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Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. — Former police officer Derek Chauvin, with a shaved head, dressed in casual clothes and a blue medical mask, arrived in the court in downtown Minneapolis to accept the sentence Friday afternoon.
When a small group of people gathered on the grass square outside the Hennepin County Court to hear the verdict, intermittent bursts of “No justiceThere is no peace.” Others did the same in George Floyd Square, just four miles (6.4 kilometers) away from South Minneapolis, where Floyd was murdered last year.
After several Freud family members and Xiao Wan’s mother delivered an hour’s victim impact statement and Xiao Wan’s brief statement, Judge Peter Cahill issued 22.5 years sentence, Minus the 199 days already served, against Chauvin’s second-degree murder charge is convicted In April.
Before making his decision, Cahill issued a brief statement that included his approval of the trauma suffered by the community, state, and country as a result of the trial, and sympathy to the Freud family.
“I won’t try to be deep or smart here, because now is not the right time,” he said in a faint Minnesota accent.
Cahill explained that he made decisions based on the law and facts and expressed sympathy or sentiment, adding that “the work of the court of first instance is only to handle specific cases”, not to convey political or cultural information.
DA Bullock is a filmmaker and Community activist In North Minneapolis, he told Al Jazeera shortly after the verdict was announced that he did not spend any time thinking about how much time Shaw Wen might get.
He said: “I never thought that this would satisfy people or change anything around people who are now safe in our community.”
“I don’t think people believe in justice here, because they know Derek Chauvin is not alone. They know this is a [Minneapolis Police Department]-Extensive questions. “
“Reports on this case are also frustrating,” Brock continued. “I know this is a big case, but it conceals the fact that we were killed by the police again. Winston Smith,” He was shot and killed by police in Minneapolis on June 3.
“We don’t know anything about this case-it has no transparency, it does not show the facts of the case to the public, or even why [the police] We are accusing him,” he added. “Since we have convicted and sentenced this police officer, the story is not over yet. “
Outside the courtroom, Pastor Al Sharpton, Freud’s family lawyer Ben Kremp and others gathered to pray with Sharpton, echoing many of Bullock’s views.
“We did get the court date, conviction and some time. Some people will say this is progress,” Sharpton told the crowd.
“I would say, as Malcolm X said-if you have a knife on my back, six inches, taking it out four inches is progress, but I still have a two-inch knife on my back.”
People gather outside the Hennepin County Government Center on June 25, 2021, awaiting the verdict of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin [Cinnamon Janzer/Al Jazeera]
Four miles (6.4 kilometers) south of the city center, a speaker was playing the Beatles because people joked about cars driving through the recently reopened intersection, where Freud was murdered. Slow down.
A group of young people holding blue Styrofoam egg boxes happily tossed white spheres at each other, while others scrambled to avoid.
At the newly closed gas station across the street, Broderick Johnson and Déon Moore were chatting and exchanging information after they met for the first time in George Floyd Square. Johnson came to Minneapolis from Orlando, Florida for a summer trip, which finally coincided with the verdict.
“Just being with everyone, seeing them unite, hearing these words-this is history. I brought my wife and my six-year-old son. To be able to share this moment and come to the area where it actually happened , This is really a blessing,” he told Al Jazeera.
“It’s sad, but this is something we can teach our children in the future. All children are not good police officers. For Broderick, Shavin’s 22-year sentence is “a beginning and a step towards our goal.” “.
For Moore, who came to Minneapolis from Indiana to attend the funeral of his cousin earlier this week and stayed at George Floyd Square today, coming here today feels “surreal.” He described the sentence as a misdemeanor of murder.
“Thirty years will be great, but guess what? He has to go to Washington, DC,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to Chauvin’s pending decision. Federal indictment.
Under the canopy of a nearby gas station, Larry Hawkins and a colleague from Bloomington, a suburb of Minneapolis, came to the square today.
He told Al Jazeera that he had come to “say goodbye to someone I have never met.” He was very happy that Xiao Wan was found guilty, but believed that the sentence should be longer.
“I want to say to Xiao Wan: If you think he is wrong, why don’t you do your job? Your job is, if he does something wrong, send him to prison. And we won’t be here.”
Ultimately for Hawkins, “We shouldn’t come together for this — there shouldn’t be no murder or killing that brings us together.”
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