Posts Tagged ‘blm’
We saw Derek Chauvin murder George Floyd. A juror’s hat and tshirt doesn’t change that
Yesterday, Derek Chauvin’s lawyer filed a motion for a new trial, and attorney Eric Nelson threw in everything but the kitchen sink. He said Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill made mistakes, that there was prosecutorial misconduct, too much publicity, witness intimidation, and juror misconduct. Maybe he was talking about the Black juror who had the…
Read More Joe Biden has a lot to brag about. But Black folks need more than a speech
Joe Biden will be speaking before a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, and he’s got a lot to brag about. He said he would have 100 million vaccinations done in his first hundred days. He’s done 200 million. He said he would get stimulus checks in people’s hands. For many Americans, that’s done too.…
Read More Looking into the eyes of Derek Chauvin, the cop who murdered George Floyd
When the guilty verdicts were read, I just wanted to see Derek Chauvin’s eyes. His eyes, after all, convinced me of his guilt when I watched snippets of the video in which he murdered George Floyd. Those cold, heartless eyes stared into a camera phone held by a 17-year-old girl named Darnella Frazier. Those eyes…
Read More Theres no defense for Chauvin’s actions. Now it’s up to the jury
After 4 days and just 7 witnesses, the defense rested in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis cop charged with murder in the death of George Floyd. After his lawyer apparently tried to convince him to testify in his own defense, Chauvin declined to do so. Instead, he took the fifth amendment, refusing to…
Read More Police said Daunte Wright’s death was an accident. I don’t believe that’s true.
I don’t care that Kim Potter, the police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright during a car stop, has resigned. I don’t care that Police Chief Tim Gannon stepped down either. I’m still enraged, because wright didn’t have to die. It happened Sunday in BrooklynCenter, Minnesota—a suburb just 10 miles from the Minneapolis courthouse where former officer Derek Chauvin…
Read More The major difference in the Chauvin case? His fellow officers are not trying to protect him
When I watch the Derek Chauvin trial, I know we’ve been here before. A grieving Black family whose loved one is gone. A criminal justice system with a track record of racism. A community bracing itself for a verdict no one wants to see. Don’t get me wrong. I believe Chauvin will be found guilty…
Read More Don’t let George Floyd be the latest victim of America’s War on Drugs
I knew it would come down to this. To the dehumanization of a man who, like all of us, was complicated, and flawed, and real. That’s why, when Derek Chauvin’s lawyers made it clear that they would blame George Floyd’s death on drugs, I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t sad. I was numb. Because I’ve seen…
Read More Darnella Frazier’s video exposed George Floyd’s killing. Her testimony exposed Derek Chauvin
Darnella Frazier. She’s the 18-year-old who filmed then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin as he pressed his knee into George Floyd’s neck. Yesterday, in tearful testimony at Chauvin’s murder trial, she recalled how the horror of that day stays with her, even now. “I stay up at night apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more…
Read More Chauvin murder trial: Don’t lose sight of the fact that George Floyd was somebody
As the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who is accused of killing George Floyd by mercilessly pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck, begins this week, I am convinced that Black people need healing as much as we need justice. There is a persistent heartache that comes with the knowledge that…
Read More Georgia’s Jim Crow voter suppression laws are absolutely American. Stop saying they’re not
Jim Crow 2.0 is coming to a state near you. After Georgia passed voter suppression measures meant to keep Black, brown and young people from voting, we should all be outraged, but we should not be surprised. America has never wanted Black people to have full citizenship. That’s why, after slavery ended, the 13th Amendment allowed…
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