beauty shops.