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This is accountability, but not justice—that was a widely shared sentiment after a jury in Minnesota on Tuesday found Derek Chauvin, a white former police officer, guilty of murdering George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in Minneapolis last year.
Chauvin was charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He will be sentenced in eight weeks. His conviction follows more recent instances of police violence that have sparked outrage.
Floyd's death led to a global wave of protests demanding racial justice, an end to police brutality—particularly against people of color—and sweeping reforms in law enforcement. The verdict Tuesday prompted more demonstrations and calls for change from a diverse range of activists, advocacy groups, and elected officials.
Here is a selection of those comments:
Black Lives Matter
Center for Constitutional Rights
"Despite today's guilty verdict, true justice for George Floyd and the other Black lives snuffed out by police has yet to be done... Derek Chauvin will now serve a penalty for acts deemed exceptional. But his behavior was not exceptional, and treating George Floyd's murder as a consequence of extraordinary acts neither protects Black people nor captures the unreformable depravity of our system of policing. His murder is the predictable outcome of policing's origin in slave patrols and the ongoing, constant threat to Black people of arrest, incarceration, violence, and death."
CodePink
Communications Workers of America
"Today's verdict finding Derek Chauvin guilty of the murder of George Floyd is a step toward justice for Floyd, his family members, and all those who have been affected by his brutal murder. But it is not enough. As we have seen in the past few weeks, the threat of police violence continues to be a constant presence in the lives of Black and Brown people in our country. We've heard all the pretexts and excuses and promises to do better, but the fact remains that there has been no reduction in the racial disparity in fatal police shootings over the past five years."
Vera Institute of Justice
"The verdict is an important step toward police accountability for a brutal act of violence. While the outcome of this trial was just, it won't bring George Floyd back, lessen the suffering of his family, or keep our communities safe from racism and police violence. A system rooted in racism and white supremacy won't deliver the accountability or safety we deserve. There is more work to do."
Lindsey Allen, Greenpeace USA
"While this is a milestone, there is so much more work to be done to dismantle white supremacy and overhaul the systems that allow for racist police and vigilante violence against Black and Brown people in the first place... The verdict falling during the week of Earth Day connects our movements in protest and reminds us that there is no climate justice without racial justice. As an environmental community, we must speak out in the face of white supremacy, systemic injustice, and their fatal consequences. Fighting for a green and peaceful future includes speaking out against the unjust, racist, and systemic violence facing Black people in the U.S."
Stosh Cotler, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
"Derek Chauvin will still have his life, while the families of George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, and so many others continue to mourn... We rise in solidarity with Black and brown people—including Jews of color—resisting in the Twin Cities, in Brooklyn Center, in our Jewish communities, and across the country. At the same time, Republican-led state legislatures across the country are moving forward legislation that would criminalize Black and brown-led protest, from the recently passed H.B. 1 in Florida to bills introduced in Minnesota just this month. We condemn these anti-democratic measures and call on leaders and elected officials to protect the rights of protesters."
Abigail Dillen, Earthjustice
"This conviction must mark the beginning of true change in our country, where the criminal justice system has consistently failed to hold police officers accountable for the unwarranted killings and brutality that have disproportionately taken the lives of Black people and other people of color in traumatized communities... Although today's verdict marks an important step forward, we call on leadership at every level of government to advance urgently needed policing reforms that bring about true racial justice and equality."
Rahna Epting, MoveOn
"The Derek Chauvin verdict is a welcome measure of accountability. Yet, the truth is that Chauvin being convicted for killing George Floyd is, unfortunately, the exception in this country, not the rule. In order to truly achieve justice, we must fundamentally transform public safety. We must reimagine a society that truly protects and takes care of one another, and treats one another with dignity and respect. And we certainly must ensure that no police officer ever again is empowered to brutally inflict harm upon anyone and callously take their life."
Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, Lawyers for Civil Rights
"No one is above the law. Yet time and time again, officers engaging in unlawful misconduct are spared from legal consequences simply because they are part of law enforcement. At LCR, we are committed to bringing civil rights lawsuits on behalf of people of color affected by police misconduct. Today, we call on prosecutors to similarly do their part by holding police officers responsible for misconduct. Prosecutors across the nation—including here in Massachusetts—must stop shielding officers who act beyond the bounds of their authority and rain violence upon communities of color. Prosecutors must track, expose, and prosecute officers and police departments that engage in brutality, racial profiling, and other civil rights violations."
Kassandra Frederique, Drug Policy Alliance
"Over the course of the trial, the defense brought in one witness after another not to prove Derek Chauvin didn't kill George Floyd, but instead to prove that George Floyd was under the influence of drugs at the time of his death and in previous law enforcement encounters... This verdict, for once, gives us hope that the days of this excuse still working are numbered. But the fight is not over. Make no mistake, this will happen again and there will be other officers who try to escape all accountability. We must work to end the drug war, so that drugs can never again be used as an excuse to rob people of their dignity, their humanity, or their lives."
George Goehl and Bree Carlson, People's Action
"No verdict will bring George Floyd back, or deliver justice to his family and others who have suffered state-sanctioned police violence. Today, we breathe a sigh of relief as the Floyd family and the people of Minneapolis are offered some shred of accountability. We have a long road ahead, and we know that convicting one guilty person cannot bring justice for generations of oppression. True justice begins with defunding the Minneapolis police department and diverting that funding to programs to make communities healthy and whole, and it will be complete only when our country finally and permanently ends state-sanctioned murders of Black people."
John Gordon, ACLU of Minnesota
"While this verdict brings a certain rare form of accountability for police, achieving this outcome for Mr. Floyd is only one step in addressing police abuse of power, disparate treatment, and excessive force against Black and Brown communities. We still must radically change policing in Minnesota and across the country, increase accountability and transparency, and create policies that combat racism in policing. The jury's decision to convict Derek Chauvin does not negate the fact that Mr. Floyd's tragic murder is part of a horrifying local and national pattern of officers using excessive force against people of color."
Debra Gore-Mann, Greenlining Institute
"Today we experienced a small measure of justice... But we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking that one conviction of one cop for a killing the whole world witnessed on video will change a fundamentally racist and dysfunctional system. The whole law enforcement system must be rethought and rebuilt from the ground up so that there are no more George Floyds, Daunte Wrights, and Adam Toledos. But even that is just a start. Policing doesn't operate in a vacuum. Systemic racism exists in policing because systemic racism exists in America. We must fundamentally uproot the disease of racism in our society and create a transformative path forward."
Massachusetts AG Maura Healey and Nevada AG Aaron Ford, Democratic Attorneys General Association
"Today, there was accountability for George Floyd's murder. But the work for justice continues... Today, we recommit to working to end the injustice of police killings without consequence—disproportionately affecting Black, Brown and other communities and families of color. We applaud our colleague AG Keith Ellison and his team for their leadership and commitment to justice for George Floyd and his family. To those marching in the streets for continued justice and progress, know that we stand with you in the fight for reforms, and are working to make sure systemic change happens at the state and federal level."
Shanene Herbert, the American Friends Service Committee's Healing Justice program in Saint Paul
"The brutal murder of George Floyd is the consequence of a racist system that disproportionately targets people of color for violence, imprisonment, and premature death... No matter the outcome of the trial, young people of color are living every day with the ongoing trauma of police violence, the militarization of our cities, tear gas invading their homes, and brutality against protestors. Instead of this constant dehumanization, we need resources to help us heal and rebuild the beloved community we all deserve."
Margaret Huang, Southern Poverty Law Center
"Today's verdict is an acknowledgement that police officers cannot get away with murder, but we still have a long way to go to achieve the justice demanded by so many protesters in the last year... The fact that justice was done in this case cannot allow us to forget about the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Dion Johnson, among many others. But this case galvanized a movement for justice that has expanded across the country, rooted in longstanding demands for a reimagining of a criminal legal system built on anti-Black racism and white supremacy. Lawmakers at the state and federal level must begin holding officers accountable for police violence."
Farhana Khera, Muslim Advocates
"The jury's guilty verdict is a long-overdue measure of justice for the Floyd family... Now, all the other officers involved in Floyd's killing must also be held accountable. And we must hold accountable all the other officers involved in the killings of Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, Breonna Taylor, Muhammad Muhaymin, Jr. and the many, many other Black people and people of color who have been harmed and killed by the police. Further, we must all take drastic, immediate action to overhaul the law enforcement and justice systems that have allowed this violence to continue for so long."
Karissa Lewis, Movement for Black Lives
"George Floyd should still be alive, full stop. Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict doesn't fix an irredeemable, racist system of policing rooted in white supremacy that will continue working against and harming Black people just as designed... This repeat cycle of police killings, trials, and no real substantive systemic change has to stop. Now is the time for a complete reimagining of public safety in the United States, so that no more fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, children, siblings or loved ones are lost to the hands of state violence."
Miski Noor, Black Visions
"We know that true justice would be served only if George was still here with his family, loved ones, and community. We believe in a world where Black people don't have to feel this pain and wonder why these things keep happening... It is both individuals and institutions that bear responsibility for the loss of George' s life and the pain his family experiences, so we feel a guilty verdict is an important step for the community and we know that Chauvin is not the exception but the rule. No one conviction, training, or reform can interrupt the rotten foundation of the institution of police and policing."
Becky Pringle, National Education Association
"While the jury reached the right decision and did in fact convict former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of George Floyd's murder, we are again joining together to make sure all of us feel safe in our schools, neighborhoods, and communities... As the one-year mark of George Floyd's murder approaches, we must continue to come together to demand accountability and justice for all and to demand that our elected leaders—especially those who have taken an oath to serve and protect us—to respect our rights, no matter our race, background, or where we live."
Roxana Rivera, 32BJ
"As a union representing mostly Black and Brown workers, our members cannot escape a dangerous reality that they too could become a victim of police brutality, even as they risk their own lives keeping us safe on the frontlines as essential workers who clean and secure buildings. Many must travel to and from work during off-hours and fear being harassed and brutalized by the police... We must ensure this ruling signals an end to the cycle of violence against our Black and Brown communities, and the beginning of long overdue reform of our broken policing and criminal justice systems."
Rashad Robinson, Color of Change
"Nine minutes and 29 seconds will forever be supplanted in our hearts and memory. Now we must look at the road ahead. Our fight for racial justice continues as we fight to fundamentally alter a system that continues to threaten, harm, and kill Black people. So we use this moment to push for real change because the fight for accountability and justice in America is far from over. The Chauvin trial may be over, but what comes next will be the consequential moment in our history. We need to do more than raise our voices; we must demand action now... Color of Change is all in for the fight for justice and will continue to advocate for systemic change."
Kristina Roth, Amnesty International USA
"Of course, true justice for George Floyd would require him to still be alive... Not only did Derek Chauvin deny George Floyd his human rights, he also showed utter disregard for George Floyd's humanity. We must acknowledge the racist roots of law enforcement in this country if we are to address the systemic failures of policing and bring about meaningful public safety for those that have been historically overpoliced. This must include shrinking the size and scope of law enforcement in daily life, eliminating qualified immunity that creates a barrier to redress for victims of unlawful policing, demilitarizing law enforcement, and enacting strict limits on the use of force altogether."
Linda Sarsour, MPower Change
"Today's verdict might come as a relief, but to act in solidarity with Black communities, we must remember that it is decidedly the exception, not the rule. And we must continue to take action in honor of the life of George Floyd, and all lives lost to white supremacy, policing, and incarceration by fighting for a world without these roots of injustice."
Lee Saunders, AFSCME
"We cannot let today's verdict allow us to become complacent about the challenges we face. We have to do better. Black people in America are exhausted with fear and anxiety every single day. Today's verdict is appropriate punishment for a single crime. But to honor the memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Adam Toledo, and so many others whose only 'crime' was being Black, we must work with greater effort and urgency than ever to bend the arc toward racial justice."
Shari Silberstein, Equal Justice USA
"Today, so many people are exhaling with relief for the thousands who cannot: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Duante Wright, Adam Toledo, and so many more. A legal system that has been over-applied to Black and brown people and dramatically under-applied to law enforcement has now convicted one police officer. The verdict is deeply meaningful for being so rare. But we cannot mistake this for a transformative moment. We still pour billions more dollars into policing than into proven health-based violence prevention. Black people are still not safe when they're pulled over, jogging, even surrendering. And our nation has not been accountable to the harm of centuries of racist policies embedded in our justice system and far beyond it."
Erica Smiley, Jobs With Justice
President Joe Biden
District Attorney Chesa Boudin, San Francisco (D)
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.)
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Jackson, Mississippi (D)
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
"While today's conviction is a necessary condition of justice, it is not sufficient. For centuries, Black people have faced violence at the hands of the state in our country. For centuries, systemic inequalities in the form of housing, income, education, and criminal justice have plagued our country—holding us back from our creed of liberty and justice for all. Let this be a turning point, where we finally create a society that reflects the belief that all men and women are created equal. Let this be the moment where we implement a broad anti-racist agenda to root out the inequalities that continue to plague us."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)
Ohio congressional candidate Nina Turner (D)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
"The jury's verdict delivers accountability for Derek Chauvin, but not justice for George Floyd. Real justice for him and too many others can only happen when we build a nation that fundamentally respects the human dignity of every person. The trauma and tragedy of George Floyd's murder must never leave us. It was a manifestation of a system that callously devalues the lives of Black people. Our struggle now is about justice—not justice on paper, but real justice in which all Americans live their lives free of oppression. We must boldly root out the cancer of systemic racism and police violence against people of color."
City Council Member Kshama Sawant, Seattle (Socialist Alternative)
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Two of the leading Republican firebrands in Congress touted big fundraising hauls as a show of grassroots support for their high-profile stands against accepting the 2020 election results.
But new financial disclosures show that Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., relied on an email marketing vendor that takes as much as 80 cents on the dollar. That means their headline-grabbing numbers were more the product of expensively soliciting hardcore Republicans than an organic groundswell of far-reaching support.
Hawley and Greene each reported raising more than $3 million in the first three months of the year, an unusually large sum for freshman lawmakers, according to new filings with the Federal Election Commission. That's more than the average House member raises in an entire two-year cycle, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. The tallies generated favorable press coverage for Hawley and Greene, and they both seized on the numbers to claim a popular mandate.
Politico called Greene's result "eye-popping" and "staggering," a sign that she "appears to have actually benefited from all the controversies that have consumed her first few months in office." The House voted in February to remove Greene from her committee assignments because of her social media posts that promoted far-right conspiracy theories; racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric; and violence against Democratic leaders.
"I am humbled, overjoyed and so excited to announce what happened over the past few months as I have been the most attacked freshman member of Congress in history," Greene said in an emailed statement on April 7. "Accumulating $3.2 million with small dollar donations is the absolute BEST support I could possibly ask for!"
As for Hawley, who was the first senator to say he'd object to certifying the Electoral College results on Jan. 6, Politico proclaimed that his massive increase showed "how anti-establishment Republicans are parlaying controversy into small-dollar fundraising success." Hawley's pollster, Wes Anderson with the political consulting firm OnMessage, said in a memo distributed to supporters that the "fundraising surge" made "crystal clear that a strong majority of Missouri voters and donors stand firmly with Senator Hawley, in spite of the continued false attacks coming from the radical left."
It wasn't until later, when the campaigns disclosed their spending details in last week's FEC reports, that it became clearer how they raised so much money: by paying to borrow another organization's mailing list.
"List rental" was the No. 1 expense for both campaigns, totaling almost $600,000 for each of them. It's common for campaigns to rent lists from outside groups or other candidates to broaden their reach. But for Hawley and Greene, the cost was unusually high, amounting to almost 20% of all the money they raised in January, February and March.
The actual return on renting the lists was likely even lower, since it's probable that not all their donations came from emailing those lists. It's not possible to tell from the FEC filings which contributions resulted from which solicitations. Firms that sell lists sometimes demand huge cuts: The top vendor for Hawley and Greene, LGM Consulting Group, charges as much as 80%, according to a contract disclosed in Florida court records as part of a dispute involving Lacy Johnson's long-shot bid to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
The Hawley and Greene campaigns did not respond to requests for comment. LGM Consulting Group's principal, Bryan G. Rudnick, also did not respond to phone messages or an email.
Far beyond these two campaigns or this one company, small-dollar fundraising has exploded thanks to easy online payments, which are rewriting the playbook for campaign finance in both parties. At the same time, the rise of email fundraising has spawned some aggressive or even deceptive marketing tactics and made plenty of room for consultants and vendors to profit. A move by then-President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign to sign up supporters for recurring payments by default led to as much as 3% of all credit card fraud claims filed with major banks, according to The New York Times. In some long-shot congressional races, consultants could walk away with almost half of all the money raised, The Washington Post reported.
Hawley's and Greene's list rentals show how politicians can pad their fundraising figures — if they're willing to pay for it. There's scant evidence that fundraising success represents broad popular support for a politician outside the narrow slice of Americans who make political contributions, and many of the people on the rented mailing lists may not have been constituents of Hawley's or Greene's. Still, the money is real, and the perception of fundraising star power is its own kind of success in Washington.
"They're juicing their numbers, but their return on investment is still a net gain," said Jessica Baldwin-Philippi, a professor at Fordham University who researches how political campaigns use digital communications. "The money matters, the articles about the money matter and convey power, and it adds to their clout."
The cost to rent a list can be a flat fee, a percentage cut of money raised, or even all money raised after a campaign clears a certain threshold. Donors have limited visibility into where their money goes and may not realize how much is being diverted from the candidate they mean to support.
Renting lists can pay dividends for campaigns because people who respond by donating then enter the candidates' own databases of supporters, and past contributors are much more likely to give again. Candidates with big donor bases can tap them for more money later or turn around and rent their own list to others.
Political professionals have gotten more sophisticated about efficiently converting online outrage into campaign cash. At the same time, candidates who court controversy may increasingly rely on rage-fueled online fundraising as more traditional donors freeze them out. In the aftermath of Jan. 6, Hawley lost the support of some big donors, and major companies such as AT&T and Honeywell pledged to withhold donations from lawmakers who objected to the Electoral College vote.
"The news cycle that emerges out of controversial behavior by a candidate is like a strong gust of wind, and these mechanisms like list-building are the equivalent of sails," said Eric Wilson, a digital strategist who has advised Sen. Marco Rubio and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "For candidates like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Josh Hawley, who have largely been shunned by traditional corporate donors who are frequently the mainstays for elected officials, especially in off years, they have no choice but to pursue grassroots fundraising. And in order for that to work, they have to continue to make more noise. It is a feedback loop in that regard."
It's not clear how Rudnick compiled his list (or lists). But one clue to the audience that Rudnick may help unlock is who else has hired him. Besides Hawley and Greene, FEC records show that last quarter LGM Consulting also rented a list or provided online fundraising solicitations to:
- Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who vowed to come armed to Congress, chafed at the use of metal detectors for members entering the House floor, and tweeted about lawmakers' whereabouts during the Capitol breach on Jan. 6.
- Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander said helped come up with the plan to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, which Biggs has denied.
- Tom Norton, who is challenging Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.
- And Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the NRSC chairman who voted against certifying Pennsylvania's electoral votes.
In the 2020 campaign cycle, the firm's clients included then-Rep. Doug Collins, a Trump ally who lost the Georgia Senate primary; Madison Cawthorn, the 25-year-old congressman from North Carolina who spoke at the Jan. 6 rally; and Laura Loomer, a far-right internet personality who calls herself a "proud Islamophobe" and lost a run for a Florida congressional seat.
Rudnick has his own history of controversy. He was fired by the Pennsylvania Republican Party in 2008 after sending emails to Jewish voters likening a vote for Barack Obama to the leadup to the Holocaust. "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake," the email said. "Let's not make a similar one this year!" Rudnick told the Associated Press at the time that party officials authorized the message, but he declined to name them.
Campaigns don't have to disclose whose list an email is being sent to, and fundraising emails aren't comprehensively made public, so it's not possible to tell exactly how Hawley and Greene used the lists they rented. But several of Hawley's fundraising emails contained digital fingerprints tying them to Rudnick: They were sent from a web domain that shares an address with one of Rudnick's companies, and the links to donate include "ASG," short for Rudnick's Alliance Strategies Group.
In one email, sent on March 6, Hawley touted his interview on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, in which Hawley said Democrats would use the Jan. 6 insurrection "as an excuse to seize power, to control more power, to step on people's Second Amendment rights, to take away their First Amendment rights." Following up on a major media appearance with a fundraising email is an effective technique, Wilson said.
In a second email using the Rudnick-linked domain, Hawley explicitly laid out his goal of posting an impressive fundraising number.
"I will be filing the first FEC financial report I have filed since I stood up for the integrity of our nation's election and the left began their attempts to cancel me," Hawley said in the email. "With your donation of $25, $50, $100 or more before the critical deadline on March 31, we will shock the left — they won't be able to ignore us any longer."
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Conservative apologists for police violence have argued that jurors were too afraid to acquit Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, but one legal analyst flatly rejected those claims.
MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance, a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, tossed aside claims that jurors convicted the former Minneapolis police officer on all three counts because they feared the possibility of mass violence if they acquitted Chauvin.
"Some people, as you said, the pundits, suggesting that this jury was influenced by the fear the country would break out in riots if they didn't return a verdict of guilt," Vance said. "I reject that notion. This jury took an oath, told the judge they could follow it repeatedly and they were sequestered during their deliberations."
If anything, the longtime prosecutor said, juries are overly deferential to police officer defendants.
"What I'm forced to think about is all of the juries in police cases who I spoke with after they hung or after they rendered acquittals were jurors, as you said, gave police the benefit of the doubt," Vance said. "They said, we didn't want to ruin the life of a police officer. I think what the Black Lives Matter protests last summer did, I think what the influx of information into the national conscience about the widespread police misconduct that we see did was it let this jury decide this case based solely on the evidence and the law without some sort of a bias that said that police were above the law."
"Now we live in a community where we can possibly have justice for everyone going forward if future juries will act this way, as well," she added.
04 21 2021 06 25 04 www.youtube.com
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