Will Justice For George Floyd Lead To Lasting Change?
Consider This from NPR
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4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2021
⏱️ ? minutes
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Summary
That message was also shared by the White House and Vice President Harris. On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Justice Department is opening an investigation into possible patterns of discrimination and excessive force within the Minneapolis Police Department. And lawmakers in Congress are renewing a push for a police reform act that bears George Floyd's name.
For the last eleven months, one of the loudest voices demanding justice for George Floyd — insisting that the country and the world not forget him — has been his brother, Philonise Floyd. Philonise and Benjamin Crump, the Floyd family attorney, share what lasting change will look like to them now that a verdict has been delivered.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Prosecutor Steve Schlisher was really specific in his closing arguments in the murder trial |
| 0:05.7 | of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin over the death of George Floyd. |
| 0:10.2 | To be very clear, this case, this case is called the State of Minnesota versus Derek Chauvin. |
| 0:20.0 | This case is not called the State of Minnesota versus the police. It is not. |
| 0:26.0 | The message to jurors, whatever your feelings about police, you're here in court to decide about a particular person and a particular crime. |
| 0:40.0 | Now those jurors returned an uncommon verdict in trials over police killings, guilty. |
| 0:46.0 | But if you did see it as the State of Minnesota versus the police, there is a different takeaway. |
| 0:52.0 | That there are limits to what a single criminal trial can accomplish when it comes to the national debate over police violence and accountability. |
| 1:02.0 | And you can hear it in the measured response of 19-year-old Ebony Moore, who joined the crowd at George Floyd Square. |
| 1:08.0 | I am overjoyed with this verdict and I think that the jurors did what they were supposed to do and they did the duty as they should. |
| 1:18.0 | But we still have a long way to go for sure. |
| 1:22.0 | At Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., same sentiment, this time from 19-year-old Joseph Ravago. |
| 1:28.0 | I think holding them accountable is the first step, but making the laws and changing a lot of the policing system that we currently have in order for these killings to never happen is really the change. |
| 1:40.0 | And at the White House. |
| 1:42.0 | This verdict brings us a step closer and the fact is we still have work to do. |
| 1:50.0 | We still must reform the system. |
| 1:53.0 | Former prosecutor and vice president, Kamal Harris. |
| 1:56.0 | Harris and president Biden are now calling on senators to pass the police reform bill named after George Floyd. |
| 2:03.0 | They say the end of the trial is not the end of the problem. |
| 2:06.0 | I can't breathe. |
| 2:08.0 | I can't breathe. |
| 2:12.0 | Those are George Floyd's last words. |
... |
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