Remembering George Floyd and Tackling Police Violence, One Year On

Today marks one year since George Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin—an act that acutely reflects the callousness with which U.S. police regard Black lives. The pain of that day, and the resulting cell phone video captured by Darnella Frazier, spurred much action in the form of global street protests and policy change efforts, and deepened this generation’s efforts to advance racial equity in the U.S. and across the world.

Last month, we were relieved to see some accountability from U.S. courts in the murder conviction of Derek Chauvin. But we know that if things were as they should be, Mr. Floyd would still be with his family, especially his 7-year-old daughter Gianna Floyd. As his brother Philonise Floyd wrote in the Washington Post, “[The verdict] is not sweet or satisfying. It’s necessary, important, maybe even historic.”

Despite the historic nature of the Chauvin verdict, systemic issues with policing remain unresolved. On the same day the Minneapolis jury delivered the guilty verdict against Derek Chauvin, 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was killed by police in Ohio. Prior to that, 21-year-old Daunte Wright was shot and killed by police just 10 miles (16km) from Minneapolis, where Mr. Floyd was killed.

Ms. Bryant and Mr. Wright are two of the more than 64 people who were killed by police across the U.S. over the course of the monthlong Chauvin trial, according to the New York Times. Among them was 29-year-old Lindani Myeni, a Black South African husband, father and rugby player who was killed by police in Hawaii. Mr. Myeni’s family received his remains in Johannesburg earlier this month, a city that continues to see its own cases of police brutality.

When the Fees Must Fall student protests resurged across universities in March of this year, officers in the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) responded with rubber bullets, killing Mthokozisi Ntumba, a bystander to the protests. This is representative of a broader pattern of police disregard for Black life in South Africa. Last month, Daily Maverick published an in-depth investigation detailing the extent of police brutality in SA and the role of institutional failures to discipline officers in the seeming relentlessness of that brutality. This problem resonates in the U.S in the form of “qualified immunity,” which shields government officials, including police, from civil suits.

Troublingly, South Africa and the U.S. are not alone when it comes to police brutality. The global protests following the death of George Floyd were replete with local stories of aggression, excessive force, and death at the hands of police.

The consistency of these stories across the globe speak to the urgency of the problem. We have serious work to do to transform the narratives, policies and institutions related to public and community safety so that a respect for human rights is centred and the sanctity of Black and Brown life is upheld.

Numerous efforts are underway to advance public safety practices that centre de-escalation, violence prevention, and restorative justice as steps towards the broader change we need. Organisations led by our Senior Fellows, including the People’s Advocacy Institute and Equity and Transformation in the U.S. are advocating for passage of the federal BREATHE Act and other investments in alternative approaches to community safety, and greater accountability in officer-involved shootings. Similarly, policy think tanks in South Africa are documenting community-driven initiatives and working to challenge the systemic issues in SAPS.

The US Congress has a responsibility to pass both the BREATHE Act and the George Floyd Policing Act, policy proposals that respectively seek to reimagine public safety and to end qualified immunity.

Ultimately, the work of ending police violence requires engagement across all sectors of society—from community leaders and activists to policymakers, lawyers and legal scholars, artists and others, including each of us. We must prioritise the work of understanding the racialised nature of police violence and supporting solutions that advance equity and justice.