Monday morning brought Kamala Harris to my neighborhood in Oakland to visit an East Bay Municipal District (EBMUD) water treatment plant along with an entourage of sleek black cars, members of the Secret Service, a helicopter landing in the open area of King Estates, and curious neighbors. Maybe Kamala was doing research for President Biden’s infrastructure proposal.
At the same time, the second week of hearings in the Derek Chauvin trial opened with new witnesses following last week’s testimony by those who viewed Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Lead prosecutor Jerry Blackwell called those minutes the “three most important numbers in the case.” The Minneapolis City Council has already awarded the Floyd family 27 million dollars. And now following last week’s emotional statements by Darnella Frasier, a then eighteen-year-old who filmed the video of Derek Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck, we hear this morning from Medaria Arradondo, police chief of Minneapolis who had fired Chauvin from the force.
Arrandondo said that Chauvin had not followed Minneapolis police training, policy, nor de-escalation protocol in keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck for all those minutes. He and others have acknowledged that Chauvin’s actions were beyond the pale of policy. In the words of Dr. BraVada Garrett-Akinsanya, director of the African American Child Wellness Institute in the Twin Cities, “This re-living of the experience in a high-stakes condition is something that makes it even more important that we have follow up after this trial, or after their testimony.” So here we have representatives from a spectrum of positions impelled to add their words to the transcript, the police itself crossing the immovable boundary which always said that you don’t break ranks, you don’t rat on your own. Yet Chauvin’s action’s on May 2020 were so horrendous, setting off a tide of demonstrations across the country and world, so much so that to paraphrase the poet Yeats, the center no longer holds.
Police chiefs don’t normally testify against another officer, let alone fire them, which speaks to the changes rumbling below the inner core of our society, volcanic activity spewing up from the center. Police departments throughout the United State are aware of community movements calling to defund their departments. In speaking out, Arrandondo is symbolically making the case for police departments across the country that they can by the good guys– they don’t condone lynching. Where the case will go as well as the national conversation about why so many black people die at the hands of police, is at the heart of this trial and the national infrastructure of our country’s democracy and to redefine what we consider justice.
What’s to stop him from going across the river to St. Paul and getting another job as a cop? We have to end this nightmare
Lenore, I was prepared for the jury verdict of not guilty. Prepared, I mean we have so often seen the cops get away with murder. I wish I knew who she was but about 10 years ago I was at a celebration-lunch for a poet friend, Karla Andersdatter, in Mill Valley, when another guest told of her son who wanted to be a cop all his life got to the 5th-6th training session of I think the Marin County police training, when they were taught to “shoot to kill.” It was explained that only wounding the person would lead to probable legal action against the police, city. He quit. For me, the verdict is still almost unbelievable. Thank goodness. (Such an old-cliche expression but pretty apt right now.) thank GOODNESS.
Sharon: So good to hear from you and tickled that you landed on my blog! Yes, the Floyd outcome is historic, and inflection point which creates new possibilities, and ways of looking at similar actions, I hope, for the entire country, although that may be a stretch. One of my uncles was a police officer, a tall gentle man who, at one point, was a professional boxer. He served as a traffic cop and after surgery for a brain tumor (very new in those days) he was assigned to office duty. As an immigrant from Hungary, Uncle Lou saw the police pension as the big attraction. During the milk strike in NYC, he kept our family in containers. No almond and oat back then. Which is to say, I hope the decent cops welcome reform. The police unions will probably try to block change. I heard that the Chauvin lynch tape is being incorporated into trainings all over the country as what NOT to do. Continued community pressure going forward. Hope you are well. I’m living in the same place where you visited that many years ago. Writing. Would love to have you both over sometime if the East Bay is a possibility. Love.
Sharon,
I too am thrilled to see you replying to Lenore’s post. Many years ago, late 70s, we were neighbors on Middle Ridge in Albion, my young family living at Black Sheep Farm. We met a couple of times, likely walking the ridge. I’ve followed your writing from time to time, and have a couple of your books. Now I’m friends with Lenore, so sweet to find your connection here. Be well!
Comments are closed.