By Lisa Kashinsky on Apr 20, 2021 08:43 pm
George Floyd's family is "able to breathe again" after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of his murder on Tuesday, but loved ones, activists and politicians across the country say the fight for justice and policing reform is far from over. "Today is a pivotal moment for America. It's something this country's needed for a long time now," Floyd's nephew, Brandon Williams, told reporters after the verdict was read. "We need change in this broken system that was built to oppress us, that was built against us. … We need police reform, bad." A jury on Tuesday found Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, 11 months after the white cop knelt on the neck of Floyd for nine minutes and 29 seconds as the Black man gasped for air. “Today we are able to breathe again,” Philonise Floyd, one of George Floyd’s brothers, said. Chauvin, 45, had his bail immediately revoked and was led away in handcuffs. He’s set to be sentenced in two months and could face decades behind bars, with the most serious charge carrying up to 40 years in prison. “We don’t celebrate a man going to jail — we would have rather George be alive,” civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton said. But Chauvin’s conviction serves as “assurance” to the hundreds of thousands of people across the country who marched in the wake of Floyd’s death that “if we don’t give up, then we can win some rounds.” Floyd’s killing last Memorial Day set off waves of protest across the nation and forced a reckoning on racism and policing from Minneapolis to Massachusetts. “The road to equity is long and uneven, but there was justice today,” Rachael Rollins, the first Black woman to serve as Suffolk District Attorney, said in a press conference. “We are a noble profession, and this man does not represent us and the good work we do every single day.'” Rollins stood alongside Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey, the city’s first Black and first female chief executive, and members of Janey’s Cabinet, including police Superintendent-in-Chief Greg Long, in a show of unity. “While I am truly grateful for a guilty verdict, I know that our work in our city and every other city across America to advance racial justice continues,” Janey said. Gov. Charlie Baker, House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka vowed that work will continue to deliver on the law enforcement reforms lawmakers passed here last year. “We owe it to all those whose lives have been lost to do all we can to successfully implement that law, and sustain its aspirations far into the future,” Baker said in a statement. President Biden noted the “extraordinary convergence of factors” that wrought a conviction he called “much too rare” on Tuesday, and said “we can stop here” as he and Vice President Kamala Harris called to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. “Nothing can ever bring their brother, their father, back,” Biden said. “But this would be a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America.” U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, the first Black woman elected to the Boston City Council and then to Congress from Massachusetts, renewed her calls to end qualified immunity and to “dismantle the systems that create the conditions for police brutality” in favor of “trauma-informed, community-based solutions.” Amid calls to double down on the work ahead, some of the Bay State’s Black leaders also expressed hope. The NAACP Boston Branch said the Chauvin verdict signals “hope that our nation can live up to its ideals and realize justice for Black lives in America.” Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said: "Does the life of a Black man in America matter? A Minnesota jury today said 'yes.' ” Herald staff writers Erin Tiernan and Sean Philip Cotter and Herald wire services contributed to this report.
Read in browser »
By Lisa Kashinsky on Apr 20, 2021 05:15 pm
U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez re-energized their push for a Green New Deal on Tuesday, calling on President Biden to go “bigger and bolder” on combating climate change as Republicans decried the progressive wish list as socialism. “We believe that this is the moment that requires us to act big, think big, have a program that matches the magnitude of the problem that we’re confronted with,” the Malden Democrat said in a press conference. The lawmakers’ nonbinding resolution calls for a 10-year national mobilization to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and steer more federal resources toward low-income and minority communities disproportionately affected by climate change. Markey and Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., built on that Tuesday by unveiling their bill for a Civilian Climate Corps that would put 1.5 million people to work over five years on climate-related projects. More than 100 House members have now signed on as co-sponsors of the Green New Deal. But key Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and U.S. Sen. John Barasso, the ranking member of the Senate energy committee, swatted the proposal away as “socialism.” "The green new disaster is back," Barasso said in a statement. “The Green New Deal isn't about protecting the environment. It's about massively increasing the size of government and dictating how Americans live their lives.” First introduced in 2019, the Green New Deal quickly emerged as a litmus test for Democrats and a weapon for Republicans throughout the 2020 election cycle. Markey — who last year harnessed the Green New Deal movement he helped create to crush then-U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III and Republican Kevin O’Connor en route to re-election — called it a “winning political issue.” But Biden has so far walked a finer line — rejecting the Green New Deal label in a presidential debate last fall, but essentially incorporating its framework into his $2 trillion climate-focused infrastructure plan. “The amount that we have negotiated that has already been incorporated in the Biden administration’s approach so far is commendable — and we have to go bigger and bolder than that,” Ocasio-Cortez said. Markey said lawmakers are in “constant communication with the White House in terms of the boldness that we want to see in this plan.” But University of Massachusetts Lowell political science professor John Cluverius said, “I don’t think the Biden administration is looking to move any further to the left than they’ve already staked out on climate, because they have to run for re-election in states with lots of oil and gas and coal.” Biden is set to unveil his 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target later this week as he hosts dozens of world leaders for a virtual climate summit.
Read in browser »
Recent Articles:
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment