Just as the conviction was to be read at the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, Ohio police shot dead a black teenager in broad daylight during a confrontation.
The shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, who wielded a knife during a fight with another person in Columbus, is in some ways more representative of how blacks and other coloreds are killed during police meetings than death. by George Floyd, pinned to the ground by Chauvin and captured on video for the whole world to see.
Unlike the case of Chauvin, in many murders by the police, there is a decision to shoot at a violent moment and it is very difficult to prosecute, even when it causes sadness and outrage. Juries tend to give officers the benefit of the doubt when they claim to have acted in a life-or-death situation.
While Tuesday’s conviction was seen as a sign of progress in the fight for equal justice, there remain unanswered difficult questions about the use of force and systemic racism in the police. The verdict in the Chauvin case may not be repeated quickly, even if the list of those killed by the police is increased.
“It was something unique. The world has seen what happened, ”said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill, who has used more than 100 cases of violence. Having videos, witnesses, forensic testimony and multiple police officers against one of their own testimony are unique and “demonstrate how high the bar must be to have that kind of liability,” he said.
Beliefs like those of Chauvin are extremely rare. Of the thousands of fatal police shootings in the United States since 2005, about 140 officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter and only seven have been convicted of murder, according to information maintained by Phil Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University. has.
“It’s a success, but there are so many more unjustified murders that have yet to be settled, that we still have to address,” said Princess Blanding, a government candidate in Virginia, whose brother was killed by a Richmond police officer. Marcus-David Peters, who was black, was fatally shot by a black officer during a mental health crisis after running naked on a highway between the countries and charging the officer.
In Columbus, Bryant swings wildly with a knife another girl or woman pinned against a car when the officer shot after yelling at the girl to go down, according to the police and body camera video released within hours of the shooting incident. The mayor regrets the death of the teenager, but says the officer acted to protect someone else.
Kimberly Shepherd, who lives in the neighborhood where Bryant was killed, was celebrating the conviction in the murder of Floyd when she heard the news about the teenager.
“We were happy with the verdict. But you could not even enjoy it, “said Shepherd. “Because you get a call once that he was guilty, I get the next call that it’s happening in my area.”
In the case of Chauvin, on the other hand, the cell phone video around the world saw the white officer press his knee on the black man’s neck for more than nine minutes while Floyd gasped for air. This caused protests in the US and Chauvin’s fellow officers took the extraordinary step of testifying against him.
“If we look to future persecution, the question is going to be: is this perhaps the beginning of a new era, where the walls of silence are impenetrable?” says Miriam Krinsky, a former federal prosecutor and executive director of the reform-minded group Fair and Just Prosecution. Chauvin’s case could make future juries more skeptical about police, she said.
The day after Bryant was fatally shot, at least two other people were also killed by police in the United States.
Wednesday morning, a deputy fatally shot dead A black man while serving a warrant in eastern North Carolina. Authorities did not provide details about the shooting, but an eyewitness said Andrew Brown jr. Was shot while trying to drive away, and that deputies fired at him several times. And in the San Diego suburb of Escondido, police said an officer fatally shot a man who allegedly hit cars with a metal pole.
A funeral for Daunte Wright will be held on Thursday, a 20-year-old black motorist who was shot dead during a stop in Brooklyn City Center, Minnesota, just a few miles from the courthouse this month when the Chauvin trial took place. Last month in Chicago, 13-year-old Adam Toledo was fatally shot in less than a second after throwing a gun and starting to raise his hands as an officer ordered.
Police officer Kim Potter, who is white, is charged with second-degree murder in Wright’s shooting. The former police chief said Potter fired her gun incorrectly when she was planning to use her Taser. She subsequently resigned from the police force and was charged with second-degree manslaughter. The Wright family has filed serious charges comparing her case to the murder charge against a black officer who killed a white woman in nearby Minneapolis in 2017.
The State Attorney’s Office of the State of Cook will decide to charge Eric Stillman, the white officer who visited Toledo on March 29 in Little Village, a predominantly Spanish neighborhood in southwest Chicago. The boy, who was Latino, apparently dropped a gun a few moments before the officer shot him. The graphic video of the boy’s death has sparked outrage, but some legal experts have said they do not believe Stillman may or should not be charged according to criteria set by a 1989 Supreme Court ruling on the use of force. by the police.
Instead of just prosecuting officers after shootings, more needs to be done to prevent such encounters from taking place in the first place, said Eugene Collins, who was a local organizer for the NAACP’s Baton Rouge, Louisiana branch. , when Alton Sterling, a Blackman CDs in front of a store, was shot dead by a white police officer in July 2016. The two officers involved in the meeting were not charged in his death.
“We are being pulled down more, stopped and taken in more,” Collins, now head of the NAACP branch, said. “It’s about putting responsibility on the policymakers.”
Activists say the fight for police reform and a fairer legal system is far from over.
Rachael Rollins, the first colored woman to become a district attorney in Massachusetts, said it should start in part by breaking down the misconception that police are being questioned or suggested ways to improve: “you don’t have to support the blues.”
‘The police have an incredibly hard job, and believe me, I know there are violent people who harm the community and the police, but it’s not all of us. So we have to admit that it does not work and we have to sit down together to come up with solutions, but it is urgently needed, ”said Rollins, the Suffolk County District Attorney, which includes Boston.
‘I’m scared, I’m exhausted and I’m the chief law enforcement officer. So imagine how other people feel, ‘she said.
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Associated Press reporters Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Va., And Rebecca Santana in New Orleans contributed to this report, as did Farnoush Amiri in Columbus, Ohio, a member of the Corps for the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative . Report for America is a non-profit national service program that puts journalists in local newsrooms to cover hidden issues.
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Find AP’s full coverage of George Floyd’s death at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd.
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This story has been corrected to show that the Salt Lake County District Attorney is Sim, not Sam, and that it is the Cook County State Attorney’s Office, not the District Attorney’s office.