U.S. activists are looking at “what’s next” after Chauvin’s murder trial

This week’s conviction of Derek Chauvin was the result of Black Lives Matter activists and town organizers who have long sought justice for the murder of George Floyd for a year.

But while the rights campaigns were cheered on Tuesday when the judge read the Minnesota jury’s verdict – guilty two murders and one for murders – the celebrations were cut short. News spread that Ohio police had shot dead Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old black girl from Ohio, and authorities said she was charging two people with a knife.

Bryant Chauvin died on the same day of the verdict, and died a day before the alarm clock Daunte Wright, A 20-year-old black man who was killed by police earlier this month in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a mile from Chauvin, who was tried.

“It’s overwhelming, but at the same time, it’s not surprising,” said Trahern Crews, community organizer and head of the Black Lives Matter Minnesota team. “It makes you realize we can’t rest.”

The Crews share the sentiment of many activists who have called for justice for George Floyd: while welcoming the jury’s verdict in the Chauvin case, they say there is still more work to be done at the federal, state and local levels. police violence and other issues of racial justice.

“America’s fight for responsibility and justice is far from over,” said Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change. “Chauvin’s trial may be over, but what comes next will be the moment in our history. We need to do more than raise our voices; we need to ask for action now. “

For now, all eyes are on Capitol Hill, and lawmakers are working to reach a two-parliamentary agreement federal legislation on police reform it would suppress practices such as non-violent orders and strictures, and would limit the immunity of officials from legal liability.

A bill on Floyden’s behalf has passed the House of Representatives under Democrats, but will need the support of at least 10 Republicans in the Senate if it wants to send it to President Joe Biden’s table to sign the law.

I don’t think you can tell the basics and entrepreneurs from this point on. Without them we would not be here

Progressives say the fact that the bill was taken into account is a testament to the efforts of activists who put pressure on voters to elect their constituents.

“We wouldn’t be in the moment we’re talking about the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, without the effort, without the Black Lives Matter, without all the people who took to the streets last summer,” said former Tré Easton. A Senate employee who works with the progressive group Battle Born Collective.

“I don’t think you can distinguish between basic and entrepreneurial from this moment on,” he added. “Without them we wouldn’t be here.”

Analysts have attributed much of BLM’s success to its free organizational structure. Instead of having a strict hierarchy with a national leader, the movement has been fairly broad, with local organizers, such as the Crews, pushing for change in their communities.

In Los Angeles, for example, BLM activists played a key role in the campaign in favor of candidate George Gascón, who defeated the district attorney who was there last November as a former police chief with plans to reform criminal justice.

Andra Gillespie, a professor of political science at Emory University and an expert on African American politics, said the basic approach can be very effective when it comes to promoting police and other criminal justice reforms when state and local authorities are in power. About the American police.

“It’s one thing for Congress to approve [federal] legislation, “he said.” But ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s a local police issue, and there’s state oversight. “

At the same time, Black Lives Matter activists have said they plan to take the fight beyond the police to include economic issues such as reparations for black Americans in the coming months.

Last week, the House Justice Committee voted to pass the HR 40 – a bill to report to the U.S. government on the role of the U.S. government in slavery and the liberation of black Americans, for the first time. This opens up the possibility of a broader debate in the House, even if the chances of passing the Senate are slim.

“This is the beginning of an era that will bring many new changes, especially with the reduction of the racial wealth gap,” Crews said. “I don’t think HR 40 would come out of the judiciary like some of those things weren’t happening on the ground.”

BLM and other grassroots activists say their reasoning in Washington has been bolstered by a number of young, black, and progressive Democratic lawmakers such as Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Nikema Williams of Georgia who filled a vacant House in the 80s. -years John Lewis, a famous civil rights leader.

Analysts said the 11-month protests after Floyd’s death have also brought black activists together for generations. Among them are more centrist African-American lawmakers on Capitol Hill, such as South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn, who previously sided with left-wing factions of the Democratic Party.

“This is a problem for many African Americans from all walks of life,” Gillespie said. “There have been disagreements over tactics in recent years. . . but there is room for an intergenerational coalition, among other things, because there is a shared sense of connected destiny. “