‘The blue wall is crumbling,’ policing will fundamentally change after Chauvin verdict, says former NAACP CEO
Former NAACP President and CEO Cornell Brooks said that policing will fundamentally begin to change after a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all three charges stemming from the killing of the unarmed Black man George Floyd.
“The blue wall is crumbling. In other words, we have police chiefs, we have the rank and file of policing in this country simply saying, ‘that is too much.’ What we need, however, is for policing and for police officers to not merely note that the wall is cracking, they need to bring the wall down,” said Brooks.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo testified on Day 6 of Chauvin’s murder trial. During which, Arradondo said Chauvin violated policy when he pinned Floyd’s neck under his knee for more than nine minutes.
Brooks told host Shepard Smith that Arradondo’s testimony is an example of stepping across the “blue wall,” and a move that needs to be followed by police forces across the country.
“They need to step across that wall into the community and stand in moral solidarity with people who are simply saying, ‘We want to be treated as human beings, we want to be regarded as fellow citizens, not the object of your batons, and your tasers, and your bullets, and your brutality,” Brooks said.
Judge Peter Cahill on Tuesday announced the jury found Chauvin guilty on charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Cahill said that sentencing will take place in eight weeks.
