Derek Chauvin on Trial

I regret the social myopia that leads us to assign our own apocalyptic nightmares to the outcome of the Derek Chauvin trial. Trial courts are where Constitutional rights of both the accused and state are redeemed. But each trial is self-contained and unique unto itself. Courtrooms are not referendums on social policy or racial injustice. Verdicts are nothing more (or less), than a particular jury’s response to a limited set of facts when measured against the relevant law.

A guilty verdict for Chauvin may satisfy our appetite for immediate vengeance, but the battle for equal rights does not end if, and when, one rogue cop is removed from civil society. There will be many more trial verdicts. Some will seem just. Others, not. When the shouting over the Chauvin verdict is over and those who feel the need to fill the streets have all gone home, the work to insure equal justice will remain.

We are not at an end in the struggle for equal rights; we are at the beginning.

April 20, 2020