Security Ramps up for Derek Chauvin Murder Trial
https://socialistaction.org/2021/03/06/security-ramps-up-for-derek-chauvin-murder-trial/
March 6, 2021
By Lisa Leonard
Last year, on May 25, Memorial Day, the world watched in horror as
George Floyd, an African-American man, was brutally murdered in broad
daylight on a street corner in Minneapolis. A bystander filmed Derek
Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck for over 8
minutes, while he pleaded for air. Three other police officers standing
nearby colluded in the murder. And all this because Mr. Floyd allegedly
passed a counterfeit $20 bill at the corner store!
The murder, which gained worldwide attention, exposed racist police
brutality in America as never before. On average one unarmed Black man
is murdered by police every day. The system’s “legalized” violence and
brutality that was created during slavery and then transformed into Jim
Crow segregation, is today manifested in the racist school-to-prison
mass incarceration scenario enforced by racist police and that is
systematically imposed against Black people, indigenous people,
immigrants, and other minorities every day. Millions of people woke up
and began to see what was happening around them, not just to Mr. Floyd,
but to Breonna Taylor, to Eric Garner, to Treyvon Martin and to
thousands of others just like them. What started as mass protests and
rioting in Minneapolis soon spread to massive protests, mostly peaceful,
as millions poured into the streets around the U.S. and around the
world. This sparked the largest protest movement in U.S. history with
the estimated 20 million people participating and demanding Black Lives
Matter! Initiated largely by working class Black, Latino and Native
American the unprecedented and courageous mobilizations witnessed the
solidarity of millions of white youth imbued with the spirit of
solidarity. That these multi-racial protests took place in some 2,000
cities and in the context of a deadly global pandemic evidenced the
growing radicalism in the U.S. today and especially among the youth.
Slap on wrist for murdering cops at most
Derek Chauvin’s murder trial is set to begin on March 8. The mere fact
that he was charged with the murder of George Floyd is almost
unprecedented as most police officers who murder Black and Brown people
get off with just a slap on the wrist at most. The Minnesota Court of
Appeals will hear arguments a week before the trial starts to reinstate
a third degree murder charge against Chauvin that was dropped by a Judge
last year. Prosecutors are also asking for charges of aiding and
abetting third-degree murder to be added to the cases of J. Alexander
Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, Chauvin’s police colleagues, who stood
by and watched while Chauvin murdered Mr. Floyd. The three other
officers will be tried in August.
Despite widespread calls to “Defund the Police” coming from protestors
and community leaders, Minneapolis officials have hemmed and hawed and
delayed any final decisions over the last few months. Things have
largely returned to “normal” in Minneapolis and St. Paul, not to mention
the rest of the country, where police continue to kill people of color
on a daily basis with virtual impunity. On December 30th, police shot
and killed a Somali American man, Dolal Idd, at a gas station in South
Minneapolis during a felony traffic stop for an alleged firearms sale.
At the same time, the City of Minneapolis is actually spending $6.4
million to hire dozens of new police officers, a move that was
unanimously approved by the Minneapolis City Council in February 2021.
National Guard to police Chauvin trial
Meanwhile, security measures in Minneapolis are ramping up in
anticipation of new protests during the Chauvin trial. Minnesota
Governor Tim Walz has activated the National Guard to police the event.
The Guard has also been assigned to duty during the follow-up trial of
the other three officers. The Minneapolis Police Department, the
Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, the Minnesota State Patrol and the
Minnesota National Guard are all collaborating on security measures.
1,000 National Guard troops and 1,200 law enforcement officers will be
on standby to help “keep the peace.” Officials have stated there will be
“zero tolerance for rioting, looting, and property destruction.”
Measures are in preparation to prevent highways being used for protest
marches. Concrete security perimeters are already being erected around
Minneapolis City Hall and the Government Center, while several downtown
streets will be closed for the duration of the trial.
The Republican-controlled Minnesota Senate approved a measure that
compels the City of Minneapolis to pay for the cost of security measures
surrounding Chauvin’s trial, including the costs of bringing in
surrounding police agencies to help with crowd control. Some Senators
have justified these measures imposed on Minneapolis based on the
argument that other cities shouldn’t be responsible for paying for riot
response in a city that isn’t supposedly doing enough to stop those
riots. “People across the state are very, very frustrated with the City
of Minneapolis, the leadership, that over and over and over talked about
defunding the police,” said Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka. At the
same time, the Democratic Farmer Labor-controlled House was expected to
take up legislation to create a $35 million SAFE Fund (State Aid for
Emergencies), that would help reimburse cities that support nearby areas
with firefighters and police during rioting and other emergency
situations. That measure was tabled.
City readies anti-protest propaganda effort
The Minneapolis City Council recently approved $1,181,500 for so-called
“communication with the community” during the trial. As part of these
communication efforts, the City will be hiring six social media
influencers to intentionally target Black, Native American, Somali,
Hmong and Latinx communities with messaging throughout the trial. In a
public statement, the City Council said, “The City is collaborating with
social media partners to share public information with cultural
communities and to help dispel potential misinformation during the
upcoming trials of the former officers involved in the killing of George
Floyd. The goal is to increase access to information to communities that
do not typically follow mainstream news sources or City communications
channels and/or who do not consume information in English. It’s also an
opportunity to create more two-way communication between the City and
communities. The recommendations for which social media messengers to
partner with come from the City’s Neighborhood and Community Relations
staff.”
But community activists are already expressing concern about this
strategy. Toussaint Morrison, a local activist with over 11,000
Instagram followers, is concerned about the clear bias of this
messaging. “The key words here are ‘city approved.’ What do you think
the message is going to be? It’s going to be pro-city; it’s going to be
anti-protest.” said Morrison in an interview with CBS News. Sara Davis,
the Executive Director of the Minneapolis Legal Rights Center, expressed
similar concerns. “It really reflects that they know there’s a lack of
trust between community and city institutions and that’s real, let’s be
honest about that, that’s real,” she said. Following mounting pressure
and criticism from the community, Minneapolis officials backtracked and
said they are no longer planning to hire influencers to spread
city-approved messages during the trial.
Cops not protestors make streets unsafe
Clearly, pouring millions of dollars into hiring new police officers,
ramping up security measures, and controlling messaging surrounding
Chauvin’s trial is not going to make our streets safer. It’s not the
protestors, often labeled “rioters,” who are making our streets unsafe.
In fact, the vast majority of protests against police brutality that
took place in 2020 were peaceful. It’s the police officers who are
arresting Black and Brown people for low level drug offenses and putting
them in jail, ripping them out of their families and their communities.
It’s the police officers who collaborate with ICE agents to deport
immigrants, who most of the time haven’t committed any crime at all, and
are just trying to work to provide a better life for their families.
It’s the fact that we have thousands of people experiencing homelessness
in the Twin Cities, people who are kicked out of city parks for living
in tents, people who are without housing during the brutal Minnesota
winter while rent costs skyrocket. And yet, the City can find millions
of dollars to spend on so-called security measures. The planned massive
police presence during Chauvin’s trial is aimed at suppressing free
speech and the right of people to protest peacefully in the streets.
It’s the police officers who should be arrested for their brutal
treatment of the most oppressed members of our society, not the
protestors speaking out for truth and justice.
Check back on our website, socialistaction.org, for ongoing coverage of
Derek Chauvin’s trial.
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