Kansas City activists on Chauvin verdict: ‘Finally, there’s some sense of justice’
Kansas City activists who protested last year after George Floyd’s death exulted in the news Tuesday that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder.
“Finally, there’s some sense of justice in America when a Black man is killed,” said attorney and activist Stacy Shaw.
Chauvin’s conviction is “exactly what needed to happen,” said Lora McDonald, executive director of MORE2, a local social justice organization.
“I don’t want to call it justice because George Floyd is still dead and the police department still clearly has a lot of work to do, both there and just policing across the nation.
“So this is a glimmer that you can get a conviction in this type of case. And yet it’s a really tiny, tiny percent of officers that even make it to trial. And even a tinier percentage that get convicted. So this is like a needle in a haystack victory, I guess.”
Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, lit a firestorm of anger and protests across the country and in Kansas City. Over several days in late May and early June, thousands gathered near the Country Club Plaza, chanting and marching with signs about racial justice and police brutality.
For three consecutive nights, Kansas City police fired tear gas into crowds. More than 150 people were arrested.
Kansas City activist Justice Horn helped organize last summer’s demonstrations here.
“What this verdict means here locally is that, for so many of us, especially Black Americans, we see ourselves or someone we love in this case,” Horn said. “This case is going to send a signal far, not only here locally, but nationally, on how the American justice system views a Black life.”
Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd during an arrest.
The jury deliberated 10 hours over two days before reaching a verdict Tuesday.
But some said the verdict won’t change how police interact with people of color. That will take reform of the system and more people willing to work for that cause.
“I think that it is a mistake to look at the outcome of this trial and make an inference on the state of America,” said Brandon Henderson, who last May was the new student body president at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and was tear-gassed during the protests on the Plaza.
“The system that killed George Floyd will be preserved regardless. So convicting Derek Chauvin is not going to make my life safer or any other Black person’s life safer, because the institution of policing has not changed. ”
And Shaw pointed to a recent case of a Black person killed by police in Kansas City.
On March 25, a Kansas City police officer fatally shot Malcolm D. Johnson, 31, at a gas station at 63rd and Prospect Avenue. Johnson had shot the officer in the leg, police said.
The shooting remains under investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, spokesman Sgt. Andy Bell said Tuesday. The case file will be sent to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office for review.
Activists have decried other Kansas City police shootings including the homicides of Terrance Bridges, Cameron Lamb, Donnie Sanders and Ryan Stokes — all Black men and at least three were unarmed when they were shot.
To ensure this movement maintains a coalition behind it, Horn said, “it needs to be everybody’s issue.”
Stronger voices
The verdict in Minnesota, is not “any kind of watershed moment in the United States,” said Henry Service, a Kansas City attorney and activist.
“To me, all that tells me is that for a conviction, you need multiple witnesses, you need a video recording of the police doing it, you need someone begging for their literal life on camera with people saying right there ‘you’re killing him.’”
But what has changed, the city’s activists say, is the local response to racism. Organizing has evolved from the highly visible summer protests to a months-long political protest on the lawn of City Hall for the houseless to quieter strategies.
Shaw called the Floyd protests of last year an “awakening” for some about police brutality happening here that “expanded into a larger conversation about Black liberation and resistance to oppression of marginalized people.”
The protests “inalterably changed me,” said Shaw. “I think that also it’s changed the fabric of Kansas City and it’s awakening a consciousness in people regarding racial inequity and oppression. You’ve seen such a huge resurgence in activism with young people, older people across issues.”
Shaw recalled one occasion when she was involved in a protest outside Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas’ house.
“I don’t want to be yelling at politicians anymore,” she said. “We’re just going to make sure that they go on to their next adventure.”
McDonald worked 20 hours a day last summer communicating with people who reached out to her and MORE2 on social media, via email and on its website. People were eager to do something, anything.
Not everyone who reached out is still involved, but a core group of activists continue their efforts, she said.
“The ones who stayed, they’re with us. And there’s a lot of energy still around that. So we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
McDonald’s group is one of many local organizations who are advocating for local control of the Kansas City Police Department, which is currently controlled by a board appointed by the governor. They have also called for Police Chief Rick Smith’s resignation. New leadership, they argue, is necessary to fix the fractured relationship between the city’s police and its Black residents.
Activists also want to see a significant cut to the police department’s $273 million budget.
Beyond demonstrating in the streets, activists are showing up to City Council meetings, working on policy changes and organizing political campaigns.
Shaw saw evidence of the momentum continuing in new faces at a vigil Sunday night in Kansas City ahead of the Chauvin decision.
“What’s unique about Kansas City is that our resistance never stopped.”
This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 4:57 PM.
