Vice President Kamala Harris said that while the jury in former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial may have found him guilty of murdering George Floyd, their verdict is not enough to “heal the pain that existed for generations.”
“Let’s say there is a guilty verdict on the highest charge, it will not take away the pain of the Floyd family. It will not take away the pain of the communities, all communities, regardless of their color or geographic location, that felt sadness and anger in what they witnessed in that video,” Harris told CNN on Tuesday shortly before Chauvin was convicted on all charges.
While Harris signaled that the “consequence and accountability” for Chauvin is a step in the right direction, she continued to spout off why judicial justice won’t remedy the “pain” caused by years of what she has previously called rogue policing.
“This verdict is but a piece of it and it will not heal the pain that existed for generations, that has existed for generations among people who have experienced and first-hand witnessed what now a broader public is seeing because of smartphones and the ubiquity of our ability to videotape in real-time what is happening in front of our faces. And that is the reality of it,” Harris continued.
Others echoed Harris’s words after the jury’s verdict was announced on Tuesday afternoon. The vice president’s sister Maya Harris claimed that a “just verdict is not the same as justice.”
Let’s be clear: A just verdict is not the same as justice.
— Maya Harris (@mayaharris_) April 20, 2021
Activist groups were also quick to note that while they were happy with the guilty on all charges verdict, “the conviction of Derek Chauvin doesn’t absolve policing as a whole.”
Our hearts are with the family of #GeorgeFloyd and the millions who have acted in defense of Black lives over the past 11 months. A moment of relief is here for many as the trial is over, yet the conviction of Derek Chauvin doesn’t absolve policing as a whole. #DefundThePolice pic.twitter.com/JthTdkVTDV
— Movement 4 Black Lives (@Mvmnt4BlkLives) April 20, 2021
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison qualified his words in a press conference shortly after Chauvin was taken away in handcuffs.
“I would not call today’s verdict justice, however, because justice implies restoration. But it is accountability,” he said.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison: "I would not call today's verdict justice, however—because justice implies restoration. But it is accountability." https://t.co/6nN46Fosol pic.twitter.com/u2EHNl6qbN
— ABC News (@ABC) April 20, 2021
