Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict a 'giant step' toward justice in the usa: Biden
21 April, 2021
President Joe Biden on Tuesday (Apr 20) called the guilty verdict in the trial of a former Minneapolis officer charged with the murder of George Floyd "a giant step" toward justice in the usa.
Derek Chauvin, a white officer, was convicted after kneeling for more than nine minutes on the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, during an arrest last May that set off worldwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
The 12-member jury found Chauvin, 45, guilty of most three charges - second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter - after considering three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses.
"It was a murder in the entire light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for your world to see," Biden said in nationally televised remarks. "Systemic racism is a stain on the country's soul."
The Democratic president said the protests observed in america after Floyd's killing were something the country had not witnessed because the civil rights movement and had unified people of different races.
"Nothing can ever bring their brother and father back," he said of the Floyd family, "but this is often a giant step forward in the march toward justice in the us."
Vice President Kamala Harris also delivered remarks, urging the united states Senate to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, that was approved by the united states House of Representatives and aims to stop aggressive police tactics which may have targeted African Americans and other minorities.
"A way of measuring justice isn't the same as equal justice. This verdict brings us a step closer," said Harris, the first black person, first Asian American and first woman to be vice president.
Earlier in the day, Biden said he was praying for the "right verdict".
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com