Justice for George Floyd helps heal our shaken faith, but fight for equality goes on | Opinion

The stunning part about the three guilty verdicts is that so many believed — with a dread in their heart so justified — that this day would never come.

That justice for George Floyd and accountability for Derek Chauvin would never happen.

The killing last May galvanized sports into action and changed America. It did all of that because it was murder in slow motion, by degrees, and we saw it all: 9 minutes and 29 seconds of outrageous heartlessness.

Knee on neck. On video. With Floyd pleading for his own life. With eyewitnesses pleading for that, too.

All across sports, leagues, teams and athletes championed the Black Lives Matter movement, speaking up, not shutting up and dribbling. It was a reminder star athletes can feel anger and outrage, too.

It was an open-and-shut case, right? The defense attorney had no chance.

And yet there was doubt until the very moment the verdicts on murder and manslaughter charges were read Wednesday in that Minneapolis courtroom. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

There was jubilation in the streets, and relief, the latter rooted in the fear justice and accountability might be denied yet again.

I stood in my living room (who could sit?) as the judge read the preamble to the verdicts. At the first ”Guilty” my fists shot in the air like a prizefighter. By the third tears welled in my eyes.

Here is what former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade said of that same moment:

“I was sitting here in front of the TV as the verdict come down. My hands started sweating, my body started shivering and my heart started pounding because I was nervous. I was nervous because I didn’t believe. Even when the verdict came down I still was staring at the judge. Because we’ve never seen this. Now we see some sort of ability to see change. We got more work to do.”

I had no direct pain equity in this the way D-Wade does because I have lived the life of inherited, unearned white privilege. Of not having to worry that one of my adult sons pulled over for speeding might have a gun drawn on him over profiling or prejudice.

I cannot feel the pain, or the jubilation the verdicts caused, the way people of color can.

But I can feel it through simple human empathy. Racial equality and justice cannot be someone else’s fight. It must be our fight.

Tuesday had to happen. It just did. For Floyd’s family. For America. For the entire concept of hope, and the ideal of equality.

As our teams reacted to the verdict the Las Vegas Raiders hit a well-intended but tone-deaf note by tweeting, “I CAN BREATHE 4-20-21.”

Floyd had pleaded 11 times during his almost 10-minute torment, “I can’t breathe.” He never will again. Even as we celebrate the verdict we understand true justice for George Floyd would have been if being pulled over regarding an alleged $20 counterfeit bill had never escalated to become his death sentence.

Chauvin was a bad apple rotting for a long time. He’d had 18 misconduct complaints in his jacket, two of which ended in letters of reprimand and discipline. One complaint was how quick he had been with the pepper spray when anything involved Black patrons at a nightclub where he had worked off-duty.

If this man, despite this see-with-our-own-eyes evidence over 9 minutes 29 seconds, had been acquitted, the belief in “some sort of ability to see change” would have been shattered.

A disgraced former cop would have gotten away with murder and the whole world would have known it.

LeBron James tweeted a single word after the verdict and the capitalization is his:

ACCOUNTABILITY.

Now, moving forward, instances of excessive police force must be investigated fairly, and independently, even when there is no lengthy video of the crime in action, or eyewitnesses.

And we know that sports will continue to be outspoken and out front in the fight. There is no turning back.

The good cops who are the vast majority across America should be praised for their necessary work.

The bad ones must be held accountable for unnecessary actions or, better yet, red-flagged long before they get to, say, 18 public complaints of misconduct.

I have police who are relatives and friends. One is my neighbor. Chauvin’s conviction happened in part because some of his fellow cops had the spine to testify in the trial that what Chauvin did was rogue, not rules, and did not represent them.

The George Floyd Justice In Policing Act of 2020 is a bill moving through Congress toward being passed into law. Perhaps this week’s verdicts will be the tailwind needed for that.

The bill’s description is that it “addresses a wide range of policies and issues regarding policing practices and law enforcement accountability. It outlines measures to increase accountability for law enforcement misconduct, to enhance transparency, and to eliminate discriminatory policing practices.”

So simple in its intent.

So long overdue.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

This week’s verdicts restored some faith in that belief.

George Floyd’s legacy is that he galvanized a nation on the side of that bend, especially toward racial justice.

The law named in his honor should now be a permanent part of that legacy as well.