‘Wake-up call’ |Youngstown leaders say Chauvin’s murder conviction sends a message to police

YOUNGSTOWN — Tuesday’s image of convicted murderer Derek Chauvin being led out of a Minnesota courtroom in handcuffs should be a “wake-up call” for police officers who unfairly abuse those they’ve sworn to protect while “hiding behind a badge,” local leaders said Tuesday.

News that a jury declared George Floyd was murdered May 25 by the former Minneapolis police officer came as a relief to Youngstown’s Black leaders — and with it, a reminder that the entire community must still fight for change.

It took the jury 10 hours to find Chauvin, 45, guilty on all three counts in Floyd’s death, including second- and third-degree murder charges and a second-degree manslaughter charge. Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison on his second-degree murder charge.

“I’m sure there’s a great relief, but there’s still these families grieving over the loss of their loved ones or still in fear of what could happen in the future to their loved ones,” Mayor Jamael Tito Brown told Mahoning Matters following the verdict.

‘No justice, no peace’

Prosecutors argued Chauvin caused Floyd’s death by kneeling on his neck for 9 ½ minutes. In a viral video of the incident, Floyd can be heard repeatedly telling officers he can’t breathe and calling for his mother.

When it comes to the deaths of Black people at the hands of police officers, people are looking for police accountability at all levels, Brown said.

Hundreds flooded downtown Youngstown the Sunday following Floyd’s death, some chanting “Black lives matter” and “No justice, no peace.”

Attorney General Dave Yost, the state’s top lawman, said in a statement Chauvin “dishonored” the badge, a factor that should “weigh heavily” in his sentencing.

“What Derek Chauvin did to George Floyd is murder,” Yost said. “He killed more than a man — he nearly killed the hope of justice. The jury called it murder, and restored that hope.”

Brown said he thinks Chauvin’s conviction will help stabilize the public’s trust in the justice system.

“I think the jurors were on the right side of this,” he said, pointing to jurors’ short deliberation as a sign that it was a clear verdict.

After watching the justice system favor the police officers who killed Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor and others, the verdict was a turning point, said the Rev. Lewis Macklin, pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church and a chaplain for the Youngstown Police Department.

“That's why people were literally holding their breath, because we did not know what was going to be the end result,” Macklin said. “We've been at this apex before, and we got as close and couldn't get an indictment and they said, 'No, there's more to the story than what you saw'.”

For Chauvin’s trial, “we had nine minutes and 29 seconds that tell us differently,” he said.

Macklin added he was grateful the verdict was reached before the funeral of Daunte Wright, the 20-year-old Black man shot and killed by police during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, 10 miles from where Derek Chauvin’s trial took place.

The funeral will take place on Thursday at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis.

Chauvin's trial was both a local and national narrative to call for justice, Brown said.

“It can’t just be 'one and done',” he said. “It has to be consistent.”

Councilwoman Samantha Turner, 3rd ward, said the Floyd case sends this message: "‘We need immediate change'.”

Turner hopes Chauvin’s murder conviction “shows that you can no longer hide behind a badge, treat people you’ve sworn to protect unfairly and think you can go home at night.

“There’s no question [Chauvin] overstepped his power and authority. I hope this is a wake-up call for every officer who feels they’re entitled to treating people — especially people of color — like this. That’s who’s getting the brunt of this.

“I don’t want any more of my people being killed. We don’t want any more humans to lose their life.”

Prior to Tuesday’s verdict, Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene said many aspects of policing and police training “do need changed. … We can always improve.”

Greene pointed to ongoing efforts to enhance training on personal biases, a shift to put more body cameras on officers and efforts to revisit uses of force such as chokeholds.

Turner said though George Floyd’s family received justice Tuesday, there are many other families that haven’t — and will not, until the nation as a whole tackles racism as a systemic issue.

Councilman Julius Oliver, 1st ward, said, for the first time, this verdict sends a message to police officers who have killed unarmed Black, brown and, in some cases, white people.

“Hopefully, this just puts a second thought into those law enforcement officers that would do things like this that there are consequences for misusing your power and taking the lives of innocent human beings which you’re sworn to protect,” Oliver said.

‘I don’t see remorse’

When Macklin watched Chauvin’s face as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill read the jury’s decision, he was reminded of the painful video of Floyd’s murder.

“The same arrogance I saw of the nine and half minutes with his knee in that man’s neck was reflected even at his conviction,” Macklin said, “It’s not a stoic poker face. It was a sense of, ‘I’m just right, and what I did, I’d do it again,’ almost.

"And that’s disturbing, because I don’t see remorse. I don’t see repentance. I see: ‘It is what it is, and you have to accept it. Oh well.’ And that in and of itself is disconcerting.”

While news of the verdict was met with relief, Chauvin’s public punishment may not change him. And, the trial’s outcome doesn’t erase the tragedy of Floyd’s death, local and state leaders said. Nor does it address inherent inequities in policing.

“His life was taken for no reason at all,” said state Rep. Erica Crawley of Columbus, D-26th. “He was murdered.

“These types of situations are happening too frequently, and it’s having trauma on communities. We see that other people who are not people of color engage with the police, their outcomes are not the same. They’re not being murdered. They’re not dying at the hands of law enforcement. We want the same thing for our community. We don’t want them to die. No one should be dying over an alleged $20 bill that was counterfeit.”

For Bryant Youngblood, assistant director for the Academy for Urban Scholars in Youngstown, it’s impossible to celebrate the verdict without recognizing the losses at the center of it.

“Everyone loses in a sentence,” he said. “We still lost a life. Even for Mr. Chauvin and his family, they also lose a loved one. You want to be joyful, because justice was served, but you also have to take into consideration that they also lost a family member themselves.”

Though he saw an unrepentant Chauvin, Macklin said he was “grateful however that the process worked itself out and he was given a fair and impartial trial. And he was on trial, not George Floyd. I think that’s what’s critical and should not get lost in the conversation.”

‘A shift in time’

In response to Floyd’s murder, protests bloomed in cities across the world last summer.

The demand for police accountability was loud and inescapable to the extent that Youngblood believes: “we’re part of a shift in time, a complete enlightening of people, of mentality.

“I’m a firm believer that we’re starting to see some of the changes that will come,” he said.

The ask is simple, Crawley said: “We want for the system to self-correct and be fair and just for everyone no matter their race, creed, ethnicity or gender. It should be fair across the board. When officers violate their policies, their duties and people’s constitutional rights, they need to be held accountable, and we need to demand that."

Chauvin's guilty verdict didn't surprise Youngstown attorney David Betras. The entire world saw the viral video of Floyd's murder, recorded by teenager Darnella Frazier.

Juries — and more generally, humans — respond strongly to visual evidence, Betras said.

"You just need to look at that tape. ... When they see things like that, it's hard not to be moved by that," he said. "There was a lot of evidence there."

On a practical level, Macklin hopes the verdict is a sign police body camera footage — introduced as evidence in the trial — will continue to play a role in holding bad cops accountable.

“It shouldn't take the receipt of cameras to get justice,” Macklin said. “But of course, that's what it takes. ... I believe what's going to happen is that people are going to start rolling that footage down. In this day and age where cameras are so readily available and so prominent, it's going to cause everybody to give consideration to what they're doing.”

Ty’onna Powell, a Warren 20-year-old whose community organizing group We Matter coordinated a June march of 1,500 people in downtown Warren following Floyd’s death, said she felt nervous in the run up to the verdict — but after, felt emboldened to keep fighting for change.

“I put it in faith’s hands and it ended up turning out this way,” Powell said. “Honestly, I’m so glad to see the world is changing in real time, right in front of my eyes.”

___

Mahoning Matters reporters Jess Hardin, Justin Dennis and Ellen Wagner contributed to this report.

This story was originally published April 21, 2021 at 3:52 AM with the headline "‘Wake-up call’ |Youngstown leaders say Chauvin’s murder conviction sends a message to police."