A few hundred demonstrators gathered on Monday outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, where the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, charged in the death of George Floyd, is set to begin this month.
Many protesters expressed anxiety about whether Chauvin would be convicted in Minnesota’s first publicly broadcast trial, which will make it one of the most widely watched police brutality cases in recent history.
But they pledged to maintain their demand for Chauvin’s conviction.
“We’re going to continue showing up for community,” said Minneapolis NAACP Vice President Anika Bowie. “We understand that justice will prevail within us. We will show up, and we will be very persistent, challenging the system.”
Jury selection was originally set to begin on Monday, but a court ruling that the judge must consider adding a third-degree murder charge pushed it to at least Tuesday.
Three other officers, who did not intervene as Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe, will be tried together in August on aiding and abetting charges.
Lawyers for Chauvin, who was fired from the police force the day after Floyd’s death, have argued that he correctly followed his training, Reuters news agency reported.
An unusually long period of three weeks has been allotted for finding an impartial jury – a likely arduous task.
The questionnaire for prospective jurors includes questions about their prior knowledge of the case, which spurred mass demonstrations for racial justice across the United States and around the world.
As a rotating lineup of speakers addressed the crowd in Minneapolis, 28-year-old Josh Simms stood quietly with a sign reading, “We demand justice.”
Simms said he moved from Chicago to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota in 2013. In that time, four high-profile police killings have occurred in the Minneapolis area.
In 2015, Minneapolis police fatally shot 24-year-old Jamar Clark. The two officers at the scene – the city never clarified which officer pulled the trigger – were not charged.
Less than a year later, in a nearby suburb, 32-year-old Philando Castile was pulled over and shot repeatedly by police officer Jeronimo Yanez, who ultimately was cleared by a jury of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm.
“There really hasn’t been any change,” Simms told Al Jazeera. “Knowing how history is, there’s the chance he’ll (Chauvin) be acquitted.”
“[Noor] got put in prison. But all these other police out here killing these brothers ain’t going nowhere,” 46-year-old Darion Scott, who has lived in Minneapolis for 20 years, said at Monday’s rally.
“This system has been broken for years. The question is, when is it going to stop?” – Al Jazeera.
