The underlying issue is that even as analog video technology evolved to smaller digital devices widely available, justice remains difficult. Video as a proxy for witness documentation remains doubtable even up to the moment where the prosecution nearly caused a mistrial by not anticipating the doubtful possibility of vehicle exhaust causing George Floyd’s death. At the moment of the Derek Chauvin verdict, a 15 year-old girl was shot and killed by a police officer in Ohio.
In the hours after George Floyd was murdered on May 25 last year, Minneapolis police made their first comments about his death.
The announcement did not mention former officer Derek Chauvin placing his knee on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes.
It did not mention the fact that this use of force went against department training.
It did not mention Floyd gasping for air and telling the officers he couldn't breathe.
It did not mention the pleas of horrified bystanders — some of them children — begging the police to relent.
It did not mention that as Floyd was squeezed between the weight of Chauvin's knee and the street's asphalt, he tried everything he could — using even his fingers, knuckles, and shoulder muscles — to take in oxygen.
It did not mention that in his final moments, Floyd called out for his mother — his “mama” — who had died two years earlier. www.buzzfeednews.com/…
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If there hadn’t been a video, there’d never have been a trial, let alone a guilty verdict, and Chauvin would still be on the job.— Jason Kander (@JasonKander) April 20, 2021
The video became what one legal network legal analyst, Sunny Hostin, called “the star witness for the prosecution.”
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As the prosecutors congratulate each other, thinking of young Darnella Frazier. There is no case without her. The video record she made is one of the most important civil rights documents in a generation. https://t.co/TWW8jZL0Gh— Ann Marie Lipinski (@AMLwhere) April 20, 2021
Her motivations were simple enough. You could even call them pure.
“It wasn’t right,” said Darnella Frazier, who was 17 last year when she sawGeorge Floydpinned under a Minneapolis police officer’s knee. She said that to the jury last month as she testified in the murder trial of that former officer, Derek Chauvin.
No, Darnella, it wasn’t right, a Hennepin County jury agreed on Tuesday, finding Chauvin guilty of second- and third-degree murder as well as second-degree manslaughter.
After so many previous instances in which police officers were acquitted of what looked to many people like murder, this time was different. And it was different, in some significant portion, because of a teenager’s sense of right and wrong.
Call it a moral core.
On May 25, while taking her younger cousin on a stroll to get a snack, the high school student observed a struggle between a Black man and White police officer. After ushering the child into the convenience store, Cup Foods, Frazier stayed on the sidewalk and started recording.
We’ve seen the images of her there on the scene in her loosefitting blue pants, her hoodie and her flip-flops, eventually joined again by her little cousin in a mint-green shirt that read “Love.” Frazier just stood there, resolutely, holding her phone. Later, she posted a video clip of about 10 minutes to Facebook.
Remember, 17 year old Darnella Frazier testified she felt threatened, mace was pulled, when witnesses expressed concern about George Floyd. She was scared, but she stayed. She kept taping.
A 9 year old girl took the stand. She knew what she was seeing was wrong.
Rodney King was beat by four of the officers. Laying on the ground he is tasered and hit with a baton 56 times, and kick stomped at least 6 times. He was then tackled to the ground and handcuffed. Nearby and unknown to the officers, George Holliday recorded the entire beating. pic.twitter.com/hNNZcq9bB4— John Feeley (@RealJohnFeeley) June 22, 2020
This isn’t proof the system works. It’s proof of how broken it is. Because it took us this long, and this much attention. Until we have a world where our communities can thrive free from fear, there will be no justice.
Minnesota AG Keith Ellison: “The work of our generation is to put an end of the vestiges of Jim Crow, and the centuries of trauma, and finally put an end to racism — we can end it.” pic.twitter.com/Rc8pNaWQ49
Greg Gutfeld: “I'm glad [Chauvin] was found guilty on all charges, even if he might not be guilty of all charges. I am glad that he is guilty of all charges because I want a verdict that keeps this country from going up in flames.” (Note the groans from his Fox News colleagues.) pic.twitter.com/DulsFEMwcO
