Yesterday a murderous police officer was convicted on three counts for the brutal murder of George Floyd. It was historic. It was cleansing. We are still starving for justice. 

I moved to Minneapolis in October 2020 and live blocks north of the site where George Floyd was murdered. I've taken the kids there and explained why GFS is important, why it is tragic, and most importantly -- that his life mattered. As a new resident of the Twin Cities I could not relate to how traumatic last summer was for people but I've heard countless stories from people who were on the streets consistently through the summer, who were tucked away in suburban homes reading the news, and from those who were just trying to survive the pandemic regardless of their proximity to police brutality. The experience in Seattle was vastly different. Our protests were different and the stakes were different. Also, my house is right in the middle of the stage where this all unfolded (unlike in Seattle where I lived a comfortable 30 minutes away). 

In the evening I spend quite a bit of time on the porch and keep the windows open for air flow - I hear and see the city. I see the cars that stop around my corner house, the police cars that go flying by, and which fucking people don't know how one-way streets work. I also hear helicopters, sirens, loud bangs, etc. I live in a very active part of the city. As soon as the murder trial started, so did the amount of police related sound and visual activity around my house. There started to be more patrol cars going down my small residential street (and despite their constant slow roll, it took them 10+ minutes to respond to an auto accident outside my house when called). The over policing / over monitoring was an obvious attempt at reminding people whose streets we live on. 

Last Sunday Daunte Wright was murdered by a cop just outside of Minneapolis. Within 12 hours of his murder the police were using tear gas, rubber bullets, and kettling techniques on the crowds. The next morning the National Guard was throughout the city -- not just where people had been protesting the night before but throughout Minneapolis. We sent the kids to stay with my father-in-law because of the immediate and oppressive show of force. Nothing excessively violent happened but goodness, the city was on edge. There were humvees with armed soldiers and many, many police officers. When the kids got back from their escape the police and military were still here - just in a holding patterns. 

That became our life for a week. Every few corners we'd see some show of state/federal force as we went about our daily life. It was "normal" day to day life though. On a Target run I saw a convoy of military and sheriff vehicles on a residential street I frequent. I took a video because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Then despite my excellent phone and excellent network coverage I couldn't send that video out for over half an hour. Weird, right? New infrastructure went up to aid the police and military in their crowd control capabilities. Not new infrastructure to help residents but to control them. 

Between continued state sponsored violence and the ongoing trial, the city has been thick with tension. Then yesterday we were alerted that the jury reached a verdict. I didn't hear that from the news. I heard it from our daycare because they wanted to close the facility before 4 PM because that's when the jury was supposed to read the outcome of the trial. Everyone knew that the outcome would greatly impact the safety of those who live and work in this area of Minneapolis. I certainly did not want the kids to be stuck away from home at any sort of uneasy time. Yet I'd been sending them to school everyday knowing there could be news that would shift the atmosphere of the area on a dime. Faster than a rip tide at the beach. 

Thankfully they were home when the conviction was announced. Thankfully one murderer with a badge was convicted by a jury of his peers. We are so far from justice.