What Chauvin’s Conviction means By Mike Natrella for the future of Racial Justice
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020 has been an exhausting year for everyone worldwide, coming to a screeching halt due to the global pandemic to America facing a reckoning with racial justice. Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd led to the largest movement in U.S. history, with an estimated 15-26 million people marching to the streets demanding comprehensive police reform, accountability, and justice for the families falling victim to a broken system of systemic injustice and racist policing practices. With Chauvin’s recent verdict being convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter after 10 hours of deliberation over two days, it is necessary to address what this means for the future of racial justice in America.
New York City became the first city in the U.S. to end qualified immunity for police officers, allowing civil suits against officers behaving in misconduct, negligence, and/ or abuse of power. The U.S Supreme Court first introduced qualified immunity in Pierson v. Ray as a form of sovereign immunity intended to protect officials who “make reasonable but mistaken judgments about open legal questions.” This doctrine had the rationale of protecting law enforcement officials from frivolous lawsuits and financial liability in cases where they acted in good faith in an unclear legal situation. The preliminary ruling led to decades of unpunished police brutality, with scholars such as Amir H. Ali, a Harvard Law professor citing “qualified immunity permits law enforcement and other government officials to violate people’s constitutional rights with virtual impunity.” Recent reports show that The Department of Homeland Security is conducting an internal review as part of an effort to combat extremist ideology and white supremacy. This review calls for officials to identify extremism in the Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Secret Service, and Coast Guard. These actions are a result of Pres. Biden is making combating white supremacy a national priority, classifying such groups as top security threats. In 2019 dozens of Border Patrol agents privately joined a Facebook group that included racially obscene images of Latinx legislatures and threats to members of Congress. Christopher Paul
14 ASIAN OUTLOOK
Hanson, a lieutenant in the Coast Guard, was arrested and indicted on charges of unlawful possession of silencers, firearms, and possession of a controlled substance. His arrest was due to a plot to assassinate journalists, Supreme Court Justices, Democratic Lawmakers, and political figures. Among them are Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Maxim Waters, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and several candidates in the 2020 election. Writings found on his computer show that he preferred focused violence and dreamt of ways to kill almost everyone on earth. These efforts to combat white supremacy are a result of the racial justice movement and Black Lives Matter activism throughout the nation. The precedent for prosecuting law enforcement officers in murder trials is a deterrent for future officers abusing power and puts an end to the long history of the “shoot first ask questions later” mentality prevalent in law enforcement agencies—former Pres. Following this verdict, Barack Obama made a statement stating, “True justice requires that we come to terms with the fact that black Americans are treated differently, every day. It requires us to recognize that millions of our friends, family, and fellow citizens live in fear that their next encounter with law enforcement could be their last.” Pres. Biden followed in a statement promising “real change and reform” and urged Congress to enact “legislation to tackle systemic misconduct in police departments, to restore trust between law enforcement and the people that they are entrusted to serve and protect.” While the fight for justice is far from over, this is without a doubt a milestone for racial justice. Theodore Johnson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, said, “The expectation of injustice and then relief at justice is the sign of a broken system and a society that does not have faith in its ability to hold police officers accountable.” The nation has changed since George Floyd’s murder, but the question still stands on how Washington will respond to these changes. With true reform being on the horizon is a sweet reminder that we must not stop fighting. Without all our efforts to demand comprehensive legislation, participation in active demonstrations, and large-scale voting, we will revert to how we were. https://unsplash.com/photos/BP-Qop7aSO0
