Local Black leaders say the across-the-board guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd last year, is a sign of “some justice” for Blacks everywhere.
That’s how Pastor Johnnie Edwards put it minutes after the verdict was read Tuesday afternoon. Edwards is president of the Bartholomew County Area Chapter of the NAACP and a member of the local African American Pastors Alliance.
“The fight (for justice) still is pushing forward,” Edwards said. “It doesn’t stop with this particular case. The country has seen that we have other issues still unfolding with all this with cases such as Duante Wright. And so we still have a lot of work to do. But we do feel some justice.”
He added a thought.
“Hopefully this sends a message to police departments across the country that we will no longer stand by and watch officers kill people of color in cold blood,” Edwards said.
Pastor Mike Harris, the head of the pastors alliance, acknowledged that he was partly surprised by such a clear-cut verdict.
“My initial reaction is that it is a good verdict supported what I feel was sound evidence,” Harris said. “But, at the end of the day, if we as a society don’t find a way to truly start caring for one another, we are going to destroy ourselves. And right now, that’s exactly what’s happening.
“Can you feel that?
Mikala Lomax, among the co-organizers of the local chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice chapter, offered her take on the verdict.
“I’m saddened that it took the recording of a Black man’s death broadcast to the world for a police officer to be found guilty,” Lomax said. “I feel tired that Black grief, death, and fear along with white majority support and approval are seen as crucial ingredients to ‘justice.’
“And even then, it doesn’t quite feel like justice. George Floyd cannot be brought back. Duante Wright, Tamir Rice, Adam Toledo, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Korryn Gaines and many more whose names we will never know cannot be brought back.”
