![]() ![]() Most calls to police involve non-criminal or traffic-related matters and only a small fraction of calls deal with violent crimes. residents age 16 or older, or 31.4 million persons, requested assistance from police at least once.” One study estimated that in 2011, “1 in 8 U.S. resident who can invoke the formidable force of the state by calling the police. Part and parcel of our criminal legal system is not only the 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States, but also every U.S. Within a month after Floyd’s murder, the store owner announced, “Until the police stop killing innocent people, we will handle incidents like this one using non-violent tactics that do not involve police.” But after the clerk talked to his manager, the manager eventually ordered another employee to call the police instead. During the trial, a former store clerk testified that although he suspected the $20 bill Floyd used was fake, his initial reaction was to offer to pay for Floyd’s cigarettes himself. On May 25, 2020, the Minneapolis Police Department responded to a service call at a neighborhood store – the end result was the tragic murder of George Floyd by the police. ![]() criminal legal system still routinely enables police to wrongfully deprive people – particularly people of color – of their life or liberty.Īmerican policing continues to function as a “ tool of race-class control.” Similar to George Floyd, victims of police misconduct still face a presumption of guilt that can only be overcome by irrefutable evidence. While the guilty verdict provides a measure of accountability, the expansive U.S. policing of racism or other abuses of power. As a Black American and an attorney who has brought police misconduct cases and worked alongside grassroots organizations to demand police reform, I harbor no fantasy that this single verdict in a criminal case, no matter how high-profile, has cured U.S. On April 20, the jury found Chauvin guilty of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. I breathed a sigh of relief and my body relaxed a little bit as I listened to the judge announce the jury’s verdict in the trial against Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd.
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