US reopens wounds in George Floyd death trial

A sculpture of a raised fist at a makeshift memorial to George Floyd in Minneapolis.KEREM YUCEL / AFP

On Friday, the Minneapolis municipal corporation voted unanimously to pay $ 27 million to George Floyd's family, who have been trying for almost a year to reconcile grief and misery with the demanding consequences of the deceased becoming a martyr to the great American social movement.

This is the highest amount ever reached in a preliminary ruling in a police violence case.

“This past year has dramatically changed the trajectory of our city, and today marks another milestone in shaping a fairer future for Minneapolis.

Our agreement with the George Floyd family reflects a common commitment to advance racial justice and a sustained effort for progress, ”declared Mayor Jacob Frey after signing the pre-settlement agreement.

Two streets down, in a Hennepin County courtroom, sat Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old former police officer, who was seen by the entire world suffocate George Floyd on the ground.

He is charged with second degree murder, third degree murder and second degree murder.

In another room, his lawyers and the prosecution team chose the seventh of the 14 members of the jury, 12 holders and two alternates, who will deliver a verdict that will mark another milestone in the confrontation of a country with its ghosts, detonated ago already almost a year for the same facts that are judged.

The difficult mission of that jury will be to abstract from the noise and determine, based solely on what is shown and told in the trial, what was the cause of George Floyd's death: if he died, as the prosecution maintains and the video seems to indicate , by the pressure of Chauvin's knee;

or if his death was the consequence, as the defense argues, of his poor coronary health (the autopsy revealed that he had at least three severely blocked arteries) and the drugs (fentanyl, methamphetamine and THC) that he carried in his blood that last day of his life, when a grocer accused him of paying with a fake 20 dollar bill.

"The balance of the jury will be as political as the verdict itself," says James Lance Taylor, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and former president of the Congress of Black Political Scientists.

“The entire process is under the watchful eye of the African American community.

The trial is part of the great theater of the American race.

It will have an emotional impact on a national scale, and a disappointing result would certainly energize the movement.

But, for our community, this case is just a fly on the butt of an elephant.

For us, the pattern that the system does not work the same for everyone is a constant experience, which at some point takes on a national scale.

If Chauvin is exonerated, it will be heartbreaking, but scholars of black history no longer have faith in the system.

Although it works this time, there have been four recent cases of police exonerated for similar cases.

To celebrate it would be to celebrate a failure ”.

After 10 months of mobilization for racial justice and a year of pandemic, which has been particularly virulent with the African-American population, the Chauvin trial will reopen wounds.

The protests, which took place in 140 cities across the country, subsided in the fall.

But the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, the catalyst for millions in donations, has funded grassroots activism in a new generation that is unwilling to let the flame go out.

The movement has scored numerous victories these months, at the local, federal and corporate levels.

Several states have banned policing techniques such as the suffocation that supposedly killed Floyd, some cities have redirected some of the funds allocated to the police to community projects.

They have gotten rid of prosecutors who were considered hostile to the movement.

The companies have reviewed and amended their practices regarding diversity.

And last week, Congress passed what is known as the George Floyd Police Justice Act, which prohibits certain techniques and promotes police accountability.

But, in addition, the trace of what happened that May 24 in Minneapolis, in what is now George Floyd Square, can be found in almost all the extraordinary events that have shaken public life in the United States these months.

"In the November elections, African Americans were at the forefront of the anti-Trump movement," recalls Professor Taylor.

“It was the insurgency of our youth that led the president to the bunker.

The assault on the Capitol on January 6 was in part a reaction to the June protests, to that image of diversity coming together.

That diversity is what scared them.

It was different from everything.

I'm a Martin Luther King scholar, but nothing he did looked like this.

His movement has never been so diverse.

What we saw this summer was a true cross section of the country.

And that is the future of the United States. "

There are signs, however, that the diversity and unusual scope of the movement that exploded with Floyd's death is being mitigated.

According to a USA Today and Ipsos poll earlier this month, confidence in the BLM movement has dropped from 60% in June to 50% today.

In June, 60% described Floyd's death as murder.

Today, only 36% define it as murder, a qualifier used by 28% of whites and 64% of blacks.

54% of blacks consider that race relations have worsened in the last year, compared to 40% of whites.

Another recent study, from the University of California, reveals the persistence of discrimination against people with black skin regardless of social status.

While income increases for white men are inversely proportional to the perception of discrimination, black men continue to report high levels of discrimination despite increases in their income.

"In the United States, many people believe that higher levels of income or education provide relief from being treated differently or unfairly," explains study co-author Susan Cochran.

“The results of our research show that this is true for white men, but clearly not for black men.

Structural barriers limit the benefits of economic achievement for black men, and increases in perceived discrimination increase the risk of adverse effects on mental and physical health.

All of that is at stake in Derek Chauvin's trial in Minneapolis.

Everything from jury selection to verdict will be under intense scrutiny.

Said it, in a statement at the start of the trial, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Patrisse Cullors: "We need to understand that bigotry, white supremacism and complacency are also on trial."

Subscribe here

to the

EL PAÍS América

newsletter

and receive all the information keys on the region's current affairs