What Remains of the George Floyd Case

The trial of Derek Chauvin, the white police officer who strangled George Floyd last May 25, begins on Monday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, under tight security, with the selection of the jury. The tragedy has encouraged reform, but reform is still struggling to happen.

It is impossible to walk around New York for a day without seeing graffiti or a poster that invokes George Floyd. Here, as in many places across the United States, the moment lives on. On May 25, 2020, the African American man suffocated beneath the knee of white police officer Derek Chauvin. The images, which were videotaped, rapidly provoked strong reactions, generating an incredible protest movement that went beyond America’s borders. During the eight minutes and 46 seconds before he died in Minneapolis, Floyd, arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, had the time to call out the words “I can’t breathe” 20 times. But Chauvin never lifted the knee he placed on Floyd’s neck.

Institutional Racism

This case is only one sad example of anti-Black police brutality, among many others. Except this time, anger was expressed more clearly and was not confined to African Americans, who have denounced racial injustice and discrimination for decades. Floyd has unwittingly become an icon in the fight against police brutality. The Black Lives Matter movement has grown. “I hope that the sacrifice of my nephew will make things happen,” Roger Floyd said when Le Temps interviewed him two months after the death of his nephew. But have things really changed?

While Chauvin’s trial for second degree murder without premeditation officially begins on Monday in Minneapolis with the selection of the jury — testimony is scheduled to begin March 19 — the question deserves to be asked: What has really happened beyond triggering strong emotions, beyond a tendency to pull down statues of those that embody the slave trade? Can one really fight the systemic, institutional racism that plagues the U.S.?

Since Floyd’s death, there have been other incidents of police misconduct that haven’t received the same level of media coverage. In 2020 alone, approximately 1,000 people were shot and killed by police. Black people represent a greater number of victims than other groups: they make up 28% of the victims, while they represent only 12% of the population. Just this Saturday, police in Rochester, New York, were in the news again because of images showing the aggressive arrest of a Black woman in front of her 3-year-old daughter.

There is increased pressure “for things to change.” On Feb. 26, Zurich-born Nils Melzer, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, urged the Joe Biden administration to begin wide-ranging reforms without further delay in order to eradicate police violence and racism. And, above all, to combat the impunity that American police, who make excessive use of lethal weapons, seem to enjoy. U.N. experts are equally openly worried about the militarization of the police; this at a time when the FBI has denounced the infiltration of law enforcement agencies by right-leaning extremists and white supremacists that has been ongoing for years.

In Congress, the issue is advancing at a snail’s pace. On March 4, the House of Representatives passed a reform bill on policing bearing Floyd’s name with only a single Republican voting in favor. The bill may not pass the Senate, or at least not in its current form, and a first back-and-forth has already taken place between the House and the Senate. The bill notably prohibits the use of choke holds, creates a national register to keep a record of officers dismissed due to abuse, and limits the transfer of military equipment to police forces. Shortly after the Floyd tragedy, many local police forces adopted the first measures, starting with the police force in Minneapolis, which no longer allows choke holds. Awareness courses were also proposed. The debate over body cameras, the small, mounted devices worn by police that record their actions during delicate situations, is back in full swing.

Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison. He was released on probation last October after posting $1 million in bail. The jury verdict should be known by the end of April or the beginning of May. Meanwhile in Minneapolis, the courthouse where the trial will take place has been barricaded and surrounded by barbed wire. The city’s mayor has authorized the deployment of 3,000 police and soldiers, as well as issuing an appeal for influencers to publish messages on social media to reduce tension. It is proof of the extreme sensitivity of the debate, which has divided people into two camps, each blaming the other for the violence. During the presidential election campaign, Donald Trump, who represented himself as the president of “law and order,” helped pour fuel on the fire.

But there is also another concern: that Chauvin, and the three other police officers present during the tragedy, who will be judged separately, will receive a lenient sentence. In other similar cases, the officers involved were exonerated. This was the case for the agents implicated in the death of Breonna Taylor, a young paramedic killed in her home in the middle of the night. The cases of the two officers involved were dismissed, and, because a bullet passed through a wall, the third officer was charged with putting a neighbor in danger.

For his part, Democratic President Biden has increased the number of actions he is taking to prove that fighting racism is one of his priorities. “A Black man should be able to go for a jog without fearing for his life,” he tweeted on Feb. 23, a year after Ahmaud Arbery was lynched by two white men in a small town in Georgia.