Philonise Floyd OpEd: This is what justice feels like.

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Philonise Floyd: For my brother George Floyd, this is what justice feels like

This is what justice feels like: gut-wrenching relief, exhaustion. It’s not sweet or satisfying. It’s necessary, important, maybe even historic. But only with the passage of time will we know if the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin is the start of something that will truly change America and the experience of Black Americans.

For the past two weeks, I have watched my brother George Floyd die over and over, thousands of times. The video testimony was hard to see. Now it is seared into my waking thoughts and my nightly sleep — what little sleep I get.

I watched as the strangers who stood on that street and saw George slowly, agonizingly die testified about how they pleaded for his life and felt guilty that they weren’t able to save it, sometimes sobbing through their words. They never thought they’d have to stand there and witness his soul leave its body. That included a 9-year-old girl with the word “love” on her shirt, who saw something no child should ever have to see. She will be forever changed by it. Those good people who were there with George at the end, when we were not, are also now part of our family.

saw tears on the faces of jurors who looked nothing like George or me as they listened to that testimony, and I felt bonds of humanity with them. In contrast to the jury that 66 years ago refused to convict the men who brutalized, maimed and killed Emmett Till, this jury took a decisive stand for justice. As much as this verdict is a vindication for George, it is for Emmett, too.

Over the past 11 months, my family has forged relationships with the families of so many other victims of brutality and over-policing — Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright, Eric Garner. We are members of a tragic club that we never would have chosen for ourselves. Many of these victims have not had their day in court. This verdict is for them, too.
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This verdict is historic, but it shouldn’t be historic to punish people who do bad things, even if they wear a police uniform — especially if they wear a police uniform.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/21/philonise-floyd-chauvin-verdict-justice/