The video of an agent with the knee pressed for over nine minutes on the neck of the African American George Floyd lying on the asphalt and handcuffed begging to let him breathe, they will remain forever etched in the memory and conscience of America and all of us.
But the sentence for the police officer will also remain Derek Chauvin protagonist of those images. “Guilty, Colpevole“. Unanimously, Chauvin is held accountable by Minneapolis jurors for all three counts and now faces up to 40 years in prison.
Crimes go from manslaughter to manslaughter. And in America this translates into a sentence of up to about 40 years in prison. A rarity compared to the tradition of American justice.
Out of court the applause of the crowd which since that day has sparked protests across the country in the name of “Black lives matter“. And that he certainly wouldn’t have accepted any other verdict. Let alone another postponement. A victory to be ascribed therefore also to the very strong pressure made by the Movement.
Indeed, it is very rare that a police officer ends up in court for causing a death while exercising his duties. He is rarely condemned in an exemplary way. But it was clear to everyone, from the jurors to the judge, to the whole of America, that the outcome of this process would have been fundamental to recover some social peace. Peace increasingly put at risk after the killing of other African Americans by the police in recent days.
George Floyd was 46 years old, he was stopped on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis by a police patrol because he was found in possession of a fake $ 20 bill. He died as a result of severe mistreatment by police officer Chauvin, 44.
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