The trial of George Floyd’s killer begins. Agent Derek Chauvin appears in the dock and in front of a country that, with bated breath, is demanding justice for the 46-year-old African American brutally killed for a counterfeit 20 dollar bill. A death that shocked the United States in the midst of the pandemic, once again bringing to the fore the unresolved problem of excessive violence by the police, especially towards minorities, with frequent accusations of racism.
And on the eve, the family called for justice, indeed reiterated that they “need justice for George, need a sentence.” This was said by the deceased’s brother, Philonise Floyd, at the vigil organized on Sunday at the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, south of Minneapolis. Philonise, who was accompanied by several relatives, recalled in her speech that the justice system in the United States is the same for whites and African Americans. “There shouldn’t be two systems of justice. There shouldn’t be one system for the white United States and another for the black United States. We are one country,” Philonise insisted, her voice broken with emotion, receiving loud applause from the hundreds of people gathered in the church. The trial will be broadcast live on TV: access to the courtroom has been granted to three cameras of the broadcaster Court TV, a US network that broadcasts the trials.
The video of Floyd’s death, lying on the ground for 8 minutes and 46 seconds with Chauvin’s knee on his neck until he was suffocated, awakened the conscience of Americans and prompted millions of people in the United States and around the world to take to the streets for weeks to say enough to racism alongside the Black Lives Matter movement, of which “Big Floyd” has become a true icon.
The trial is one of the highest-profile cases against violent police since 1991, when African American Rodney King was brutally beaten by four officers in Los Angeles. Since then, several African Americans have died in police hands and the officers responsible have mostly gotten away with it, as in the cases of Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor and Daniel Prude. Now it’s the turn of Chauvin, a former veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department. The fear is that, even in this case, the desired justice will not arrive, triggering a new wave of violent protests.
Precisely for this reason Minneapolis presents itself armored at the start of the process, aware that it has the eyes of all America on it. “People don’t have much faith in his conviction. We have seen this film many times before, we could play the lines, ”says pastor Brian Herron, of Zion Baptist Church in the African American community neighborhood of Minneapolis with sad sarcasm.
Meanwhile, in George Floyd Square – as the intersection where Floyd died was called – continues the pilgrimage that began ten months ago, on that May 25, 2020 in which the African American was killed. The barricades surrounding the area read “you are entering George Floyd’s free state”: there are flowers, murals, graffiti “I can’t breathe” – I can’t breathe, the phrase Floyd uttered several times before he died – and candles. There is no police: security is managed locally and officers stay away. Having become a symbol of resistance against the system, the future of the square is however uncertain. The city authorities would like to reopen the area to circulation even if for now everything is postponed until after the trial. The risk is in fact of rekindling souls and protests in one of the most delicate moments in the history of the city, destined to write an important page also in the history of America.