‘For today, at least there’s justice’: DeKalb area activists react to Derek Chauvin guilty verdicts

Jocelyn Santana, one of the leaders for the DeKalb Black Lives Matter group, said her knee-jerk reaction when former Minneapolis Police Ofc. Derek Chauvin was found guilty Tuesday for the murder of George Floyd was tears. Tears, and relief.

Santana said she’s relieved to see that jurors followed the prosecutor’s call to action, to believe what they saw in the video footage of Chauvin and Floyd, which showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes.

“Watching the verdict that’s coming out and footage showing crowds in Minneapolis – you can hear the chants and the joy of knowing that justice was served in this case and the right verdict was given,” Santana said.

Chauvin, a white cop, was convicted Tuesday of murder and manslaughter for pinning Floyd to the ground with his knee on the Black man’s neck. The case spurred worldwide protests, violence and a critical re-examination of racism and policing in the U.S. In DeKalb County, near-daily protests, rallies and demonstrations erupted throughout the summer of 2020, spurring calls for local policy changes, among other asks, for local police.

Chauvin, 45, was found guilty on all charges: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He could be sent to prison for decades.

The jury’s verdict comes after about 10 hours of deliberation over two days.

Pastor Joe Mitchell of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb said that he had “a tempered excitement about the verdict.”

“I do believe the verdict was just,” he said. “It says a lot that he even went to trial. Somewhere, somehow, he believed he could beat the case and didn’t need a plea deal. I’m hoping that this is the first step, that things will be done differently and people will be held accountable for their actions. We need to re-imagine law enforcement, not reform or change it. It needs to be re-imagined in a way that is more humane.”

We need to re-imagine law enforcement, not reform or change it. It needs to be re-imagined in a way that is more humane.”

—  Pastor Joe Mitchell of DeKalb

Mitchell also said he hopes the verdict is “a ray of light.”

“The verdict does not bring back George Floyd, but it starts new conversations,” he said. “The winds of change are blowing and law enforcement will be held accountable. ... The anger and the rage is real and cannot be dismissed or discounted. However, we have to funnel those feelings into engagement in a healthy way. Before reconciliation, there has to be open admission to a wrong that was done. This road is going to take time and some very hard conversations.”

Presley O’Sullivan, who helped organize a peaceful protest in Sandwich days after Floyd’s death in 2020, said he got goosebumps and almost felt a sense of relief when he heard the verdict. He said he believes justice was served in the jury’s verdict for Chauvin.

“I’m grateful that it got to the point that it did with the verdict itself, so he has three separate convictions,” O’Sullivan said. “That’s a big step in facing the right direction with the justice system as a whole.”

O’Sullivan said he was fortunate enough to be able to work with police in putting together the Sandwich protest, which drew in more than 100 participants.

“And I’m forever grateful for that,” O’Sullivan said. “But I think that there is a deeper issue that continuously needs to be brought up.”

O’Sullivan said he hopes residents continue to think critically about the criminal justice system and pay attention to how municipal funds are spent on law enforcement. Although he said it has been disturbing for him to see more recent incidents of killings by police, including 13-year-old Adam Toledo of Chicago, O’Sullivan said it at least means these social issues are being discussed.

“These are issues that I don’t understand why we still have,” O’Sullivan said. “There’s a very serious abuse of power happening and I think that’s something that definitely needs to be addressed and systematically changed across the board. That’s something that needs to continue to be changed and talked about.”

Trinity Alexander, chief operations officer for Sir Donald Foundation out of DeKalb, said her reaction was “absolute disbelief.”

“I honestly thought that trial was going to go the way that it always does. … and to see that didn’t happen this time, I was shocked,” Alexander said. “I was really, really shocked.”

Alexander said the Chauvin verdicts coming back as guilty doesn’t mean everything is automatically fixed in the justice system. While this is the first step, she said the work is not done and referred to former DeKalb Police Sgt. Jeffrey Weese still being able to resign from the department after he was found in violation of the DeKalb Police Department’s use of force policy following an August 2019 arrest when he choked a man. Weese was placed on administrative leave after an internal DeKalb police investigation. A DeKalb County grand jury declined to bring criminal charges against him and he voluntarily resigned in February of 2021 after a November 2020 announcement.

Alexander said the crux of the issue for her regarding Chauvin’s case is accountability. She said she hopes to see more scrutiny placed on police immunity within the legal system.

“Someone’s still traumatized from that incident,” Alexander said, referring to the chokehold incident involving Weese. “ ... This case [against Chauvin] shows that if they can be convicted, so can you.”

Alexander said she believes the only way the community can move forward is together.

“It feels like all of the outrage wasn’t for nothing,” Alexander said.

Dr. Joseph Flynn, associate director of the Center for Black Studies and associate professor of curriculum and instruction at Northern Illinois University, said that his initial reaction to hearing about the verdict was “first and foremost relieved and overjoyed.”

“The verdict is important because it does let us know that there is justice and the tragic way Mr. Floyd died will not be for naught,” Flynn said. “However, a moment of justice does not equal a state of justice. We need deep systemic change in law enforcement practices. We cannot take this moment and think that it’s enough. We need to continue to protest and demand real, sustained systemic reform.”

Flynn said that Floyd’s death and Chauvin’s case and verdict directly relate to DeKalb and the surrounding community.

“This can happen anywhere, and it is happening everywhere,” he said. “It’s part of a longer, deeper problem of racism in our country. When all are equal before the law, even police officers, only then will there be an environment of trust and a significant step forward. This really is not about Minnesota, it’s about the soul of America and what America truly represents.”

Santana said she believes the country needed to see this kind of accountability for law enforcement. She said she is relieved to know “that justice was served for George Floyd and his family and all lives lost at the hands of police” and added that “Black lives matter.”

“There’s still so much work to do – there’s still so much to address system that allowed this type of act to happen in the first place,” Santana said. “And I think that this is a victory, yet we still need to address impunity, we need to address the system overall and we need to continue to demand change.

“But for today, at least there’s justice.”

• The Associated Press contributed to this report.