Brooks Rauschenberger woke up yesterday and cried both in relief and sadness upon learning that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had been found guilty in the death of George Floyd.<\/p>\n
Rauschenberger, who started a one-person \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d demonstration on Saipan a few weeks after Floyd\u2019s death in May last year that inspired many in the community to join in and eventually start their own peaceful BLM protests, said that true justice would have been Floyd alive and at home with his family today. Rauschenberger is Caucasian.<\/p>\n
A jury found Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd, after a three-weeks trial. Chauvin was immediately led away in handcuffs to serve his sentence. Floyd\u2019s death, which was captured on video, sparked a worldwide protests, violence and a furious reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cI woke up this morning to the news that Derek Chauvin had been [found guilty]. \u2026I lay in bed and cried with relief and sadness because, although the guilty party has been held accountable, it does not erase the memory of watching George Floyd slowly suffocate to death,\u201d Rauschenberger said. \u201cThis is a testament to America\u2019s flawed and deeply racist justice system that a murder caught on camera required national outrage and almost an entire year of pressure from activists and protesters for a second-degree murder charge. I can only hope that this verdict marks a turning point against police officers who feel emboldened to commit acts of violence against black, native, queer, disabled, and other marginalized and oppressed groups of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement shared with Saipan Tribune<\/em>, Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), who joined the peaceful BLM protests in San Jose last year, said the collective efforts of people did not go to waste. \u201cNothing will ever bring back George Floyd to his family but at least the Floyd family\u2014and all Americans\u2014can take comfort knowing that truth prevailed and justice has been rendered. Let us now hope this verdict sends a clear message that violence against African Americans and racial minorities in our country will no longer be tolerated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Also in the protest last year was Richard Sikkel of Papago who, after finding out about the guilty verdict, carry with him a flame of hope. \u201cI am hopeful this will be the beginning of sensible police reform and serious steps to right inequalities based on race, gender, etc.,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Ajani Burrell, a teacher at the Northern Marianas College, believes the guilty verdict will have significant implications. \u201cOne consequence is that I believe it will go some ways toward police departments and individual officers reconsidering their policies and actions. This is the first conviction of this weight that I can recall from all of the major police shooting cases over the years. I think it will further embolden prosecutors and juries to consider holding officers who commit these kinds of acts accountable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the longer view, this is another step toward full justice for men and women of color\u2014both in their interactions with police and with society at large. Many more steps are needed, and many have already happened, but the guilty verdict is an important step in the right direction. Perhaps most importantly, this verdict may bolster hope in the millions of people who feel the criminal justice system, particularly policing, is unfair, and who have long feared that bad actors may never be truly held to account,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Rauschenberger, who started the BLM protests on the CNMI by standing at the San Jose and Atkins-Kroll intersection and holding up a banner for an entire week, said that yesterday\u2019s guilty verdict means that it is now possible to expect such verdicts in cases of police brutality, but also pointed out that the prejudice and violence in policing are built into the system and will not end until the system itself has ended. \u201cI believe in the dismantling and abolishment of the police and the complete reformation of America\u2019s justice system. What that will ultimately look like, I can\u2019t say, but it starts with defunding and demilitarizing police forces and reinvesting that money into communities who have been harmed,\u201d said Rauschenberger.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Black Lives Matter movement was an integral part of this conviction. Communities around the country stood their ground against tear gas, rubber bullets, and other forms of aggression from the police, and people all over the world turned out to show solidarity with those who were putting their safety on the line to fight for justice not only for George Floyd, but for the hundreds of other Black people killed by state sanctioned violence and white supremacy in the U.S.,\u201d Rauschenberger added.<\/p>\n Rauschenberger is quick to point out, however, that the guilty verdict only paves the way for accountability and not justice. \u201cI would like to echo the sentiment of many Black Americans who have pointed out that this verdict represents accountability, but not justice. Justice would be George Floyd alive and at home with his family today. Justice would be the complete dismantling and reformation of America\u2019s police forces and prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe conviction of Derek Chauvin for a murder that we all saw him commit should have been something we could take for granted, not a moment where people across the country held their breath to see if the justice system would fail once again. \u2026George Floyd\u2019s life always mattered, and it\u2019s a horrific fact that it needed to be proven in this way,\u201d Rauschenberger added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brooks Rauschenberger woke up yesterday and cried both in relief and sadness upon learning that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":342758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-342745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}