A jury in Minneapolis last week found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of all charges in the death of George Floyd. As the verdict was read, people outside the courthouse and around the world seemed to sigh in collective relief.
Some measure of justice, it seemed, had been served.
Speaking to a crowd gathered Sunday in front of a mural of Floyd on Bloomington’s west side, Cana Brooks said that just as it had for others, the verdict brought her a sense of relief.
“But the verdict isn’t justice,” she said. “Justice is me not feeling scared when I get my license in nine days that I will get pulled over and shot because I forgot to put my turn signal on.”
“Justice,” Brooks said, “is police reform.”
A sophomore at University High School in Normal, Brooks was one of several members of the NAACP youth council who spoke at a vigil on Sunday called “Waiting to Exhale.”
The event was organized by the Bloomington-Normal branch of the NAACP, Not In Our Town (NIOT), and the anti-gun violence group Moms Demand Action.
“We’re hearing the pain in our youths’ voices. We’re feeling the aches that are in their hearts,” NAACP president Linda Foster told the crowd that included Normal mayor Chris Koos, Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner, and Bloomington interim Police Chief Greg Scott.
Indeed, the pain was evident.
“We shouldn’t have to be here today at a vigil asking for permission to breathe when we are given the breath of life once we’re formed in the womb,” said Jasmyn Jordan, president of the Black Student Union at Normal Community West.
Floyd died after being pinned beneath Chauvin’s knee for more than nine minutes, begging for his life and unable to breathe. The vigil’s title – “Waiting to Exhale” – was an acknowledgment both of the verdict and Floyd’s last words.
“How else do we have to prove to you that we are human, too?” Jordan asked, choking back tears. “Why are our lives prevented instead of preserved by the police?”
Jordan’s sentiments were echoed by Aniya Thomson, a student at Normal Community High School.
Thomson said that while she can’t know her fate, she refused to become another name on the list of Black people killed during interactions with police.
“I can’t put a number on how many lives have been lost. And I can’t tell you when it will end. I can’t tell you why people hate us.”
Olivia Butts, of Black Lives Matter BloNo, told the crowd that Floyd's murder sparked an awakening in the community, leading many people to consider the issue of police bias on a local level.
“Black people are disproportionately pulled over, disproportionately sentenced, disproportionately searched, and disproportionately jailed,” Butts said of Bloomington-Normal.
“This week, we saw police accountability,” said Butts. “But we seek and what we crave is justice.”
No officers spoke at the vigil. But as the event concluded, NAACP Vice President Carla Campbell-Jackson asked law enforcement and members of the youth council to come together for a fist bump – the preferred expression of greeting and solidarity amid the pandemic.
“Wasn’t that a beautiful sight?” asked Foster as the students and officers parted ways.
“We’re not going to let what’s happened in other places happen here. We’re too good for that.”
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