[ad_1]
The conviction of Derek Chauvin this week was a long-sought result by activists and grassroots Black Lives Matter activists who have been prosecuting for nearly a year for the murder of George Floyd.
But while rights activists cheered on Tuesday as the judge read the Minnesota jury’s verdict: guilty for two counts of homicide and one count of homicide, their celebrations were interrupted. News broke that Ohio police had shot dead Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old black woman in Ohio, according to authorities, who accused two people of a knife.
Bryant died the same day as Chauvin’s verdict and a day before the vigil Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man who was shot dead by police earlier this month in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, miles from the court where Chauvin was tried.
“It’s a slap in the face, but at the same time it’s not surprising,” said Trahern Crews, community organizer and leader of Black Lives Matter Minnesota. “It just makes you realize we can’t rest.”
The sentiment of the crews is shared by many activists who have called for justice for George Floyd: although they welcomed the jury verdict in the Chauvin case, they say there is still much work to be done at the federal, state and local levels to address police violence and other issues of racial justice.
“The fight for accountability and justice in America is far from over,” said Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change. “The Chauvin process may end, but what follows will be the next moment in our history. We need to do more than raise our voices; we must demand action now ”.
For now, all eyes are on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are working to reach a bipartisan deal federal legislation turned on police reform this would repress practices such as protection orders and limitations and limit the immunity of legal liability officers.
A bill in Floyd’s name has passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, but it will need the support of at least ten Republicans in the Senate if it is to be sent to President Joe Biden’s desk so he can sign the law.
Progressives say the fact that the bill was taken seriously is a testament to the efforts of activists who galvanized voters to pressure their elected representatives.
“We wouldn’t be at a time when we’re even talking about the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act without grassroots efforts, without Black Lives Matter, without all the people who took to the streets last summer,” Tré Easton said. , a former Senate staffer who works with the progressive group Battle Born Collective.
“I don’t think it can in any way separate the grassroots and activists at the moment,” he added. “We wouldn’t be here without them.”
Analysts attribute much of BLM’s success to its weak organizational structure. Instead of having a strict hierarchy with a national leader, the movement has been relatively diffuse, with local organizers like Crews pushing for changes in their own communities.
In Los Angeles, for example, BLM activists were instrumental in the campaign for candidate George Gascon, a former police chief with the intent of reforming criminal justice who defeated the current district attorney last November.
Andra Gillespie, a professor of political science at Emory University and an expert on African American politics, said the grassroots approach can be very effective in driving policies and other criminal justice reforms, as state authorities and locals are in the lead. of the police in America.
“It’s one thing for Congress to approve [federal] legislation, “he said.” But in the end, at the end of the day, policing is a local problem, where there is state oversight involved. “
At the same time, Black Lives Matter activists say they intend to take their struggle far beyond the police, to include economic issues such as reparations to black American slavery for the coming months.
Last week, the House Judiciary Committee voted to remove HR 40, a bill that would establish a commission to study reparations and report to Congress on the role of the U.S. government in slavery and deprivation of rights. of black Americans, for the first time. This opens up the possibility of a broader debate in the House, although the chances of Senate approval are low.
“This is the beginning of an era that will bring about many new changes, especially with the closing of the racial wealth gap,” Crews said. “I don’t think HR 40 would have come out of the judiciary as it would have if some of that stuff hadn’t gone down.”
BLM and other grassroots activists say their cause in Washington has been bolstered by a growing number of young, black, progressive lawmakers, such as Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Nikema Williams of Georgia, who filled a vacancy in the House left by the death of the 80s John Lewis, a famous civil rights leader.
But analysts said the eleven-month protests following Floyd’s death also brought together black activists from generation to generation. Among them are more centrist African-American lawmakers on Capitol Hill, such as Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who previously distanced himself from the more left-wing factions of the Democratic Party.
“This is a problem for many African Americans of generational lines,” Gillespie said. “There has been disagreement in recent years over tactics. . . but there is room for a coalition between generations, in part because there is this shared sense of destiny. ”
[ad_2]
Source link
