On Tuesday afternoon, Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder for the death of George Floyd, who died struggling to breathe under Mr. Chauvin’s knee last May. The murder, captured on video, set off months of protests across the country against the police abuse of Black Americans. Following ten hours of deliberation, the jury found Mr. Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter for Mr. Floyd’s murder.
Murad Awawdeh and Rovika Rajkishun, interim Co-Executive Directors of the New York Immigration Coalition, issued the following statement.
"Today, we accept this verdict and stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family and the Black families of countless others taken from us by police violence. The murder of George Floyd drove tens of thousands of New Yorkers of every nationality to demand the transformation of a system that has claimed far too many Black lives. Like nearly every other police department, New York’s met the cry for justice with brutal force. Our fight took us to City Hall with a simple demand; that our leaders invest in its people rather than an out-of-control police department. There, the abject failure of the city’s leaders to rise to the moment taught us that the people would have to lead the dismantling of the entire racist system. This verdict is not true justice. We cannot rest until we dismantle the entire racist system. This year the Mayor and City Council must commit to cutting at least one billion dollars from the NYPD."
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