Queens offi cials, activists double down on calls
for police accountability following Chauvin verdict
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
Former Minneapolis police
officer Derek Chauvin
was convicted Tuesday of
murdering George Floyd last
May, and while many Queens
elected officials and activists
saw it as justice, they also
emphasized that there is still
much work to be done to not
only hold police accountable,
but also end the systemic racism
entrenched in the country’s
criminal justice system.
Chauvin, a white policeman,
knelt on Floyd’s neck
for more than nine minutes
while Floyd, a 46-year-old
Black man, was handcuffed
and pinned to the ground. A
harrowing video of the moment
was shared on social media,
sparking global outrage.
Floyd’s killing, along with
countless other victims of police
brutality, then prompted
the largest civil rights protests
in decades.
After nearly a month of
Chauvin’s trial, the jury deliberated
in less than a day and
found him guilty of seconddegree
murder, third-degree
murder and second-degree
manslaughter.
Queens Borough President
Donovan Richards said
that although the decision is
“just and welcomed,” it’s “no
cause for celebration” as “no
verdict will reunite George
Floyd’s children with their father
or his siblings with their
brother.”
“On its own, today’s ruling
should not be momentous
— we’ve all watched Derek
Chauvin brutally murder another
human being on camera.
But while this trial has
ended, with justice finally
being served for an unarmed
Black man killed by law enforcement,
let this day be just
the start of our shared fight
to rid our criminal justice
complex of the systemic racism
that has infected it for
centuries,” Richards said.
“Until Black and brown lives
finally matter equally in our
society, our struggle continues
— in the name of George
Floyd, Daunte Wright, Adam
Toledo, Breonna Taylor, Eric
Garner, Sean Bell, Alton Sterling,
Philando Castille and
all those we have senselessly
lost.”
Rockaway Assemblyman
Khaleel Anderson said that
while a form of justice was
served, “we will not keep our
eyes off of the never-ending
fight for true police accountability.”
“As the youngest African-
American serving in the
New York State Assembly,
this verdict speaks to me
and people who look like
me and we matter,” Anderson
wrote on Twitter. “When
murder is committed, a gun
and badge does not equal
impunity.”
Southeast Queens state
Senator James Sanders Jr.
said “this is the first time”
in his lifetime that he’s seen
a white police officer convicted
of killing a Black man.
Sanders noted that although
Chauvin faces up to 75 years
in prison, he may only get 12
years as a first-time offender
— “and that is not nearly
enough time.”
“I think that today we have
seen a strike against the racism
that exists in our country
particularly as it relates to
law enforcement and Black
and brown people,” Sanders
said. “However, we must
continue to fight. The battle
is not over. This is one small
victory. There will be many
more victories needed before
we see true change.”
Other elected officials and
activists emphasized that the
verdict is not justice, but accountability.
Experts have
noted that it’s rare for police
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.24 COM | APRIL 23-APRIL 29, 2021
officers who kill people to
be charged with a crime and
more so for them to be convicted
of murder.
“The perpetual pain of
Blacks in America from a
wound that never really has
time to scar over, much less
heal, before it is again ripped
open by a headline, a video,
a verdict,” Public Advocate
Jumaane Williams said. “So
while I’m relieved the jury
reached the right decision,
that Derek Chauvin will face
consequences, I’m not celebrating.
It’s hard to truly
breathe a sigh of relief when
George Floyd cannot. Derek
Chauvin is guilty, but George
Floyd is dead. That this verdict
was ever in doubt, amid
overwhelming evidence, is
itself evidence of the reality
that to some, Black lives matter
less than white privilege.”
Williams added that while
the movement for justice and
equity that swept the country
has delivered progress in
some areas, “most are overdue
and underdelivered, falling
far short of the need to
fundamentally redefine public
safety.”
Queens Liberation Project
(QPL), a collective of activists
who organize protests and
mutual aid in the borough,
recently held a demonstration
for Daunte Wright, a
20-year-old killed by a police
officer this month just miles
from where Chauvin was on
trial. In a statement, QPL
said Chauvin’s verdict is a
“a small victory in an otherwise
long and difficult battle
towards real justice and it
wouldn’t have been possible
without the video from a teenage
girl.”
“White supremacists (police)
have been killing Black
and Brown people with no
accountability for all of
American history. How many
names do we have just from
this week? Daunte Wright,
Adam Toledo, Anthony
Thompson Jr., to name only
a few. The cop who paralyzed
Jacob Blake for life is back on
the streets with a badge and a
gun. One of Breonna Taylor’s
murderers got a book deal.
A white supremacist carried
out a fatal attack on Sikh
workers,” QPL stated. “This
verdict in this case is a relief
but it’s not enough.”
Some pointed to a New
York Times report that found
police in the U.S. have killed
more than three people per
day since Chauvin’s trial began
on March 29.
“Derek Chauvin was not
a rogue officer who failed to
follow his training, and rare
convictions are not a sign that
the system is changing,” Kesi
Foster, co-director of Youth
Power Project at Make the
Road New York said. “In New
York City, the families of Eric
Garner, Delrawn Small and
Kawaski Trawick are still
fighting for Mayor de Blasio
to fire all the officers involved
in their murders. Status quo
reforms, including bodyworn
cameras, de-escalation
training and ‘neighborhood
policing’ have not prevented
police killings or protected
our communities from police
abuse and misconduct. We
must move to immediately
reduce the power, scope and
budget of the NYPD by divesting
from the NYPD’s budget
and redirecting those funds
for critical social services in
communities plagued by police
violence.”
Many lawmakers, candidates
and activists continue
to call for a real commitment
to transformative change,
such as passing the George
Floyd Justice in Policing Act,
which Congress passed in
March.
Queens/Bronx Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez said Chauvin’s verdict
isn’t a “substitute for policy
change,” and although the
Justice in Policing Act is important,
it too doesn’t address
the core issues.
“We really gotta talk about
how Democratically controlled
cities still pump and
pump and pump police budgets,”
Ocasio-Cortez said in
an Instagram live post Tuesday.
“Budgets are moral documents.
They communicate
our priorities and so long as
healthcare is not number one,
healthcare is not our highest
priority; so long as education
is not number one, education
is not our highest priority;
and so long as weaponry remains
our top thing, that’s
our number one priority.”
Dannelly Rodriguez, an
Astoria organizer with the
Justice for All Coalition,
agreed that the guilty verdict
doesn’t alleviate nor
assess the underlying conditions
caused by bloated
police budgets.“Defunding
is about public safety, abolition,
reinvesting in community
— investing in housing,
education and healthcare for
all,” Rodriguez said. “At the
end of the day, we can send
this cop to jail and it might
restore some sense of law and
order for some folks in the
country and the world, but
that sense of law and order is
fundamentally problematic.”
Demonstrations throughout New York City followed Dereck Chauvin’s conviction on April 20.
Photo by Dean Moses