After the chauvin trial, biden must pick up where kennedy and king left off | thearticle

He was guilty after all. The conviction by a racially mixed jury of Derek Chauvin, a police officer, for the murder of George Floyd last year has evoked a collective sigh of relief across

America. The trial, televised from a fortified courtroom in Minneapolis, has transfixed a nation still on edge since last summer’s riots. Although there have been questions about the

propriety of political comments during the proceedings, giving Chauvin grounds for appeal, the verdict has brought some kind of closure to the most racially divisive episode in the US since

the Los Angeles riots nearly 30 years ago. To British eyes, the only surprise is that Americans — especially black Americans — should be so surprised that Chauvin was found guilty of second

degree murder and manslaughter. Even if there had not been numerous witnesses, the video of a uniformed officer kneeling on Floyd’s windpipe for more than nine minutes was damning enough.

That video has acquired a life of its own, galvanising Black Lives Matter and other movements around the world. Yet in the US itself, there was real doubt that the jury would reject the

claims of the defence that Chauvin had acted with reasonable force to restrain his victim. In this regard, the testimony of the Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arradondo, was crucial.

Chauvin’s conduct was, he told the court, “not part of our ethics”. Even stranger to non-Americans was the involvement in the case of senior politicians, including both President Biden and

former President Obama. It would be unthinkable for a British Prime Minister to reveal in public that he was praying for a guilty verdict while the jury was still deliberating. Yet Joe Biden

did exactly that, hours before the court heard the verdict: “I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict. Which is — I think it’s overwhelming in my view.” He justified his decision to

speak out by the fact that the jury was sequestered. After watching the verdict, Biden called the victim’s family and said he kept thinking of Floyd’s daughter’s words: “Daddy’s gonna change

the world.” The President told them: “He’s going to start to change it now. I wish I were there to put my arms around you.” Later, Biden delivered a televised address in which he endorsed

the term “systemic racism”, popularised by Black Lives Matter, though rejected by many Americans. It was, he said, “a stain on our nation’s soul” and the Chauvin verdict “can be a giant step

forward in the march towards justice in America”.  The President is evidently determined to seize the day in order to push legislation through Congress that would outlaw chokeholds of the

kind that killed Floyd in all but “life-and-death” situations, oblige officers to wear bodycams and include other reforms of policing. Some Democrats would like to go further, but a Bill

introduced by Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, is the only proposal likely to gain bipartisan support. Even this compromise passed the House by just eight votes

last month. Its progress in the Senate will require at least ten Republicans to break ranks — unless their party changes course. The issue of racial justice still polarises Americans more

than almost any other issue. After the verdict, Obama warned that “we cannot rest, we will need to follow through with concrete reforms”. Vice President Harris added her voice to the demand

for reform: “A measure of justice isn’t the same as equal justice.” These rhetorical demands beg some questions. Obama was President for eight years, yet did little to “follow through”

despite his Congressional majorities. Kamala Harris was District Attorney in San Francisco and later Attorney General for California, yet did little to address “systemic racism” while in

office. It has been left to an elderly white President, whose background is Irish-American rather than African-American, to tackle a problem that has proved intractable for as long as the

United States has existed. Yet America has come a long way during Joe Biden’s long life. It is perhaps worth recalling another trial, some sixty years ago, and another Irish-American, who

was the first President to associate himself with the black civil rights movement. In 1960 John F Kennedy was running for the White House against Richard Nixon. Two weeks before the

election, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King was sentenced by a judge in Atlanta to six months’ hard labour for a sit-in at a department store. He was incarcerated 200 miles away in a

maximum security state prison.  Kennedy sympathised with the man and his cause, but was afraid to speak out for fear of losing white votes in the South. Privately he asked the governor of

Georgia to release King. Only after much persuasion did he call Mrs King, who was heavily pregnant — like his own wife, Jackie. “If there is anything I can do to help, please feel free to

call on me,” he told her.  A day later, King was released on bail. He spoke about Kennedy’s call to his wife, in stark contrast to Nixon’s silence. The news polarised the electorate, but

persuaded some black Protestants who were sceptical of a Catholic in the White House to vote for Kennedy. One of them was the civil rights leader’s father. Kennedy responded: “Imagine Martin

Luther King having a bigot for a father. Well, we all have our fathers, don’t we?” The Kennedy presidency gave the young Joe Biden, though too young to vote in that election, his first

initiation into politics. Incredibly, six decades later, he is only the second Catholic to be elected President — in a country where Catholics — mainly Hispanic — are the largest religious

denomination. In that time there has only been one black President, of course, but prejudice and injustice are not confined to, respectively, white and black communities. Joe Biden is right

to press for reforms in policing to ensure that black Americans are treated equally before the law. But it is important that, in piloting reform, he be seen to govern for all Americans.

Biden will encounter tough resistance. In a sense, he is picking up where Kennedy and King left off. Before he could reform civil rights, President Kennedy was assassinated; five years

later, so was Martin Luther King. If this President can realise the great pastor’s dream, of an America where people are not judged by their colour but by character, then his life will have

been justified before history. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed

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