SEIU6 Statement on the Conviction of Derek Chauvin for the Murder of George Floyd
SEIU6 stands in solidarity with the family of George Floyd, the community of Minneapolis, and the millions of people worldwide who took action to protest Mr. Floyd’s murder, as we share a moment of relief in Derek Chauvin being held accountable for taking Mr. Floyd’s life.
We recognize that this is less than justice. Justice for George Floyd would mean he was never murdered in the first place. We recognize that Chauvin’s guilty verdict is too rare—he is one of just 8 police officers who has faced a murder conviction since 2005, while police kill nearly 1,000 people every year. We recognize that this guilty verdict would have been even less likely were it not for the bravery of Darnella Frazier, who, at 17 years old, filmed Floyd’s murder on her phone, and the mass mobilization of millions of us who took to the streets last summer to cry out for an end to police violence.
We also recognize that this moment of relief is too short, as we reel from the daily pain of police murdering Black and brown people, like 13-year-old Adam Toledo, and 15-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, children who deserved to live out their childhoods, and grow up to be adults.
We’re still bracing ourselves against the escalation of violence on our Asian community members. And we’re still angry at the inequity of a system that sends Black, brown, and immigrant workers out to work in a pandemic in jobs that pay the least, expose them to the most risk, and that are essential to our society’s functioning.
We must believe that it won’t always be this way. We must continue to reimagine our futures, and the ways we can take care of each other. We must imagine an end to white supremacy, a more just world than the one racial capitalism dictates, and a society where all of us—all races, all genders, all abilities, all nationalities, can be safe, can be free, can thrive.
April 22, 2021