Nine Minutes and Twenty-Nine Seconds: George Floyd’s Life Matters. Our work Continues.

 On May 25, 2020 the horrific murder of George Floyd seared into the consciousness of millions of people in the United States and around the world the reality of police brutality, especially against Black men. Millions of people took to the streets in protest around the world, including Santa Cruz. His name has become a rallying cry for police accountability, reform, and justice. Mr. Floyd was not the first Black man to be killed by police in America. In fact, between the years 2017 and 2020, almost 700 African Americans, the majority of them unarmed, died at the hands of police. Not all lynchings are at the end of a rope. Not all people in blue uniforms intend to kill Black men by depriving them of oxygen, but on May 25, 2020, millions of people around the globe watched a ritual intended to subdue Black men into submission through the weight of physical brutality, a violence which has continued through centuries. Our work continues. 

On April 20, 2021, former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter. He was held accountable for his heinous act of kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck depriving him of oxygen for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds, killing Mr. Floyd. This verdict offers no consolation to the family and friends of Mr. Floyd. No family should lose a beloved son, brother, or father in the way that George Floyd's family lost him. We cannot rest until all in our community have the right to breathe. Our work continues. 

 While finding Derek Chauvin accountable was the expected outcome, we must seek justice. Justice means bringing an end to the criminalization of Black and Brown people in America by law enforcement. It means holding police departments accountable when they terrorize Black and Brown communities. The practice of police brutality is not only a civil rights issue, it is a human rights issue. Racism exhibited through police brutality is a mental health burden for Black people who are constantly forced to contemplate and negotiate what it means to survive. Beyond abject violence, it is the continual feeling of walking on egg-shells, the feeling of not being able to properly breathe, the necessity of teaching children what they must do in order to stay alive when they encounter police. We must legally ensure that the intention of every officer, voter, citizen, and human being is under review until not one more person is lynched: deprived of the breath of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Justice requires sweeping police reform legislation mandating a zero-tolerance approach in penalizing and/or prosecuting police officers who kill unarmed, nonviolent, and non-resisting individuals during an arrest. We need to end qualified immunity which protects government officials from lawsuits seeking monetary damages. We must change the “warrior” culture of law enforcement. We must create a national database of abusive, racist, violent and/or corrupt officers so that they cannot move from municipality to municipality to avoid prosecution. And we must get the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed. Our work continues. 

Since their earliest days in this country, African-Americans have turned pain and suffering into art, music—gospel, jazz, blues—poetry, spoken-word, dance. We will commemorate the anniversary of Mr. Floyd’s death in this way. Let us take our pain from losing George Floyd and allow it to continue to catalyze the force and the will to create something beautiful and powerful that propels our country forward into real change, reform, and lasting justice. Our work continues.