What does Chauvin’s conviction mean?
We all knew that George Floyd’s killer Derek Chauvin was guilty of murder. But does the sentencing mean that justice is done?
BRACED FOR THE VERDICT: George Floyd s brother, Philonise Floyd arrives at a press conference on April 19 before Derek Chauvin s verdict had been announced (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
THIS IS the question.
Many of us have been seeking to interpret or find real and enduring meaning in this very rare and monumental murder conviction.
Is it justice? Is it the start of justice? Is it the start of police accountability? Is it potential police accountability?
Patrick “P.T.” Ngwolo, an elder at the inner-city Christian mission Resurrection Houston, may have put it best when he said Mr. Floyd, who stood somewhere between 6 feet, 4 inches and 6 feet, 7 inches was “larger than life.”
“Mr. Floyd was a person who was what we call in the neighborhood an OG, somebody who had been through the wars, who had made the mistakes and who was able to go back to a generation and say, ‘Hey, guys, this is the way you ought to move, this is how you ought to do it,’” Mr. Ngwolo told Fox News.
He said Floyd used his status as an “OG,” or “original gangster,” to help the church make inroads in the Cuney Homes public housing complex, also known as “the Bricks,” by reaching out to neighbors, participating in basketball tournaments and setting up chairs and tables for services every fifth Sunday.
Daunte Wright Live Updates: Protest Outside Police Station Fades
Last Updated
April 13, 2021, 2:06 a.m. ETApril 13, 2021, 2:06 a.m. ET
The police killing in a Minneapolis suburb adds to tensions around the trial of Derek Chauvin. Protesters there defied a 7 p.m. curfew. Police officers fired tear gas and made arrests.
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Protesters gathered outside the Police Department in Brooklyn Center, Minn., for a second night, in violation of the city’s curfew. Officers fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.CreditCredit.Joshua Rashaad McFadden for The New York Times
Key Updates:
A protester standing in front of police officers in Brooklyn Center, Minn., on Monday night.Credit.Joshua Rashaad McFadden for The New York Times
Officer Kim Potter in 2007.Credit.Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune, via Getty Images
Minnesota officials on Monday identified the police officer who shot Daunte Wright as Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, and said she had been placed on administrative leave.
The state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a brief statement that Officer Potter had been placed on “standard administrative leave.” The statement did not elaborate, citing an active investigation.
The Star Tribune newspaper reported on Monday that Officer Potter, 48, had been licensed as a police officer in Minnesota in 1995. It said that her duties over the course of her tenure had included serving on the department’s negotiation team.
In brief, but tearful testimony, Philonise Floyd spoke in loving terms about his oldest brother, George Floyd, on the 11th day of testimony in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin. Mr. Floyd, 39, described how the family moved to Houston from North Carolina when he was younger. The family lived in a low-income development in the Third Ward where Mr. Floyd and his siblings grew up. “We stayed with each other all the time, me and George,’’ Mr. Floyd.