Washington:London Williams stood in Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., moments before the verdict was read in George Floyd's murder trial Tuesday, wondering how he would cope if the white police officer who killed the Black man was acquitted.
“I feel very nervous. It’s already hard as it is as a Black man in today’s society," said Williams, standing with a date in the space near the White House renamed after Floyd’s death last May. “If this doesn’t go right, I don’t know how safe I will feel.”
Then, the verdict came for former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin: guilty on all counts. Williams, 31, doubled over with emotion, covered his face and wept.
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With that outcome, Black Americans from Missouri to Florida to Minnesota cheered, marched, hugged, waved signs and sang jubilantly in the streets. The joy and relief stood in stark contrast to the anger and sometimes violent protests that engulfed the country following Floyd’s death.
But Tuesday's celebrations were temperedwith the heavy knowledge that Chauvin's conviction was just a first step on the long road to address racial injustices by police.
Many said they had prepared for a different result after watching countless deaths of people of color at the hands of police who went unpunished. The shooting death of another Black man, Daunte Wright, by officers in suburban Minneapolis during the trial and of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago last month heightened tensions and muted the court victory for many.
In Columbus, Ohio, some residents had their celebration over the verdict cut short by reports that police fatally shot a teenage girl. “We were happy about the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that,” Kimberly Shepherd said. “Because as you’re getting one phone call that he was guilty, I’m getting the next phone call that this is happening in my neighborhood.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson traveled to Minneapolis for the verdict, and said there was relief but no celebrating “because the killing continues.”
“Finally we did get some justice,” Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, a Black man who died at the hands of police in New York City in 2014, said after pronouncing herself “elated” at the verdict. No criminal charges were brought in her son's death; his last words were “I can’t breathe,” which became a rallying cry among activists.
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In St. Louis, a police association of about 260 predominantly Black officers called the verdict important but “a pebble in the ocean.”
“Yet, why should we be thankful for something that is right? Why should we be thankful when George Floyd doesn’t have his life or his future?” the Ethical Society of Police said in a statement.
Many saw the trial as a litmus test for how sincere Americans are about racial justice and consequential police reform after Floyd's death set off global protests. Jurors in the high-profile case deliberated for 10 hours over two days. Chauvin was handcuffed and taken into custody immediately after the verdict was read.
“It means so much to me,” said Venisha Johnson, a Black woman who cried at a gathering in what's been dubbed George Floyd Square in Minneapolis. “I’ve been praying for George every day, every morning at 6 a.m. I’m just so happy. The way he was murdered was terrible! But thank you, Jesus.”