And like many others, I breathed a sign of relief that the former police officer was found guilty on all three counts. I could not envision a different verdict, but so few police officers are convicted in cases like this. And, in fact, that very day, another black person... this time a teenage girl, Ma’Khia Bryant... was shot to death by Columbus police; so the cycle of violence continues.
What I fervently hope and pray is that this trial will begin a deep conversation on the role of policing, the nature of civic discourse, and the deeply seated patterns of racism in our culture and relationships. But not just conversation, but conversion...! And that means real, practical, lived change!
There is a lot of talk about "justice" being done in this case. But, except in the barest of terms, I do not believe that one trial, one conviction, can bring about justice. Insofar as the verdict was, to me, the right and just one, does not mean that justice was done. If justice was done, George Floyd would not have been murdered over a twenty dollar bill with the tools and authority of the state as the chief weapon used by Derek Chauvin. Instead, what happened here was accountability.
Before there can be justice, there must be accountability.
Here is what Bishop Robert Wright, Tenth Bishop of Atlanta, posted on his diocesan Facebook page after the verdict yesterday:
This evening we’ve learned that former officer Derek Chauvin is guilty of every charge in the death of George Floyd. If this is a victory, it’s a victory for the role of law in affirming human dignity. If it is a victory, it is a victory for the countless law enforcement officers who embrace accountability and who practice appropriate use of force as they protect and serve without prejudice. Still, justice requires more than sending one man to prison. Justice requires us to acknowledge and change the fact that Black, Brown and poor Americans are treated differently than other Americans particularly in encounters with law enforcement and the criminal justice system. So today’s verdict doesn’t signal the end of our work for equity and justice but rather confirms that to fight for equity and justice is the right fight to be in.
Over and over again, we must relearn this lesson. There was talk in 2009 about America entering a "post-racial era" with the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President. But that was blown to pieces with the tuba-sized white grievance powered dog-whistle of the 45th President. I am convinced that that election exposed a period of reaction against any possible change in the way society is ordered. Fear dominated that election and still dominates the reaction many, especially in the right-wing media, that if the tables were turned we would be treated as we have treated BIPOC persons up until now.
Police departments and personnel have more and more taken on the mentality and persona of warriors instead of guardians, a pattern I saw revving up back when I was a hospital chaplain doing CISM work; aided and abetted by the introduction of free-to-cheap military hardware and the romanticizing of SWAT tactics in even the smallest, most rural departments. This has undone the tiny steps some departments made in community-based policing, and returned American policing to its slave-patrol roots (which is one but not the only root of American policing).
In Great Britain, the modern police were developed in part to separate the work of civil order from the work of the military. The tradition of an unarmed patrol officer came in reaction against the use of soldiers to keep order in 18th and 19th century cities. There is a reason that our constitution forbids the quartering of soldiers in civilian homes, and it has to do with who the military (and the police) work for. A militarized, combat ready police seems to me to be a modernized version of the quartering of soldiers in our homes, our streets, and in our cities.
It also means that other ways of containing crime, resolving and mediating disputes between citizens, maintaining order, and seeing to the smooth movement of persons and commerce have been overlooked in favor of a militarized police trained to shoot first often within three seconds of a perceived threat.
The Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart, a former Washington, DC, police officer, points out, America's roots in policing lie in either the slave patrols of the ante-bellum South, or, in the North, in organized strike breaking.
Yesterday's verdict was only a step towards justice, but a necessary step. If we are going to establish justice, we must also establish accountability.
Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows wrote to the people of her Diocese of Indianapolis:
This trial has been a very personal issue for me, and for many other Black people. I wish it weren’t. I am relieved that Derek Chauvin has been held accountable for the murder of George Floyd. But accountability is not the same thing as justice, and it will not bring George Floyd back to those who loved him.
Tonight, fresh with relief at the verdict, I am aware of my deep longing for true justice, the kind that becomes possible when people like us promise to stand with the vulnerable and marginalized to transform systems of injustice. When we do that, we are committing ourselves to creating a world in which young men can learn to drive without their mothers fearing for their lives. When you dedicate yourselves to this work, you mean that you want your bishop to be able to drive to the BMV without panic, even on expired tags. When we stand together as beacons of Christ, we are saying that we want communities in which the public safety system protects the lives of all of God’s people and in which we no longer need to learn the names of those who have been taken from us by police.
Check out this conversation between The Rev. Fisher-Stewart and Dean Kelly Brown Douglas of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary in New York, as they dive more deeply into the connections between justice, accountability, and reconciliation.
Finally, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry joined Minnesota Bishop Craig Loya for Compline last night after the verdict was read. Bishop Curry talks about the long road ahead towards justice and reconciliation (starting at about 7:30 into the video).
So, yes, I pray, recite, and contemplate Amos 5:24 but get ready: because before justice rolls down like a river, there will be accountability.
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