The conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd is inconvenient for conservatives. The “law and order” crowd has to stretch common sense beyond recognition to dispute unanimous guilty verdicts on three charges, delivered by a jury after only 11 hours of deliberation.
But the disputes came anyway. The baby-faced assassin of common sense, Fox’s Tucker Carlson, immediately claimed that the guilty verdicts came only because the jury members were “intimidated.” By exactly whom remains unclear.
I describe the conviction as “inconvenient” because it takes a mighty leap of bigoted faith to see Chauvin’s act as anything but murder. “Inconvenient” because it was videotaped. “Inconvenient” because it was committed in broad daylight in front of multiple witnesses. “Inconvenient” because the blue wall of silence was temporarily breached by other officers, including the chief of police, for whom this was a bridge too far. “Inconvenient” because Chauvin was apparently despised by everyone up to, and possibly including, his mother.
It is “inconvenient” because most conservatives have to just button it up for a while. Even zealous pro-police folks have the modicum of good sense to stay quiet on this one.
Before expressing too much optimism about breaking the blue wall of silence, be aware that the Minneapolis Police Department first described Floyd’s death as “Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction.” Then came that “inconvenient’ video taken by Darnella Frazier.
It’s one thing to lie about missing cookies, but quite another to lie about missing cookies when the cameras caught you with your hand in the jar for nine minutes and 29 seconds.
As many have commented, the verdict provided accountability in a single instance, but is not a prelude to justice. There are few signs that justice is near, even in the wake of this verdict and the relief, jubilation and hope it elicited around the world. Just as the slaughter of 20 children at Sandy Hook did nothing to advance gun control, the conviction of one really rotten apple is not going to change police culture, particularly as it enables the disproportionate violence against Black and brown people. I worry that it will have the opposite effect, fostering the delusion that the system works. “See? A white officer was convicted! There is no systemic bias.” It is the equivalent of denying racism because of the great success of Oprah. “See?!”
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was passed by the House 220-212, but has not been voted on in the Senate, where the needed 60 votes are not in the cards. There is a simple reason that nearly all Republicans resist police reform: They like things exactly as they are.
As Trump suggested to raucous cheers in his 2016 campaign, the police are not brutal enough. In every dark corner of the Republican brain, America is too liberal, especially when it comes to matters of race. Affirmative action is a vile affront to the conservative worship of meritocracy, despite several centuries of irrefutable evidence that American meritocracy is a white man’s myth. Immigration reform, in the words of the aforementioned Tucker Carlson, is a glaring example of “replacement theory.” We Democrats/liberals want to import a bunch of unqualified dark people with the specific intent of disenfranchising him. (Oh, if only we could.)
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed a bill providing immunity to anyone running over protestors. You would be right to suspect that he and other Republicans weren’t thinking of White Lives Matter protests. The new law also redefines a “riot” as any group of three or more who are doing anything DeSantis doesn’t like.
Voting rights are under assault in 47 states. There is no need, other than to keep those pesky voters of color from swarming to the polls and diluting the divinely ordained preeminence of Tucker Carlson.
Anti-transgender bills have arisen in 33 states, evidently seeking to keep America’s bathrooms safe. If any citizens are at risk in bathrooms, it is trans folks, especially Black trans women, who are assaulted more frequently than Andrew Cuomo’s staff members.
Nope, don’t get your hopes up for serious police reform. Republicans are just waiting until George Floyd rotates out of the news cycle — because they like things just the way they are.
Don’t underestimate the party that was just fine with tearing brown babies from the arms of their mothers.
Steve Nelson lives in Boulder, Colo., and Sharon. He can be reached at stevehutnelson@gmail.com.