Experts: Chauvin conviction an opening to discuss race relations in U.S.

Apr. 22—FAIRMONT — West Virginia residents who watched the Derek Chauvin trial say Tuesday's guilty verdicts offer a glimmer of hope for a broken system.

"The only way this kind of behavior is going to stop is through systemic reform not through individual prosecution," said Jennifer Wagner, executive director of Mountain State Justice, a Morgantown firm whose attorneys represent the marginalized.

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis, Minnesota, officer convicted for the murder of George Floyd, was found guilty on the counts of second-degree murder and manslaughter Tuesday evening. Floyd's May 25, 2020, death sparked nationwide protests against police injustice. Floyd died after Chauvin held him face down on the pavement with his knee atop Floyd's neck, choking off Floyd's ability to breath for almost, nine minutes.

"The symbolism of the case and what the case represents is important," said Owens Brown, president of the West Virginia NAACP, of Wheeling. "I believe it does send a message out there."

Brown believes that with this conviction being handed down, many organizations around the country will have to look inward and sort out how they handle race-relations going forward.

"I believe the thinking is that everyone saw what happened," Brown said. "There's going to be a lot of introspection into race relations."

Brown said what made a major difference in this case was the involvement of white individuals and how they marched alongside people of color. Floyd's death sparked international protests, along with the protests and marches here in the U.S.

"For so long, white Americans didn't really believe or were hesitant to believe, these type of things were happening," Brown said. "But now they saw it and they stood up with the protests."

"[This case] matters inasmuch as it shows that public protests can help," Wagner said. "[The case] is pivotal in that it is one example in the shift away from the historic system in which white police officers are not held accountable for their actions. But that said, it's just one situation."

The Chauvin case is a historic example of the start of police accountability. But this victory is much more than just a guilty verdict, according to Jim Nolan, chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at WVU and is also a member of Fairmont's Human Rights Commission.

"This case represented something bigger than a single case," Nolan said.

"I have mixed feelings if it will have an impact on policing," said Nolan, who served 16 years as a police officer in Delaware. "The mindset of [former] officer Chauvin affected his approach to George Floyd and I think that mindset didn't originate with Derek Chauvin. That mindset is the mindset of modern policing."

Nolan conducts much of his research on law enforcement and its effect on communities.

"It's about accountability, not justice," Nolan said. "All police and criminal justice people aren't evil people, but these outcomes are discriminatory and really must change."

"I think we can learn from the fact that if the bystander had not captured this on video, the official line from the police department would not have lead to a prosecution let alone a conviction," Wagner said. "Even while the verdict was being read, a black teenager was shot by a police officer in Columbus, Ohio. It doesn't resolve the problems."

Ma'Khia Bryant, a Black teenager, was fatally shot by an officer in Columbus after charging two individuals with a knife in hand, according to published reports.

"She's a [expletive] kid," is heard from an onlooker in the police body camera footage.

"People are working on real change in West Virginia and across the country and across the world," Wagner said. "Organizing and mobilizing and trying to do things in both an incremental and an extreme prospective.

"Efforts in Morgantown by the NAACP and others to create a civilian complaint review board for the police is a step in the right direction, but I think there is a real question if the police system as it is currently can really be fair without a deep look at the way it operates."

The three agree, there is still much work to be done.

"I do believe the awareness of this makes everybody pause a moment and think," Owens said. "I don't care if you're Black or white or whatever, people were able to identify with the injustice toward George Floyd. I believe it's going to change the views of many forever in a positive way and give a better understanding of the race issue in this country."

Chauvin is scheduled to be sentenced in eight weeks.

Reach David Kirk at 304-367-2522 or by email at dkirk@timeswv.com.