Mass Protests Led to Chauvin's Conviction; Now They're Being Criminalized
- Barbara Ransby - 
April 19, 2021. Demonstration in Minneapolis the day before the jury
gave its verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial.
On
April 20, former Minneapolis cop Derek
Chauvin was convicted on all charges in the brutal public lynching of
George Floyd. For the Floyd family, the
conviction offered some solace that the courts did not allow Floyd's
life to be taken with impunity. For many of us, however, it was a
hollow "victory," not only because prisons don't solve
our problems, but because we know police don't either. [...] Past
precedent shows there would have been no reckoning, even a
limited and flawed reckoning, had there not been the massive protests
that swept this country in the wake of Floyd's
murder. Now, at the same time that the criminal
legal system is
congratulating itself for sending Chauvin to prison, the very protests
that brought the case to national attention are being
criminalized. This
week, after making the racist assertion that Minneapolis officials
allowed protesters to "run wild" in the streets, Gov. Ron DeSantis
signed an ominous bill that seeks to essentially
criminalize protest in the state of Florida, clearly targeting protests
under the banner of Black Lives Matter. It is a dangerous harbinger of
what may be in store for other parts of the
country. Indeed, the New York Times reports that
"GOP
lawmakers in 34 states have introduced 81 anti-protest bills during the
2021 legislative session -- more than twice as many
proposals as in any other year." The bottom line is
that, while all eyes are on Minnesota, Florida
House Bill 1, dubbed the "anti-riot" bill, and the other looming bills
like it, have the potential to have a far greater
impact on movements to combat racialized state violence than the
Chauvin conviction. Let me first speak to the
limits and contradictions of the verdict
in Minneapolis. Chauvin murdered Floyd in broad daylight in front of
witnesses and it was recorded. This was an
egregious case of wanton violence, and fortunately the jury agreed. But
what is the takeaway? That the criminal legal system has overcome 400
years of systemic, deep-seated racism by
holding a single police officer accountable for the kind of racist
violence that has become all too routine? That is the wrong conclusion.
It is not only ahistorical and shortsighted, but it
gives a distorted sense of progress. To let one
cop, albeit a racist and violent one, be the scapegoat
for a systemic set of problems is to deny the systemic nature of those
very problems. Daunte Wright's mother was
prescient and eloquent when she said, "Justice would bring our son home
to us," and "there's never going to be justice for us." She went on to
say that there can and should be
accountability for her son's murder at the hands of yet another
Minnesota police officer. However, she understood that the demand for
justice requires something much more. All of that
said, two things are important to remember. Cops should
certainly not get special exemptions for heinous acts of violence, even
if they become common. Secondly, however,
locking up one cop won't bring back our murdered children, neighbours,
friends and loved ones, nor will it prevent future violence.  What is necessary
is fundamental systemic change. We have to listen
to those calling for moving away from policing as we know it and making
prisons obsolete. That should be our
goal, as congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has courageously argued. We should
be moving resources away from policing and toward community services,
mental health services, jobs and
projects that prevent violence, de-escalate violent situations and save
lives.
The new Florida anti-protest law puts a
formidable obstacle in the
path to this kind of systemic change by subverting the movements that
have been the principal catalysts for change.
The law criminalizes protests that obstruct traffic and makes defacing
monuments a felony. It also punishes local governments that decline to
be heavy-handed in suppressing protests,
mandating that local officials will be charged for damages done in such
protests. It calls for six-month mandatory sentencing for any protester
who commits assault upon a police officer. Of
course, there are many cases where protesters are being beaten and
their deflection of blows gets conveniently labelled as "assault."
The law also uses the language of "mob intimidation," which is
defined vaguely as three or more people acting with intent to force
another to take their viewpoints. It is unimaginable
how such a law could be fairly enforced. Conceivably, a political
argument on a street corner could be cause for arrest. If this is not
censorship, I don't know what is. Another
particularly disturbing feature of the bill is that it
prevents people from being bailed out of jail until their first court
appearance, which essentially mandates detention of
protesters prior to a conviction for any crime. This is reminiscent of
the detention without charge policies that characterized dictatorships
around the world and regimes like the former
apartheid system in South Africa. As others have pointed out, many of
the behaviours stipulated in the law are already in criminal statutes,
and is therefore redundant, but designed to
intimidate and deter activists. It is important
that we make these linkages between the Florida law
and the skewed framing of the Derek Chauvin trial. The only reason
there is a trial in Hennepin County, Minnesota,
for the heinous murder of George Floyd in broad daylight is because
there were loud and persistent protests in the streets of this country.
Had there not been protests, there would have
likely been an "accidental death" report. No investigation and no trial.
In fact, the initial press release from the police, before
videos
surfaced, was a complete cover-up. So, the Florida law prevents an
important mechanism for achieving a modicum of
justice, which is the right of citizens and residents to protest.
The challenge to social movements, then, is to be ever
courageous
and creative in speaking truth to power, no matter what censoring
measures those in power attempt to impose in
Florida and beyond. As Minneapolis Black Visions Collective leader
Kandace Montgomery insists, "The fight for justice is far from over."
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 5 - May 9, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/M5100516.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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