Jelani Cobb on Derek Chauvin’s Conviction and the Future of Police Reform

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2021

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The murder of George Floyd galvanized the public and led to the largest protests in American history. Even Donald Trump said of the videos of Floyd’s killing, “It doesn't get any more obvious or it doesn't get any worse than that,” presumably referring to the use of force by police. America waited anxiously for the outcome of the murder trial of the former police officer Derek Chauvin. The prosecution’s case was notable for the unusually candid and definitive statements against Chauvin’s actions that were made by senior figures in the Minneapolis Police Department. The New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb covered the trial and says that this testimony sends a message to law enforcement. “There are now circumstances where public scrutiny and public outrage and egregious offenses that come to light can actually generate enough outrage that you actually will not be defended by your fellow-officers,” he tells David Remnick. “It may seem like a low bar. But, given what we’ve seen previously, that’s a pretty astounding development.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:14.1	Today, a jury in Minnesota found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty
0:26.9	on all counts in the murder of George Floyd last May.
0:34.1	It was a murder in the full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see.
0:43.3	The systemic racism, the vice president just referred to.
0:48.0	America was holding its breath waiting for the outcome of this trial.
0:52.4	But the jury's verdict doesn't settle the larger question that is still before us.
0:57.4	Was Derek Chauvin a bad officer doing terrible policing, an outlier or bad apple, as they say?
1:04.0	Or as President Biden and Vice President Harris have intimated, is the problem much deeper?
1:08.7	Is it systemic, systemic racism, institutional racism?
1:12.9	Was George Floyd the victim of a law enforcement system
1:15.5	that is biased against and geared toward committing violence against
1:19.8	black and brown Americans?
1:22.9	Hey, Jolani, how you doing?
1:24.8	Good.
1:25.5	Are you in Minneapolis?
1:26.9	I'm in St. Paul. I'm in the hotel. Oh, right. Last week I called up Jelani, how you doing? Good. Are you in Minneapolis? I'm in St. Paul. I'm in the hotel.
1:28.9	Oh, right.
1:30.0	Last week, I called up Jelani Cobb, a staff writer, and a historian.
1:33.9	He covered Floyd's death, the protests that followed, and the trial in Minneapolis.
1:39.8	Jolani, let's start with the most essential thing.
1:42.8	What is the meaning, really, in the political sense of this conviction for murder of a police officer in Minneapolis for the killing of George Floyd?
	...

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