Leaders of Spokane organizations dedicated to racial equity are speaking out about Derek Chauvin being found guilty of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The jurors seated for the Chauvin trial deliberated for less than 12 hours before reaching their verdict. They delivered a verdict of guilty on all three charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Chauvin’s conviction marks only the second known time a police officer has been convicted of murder in Minnesota, and the first time such a conviction has been won against a white officer who killed a Black man. The first murder conviction for a Minnesota officer was that of Mohamed Noor, a Somali officer convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the shooting death of a Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a white woman.
KREM 2 spoke to members of Gonzaga’s Black Student Union, the Spokane Human Rights Commission, the Carl Maxey Center and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center about their reactions to the verdict.
Gonzaga Black Student Union President: 'It was shocking'
Jacquelyn Gaither will take over as president of Gonzaga’s Black Student Union in the fall of 2021. Gaither said she did not expect there to be a guilty verdict because of all the other cases that came before it. When the guilty verdicts came down, she felt relief.
“It was shocking,” she said. “I sat here and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ like I was just thinking of George Floyd's family. And them finally receiving justice and like George Floyd himself receiving justice that many other black victims don't get. And it was, it was like a monumental moment of just sitting here, and hearing that a police officer was actually being held accountable for his actions.”
Gaither said the verdict restored some hope for the Black community but there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“This was justice for George Floyd, and this is a starting point, but there's many other black victims who haven't received that justice yet and that's just something that needs to be worked towards after this, but this is definitely, definitely a foundation for that starting point,” she said.
Spokane Human Rights Commission Member says he cried during witness testimony
Anwar Peace is a member of the Spokane Human Rights Commission and has been an advocate for police accountability for the last 20 years. He said watching Chauvin’s trial has been “jarring to the senses.”
“And in, you know, quite frankly, I'll admit it during the three weeks of trial, I can't count how many times that I've cried like a little baby, after watching some of these witnesses testify,” Peace said.
He said the guilty verdict will hopefully send a strong message to law enforcement around the country.
“It's unfortunate that it took 20 different angles of video to show the country this death,” Peace said. “But the fact that a guilty verdict has come down means that we can all have a sigh of relief for a moment until the next trial starts, until the next trial starts, until the next trial starts. Right now, we have a moment of pause, and we get to, we get to pray for George Floyd been able to find the rest in peace with this guilty verdict. But there's more work to be done.”
MLK Center Director says verdict was a sigh of relief
MLK Center Director Freda Gandy said the guilty verdict shows her that protesting really works. She said she was feeling hopeful when the jury’s verdict was ready in under 24 hours but knows that looking back at history, cases involving police brutality don't often go the way Black and Brown people hope.
“They're like the verdict is in and I was like, ‘I'm not ready, I need to be sitting or something,’” she said. “We're just taking this moment to just take a deep breath and then go from there. Then you immediately feel a sigh of relief, but for me it didn't last very long because there are so many people that have lost their lives and no one has been held accountable.”
She said she thinks the message of enough is enough is resonating and hopefully there will be some sustainable change that comes from this verdict.
Pastor was reluctant to think Chauvin would be found guilty
Reverend Walter Kendricks is the pastor at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church and also serves as the Vice President on the Carl Maxey Center Board of Directors.
Kendricks told KREM 2's Whitney Ward he had just left his church and stopped in a store when he found out Chauvin was guilty. He said he didn't make sure he was watching the verdict come down because he was reluctant to think this would be the outcome.
"As I watched the trial, and you know, the commentators would say, 'All they need to do is convince one person, just one.' You know, I remember the, in my activities here in Spokane, I remember the William Poindexter verdict. And 12 people thought it was okay for someone to be shot in the back from 30 feet away. So yeah, and with our history as a people, we've seen justice perverted many times. So was I confident? No, not at all."
While the events occurred thousands of miles away, Kendricks think this will lead to more police accountability, in Spokane and across the country.
"Hopefully it will send a message that if you do something like that, you will be held accountable," he said. "But again, just that thought that it took video... if there were not video of that, might we might be talking about something else here."
He remains confident that change will come.
"We've just got a long way to go as a society, but will change come yet? Yeah. Yeah, Yes, it will," Kendricks said.
In order to keep the momentum going, people need to do the right thing.
"Was the guy who was kneeling on George Floyd, was he convicted? Yes. But there were three other officers that are coming to trial here in the next few months. And they stood there. They stood there. While this happened, you know, police union didn't want to get involved, we're afraid to say something. It doesn't really matter. They had to do the right thing."