By: Isabella Wong
On May 25, 2020, a 46-year-old Black man was murdered by Police Officer Derek Chauvin, which enraged many Americans, leading to protests being held around the country. Mr. Floyd was being arrested for using fake currency. A video showed Officer Chauvin kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck to pin him down for almost 10 minutes straight, refraining him from being able to breathe. He was pronounced dead by the time he was taken to the hospital. Officer Chauvin, along with the other officers at the scene, were charged for murder or abetting murder.
Not long after people heard about this tragedy, angry protests broke out in many different parts of the country, including Minneapolis. A few months into the protests, Mr. Johnson, a Black resident living in Southern Minneapolis, earned a permit for a gun he inherited from his brother. His views on his city’s police team changed quickly after he saw a clip of Mr. Floyd’s death.
“I’m planning on never going outside without my gun again,” he said, explaining how it was the only way he could defend himself from car hijacks as well as avoid interactions with any police officers.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara claimed that the officers do not do their jobs based on skin color. The evidence he used was statistical data of the city’s shooting crimes, showing that most of the shooting suspects that fit the provided description are Black men.
“The cops who are still here in the department are good officers, they want to do a good job and legitimately want to make the community better,” Officer O’Hara explained.
However, other Black citizens like Mook Thomas view the police as quite the opposite. As she and her husband and kids were driving back home, they were pulled over by an officer, who claimed that their car’s headlights were broken, even though she said they both worked perfectly fine. She explain how the officer was harassing them and was “telling them they don’t belong over here”
The impact of Mr. Floyd’s death on the nation was not minor, so the different areas that were hurting due to this event will need some time to recover from such trauma.