THE SAN BERNARDINO
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AMERICAN
“A Man In Debt is So Far A Slave” -Emerson
NEWSPAPER A Community Newspaper Serving San Bernardino, Riverside & Los Angeles Counties Volume 52 No. 1
April 22, 2021- April 28, 2021
Mailing: P.O. Box 837, Victorville, CA 92393
Office: (909) 889-7677
Email: Mary @Sb-American.com
Website: www.SB-American.com
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them and these will continue till they have resisted either with words or blows or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance those of whom they suppress. —Fredrick Douglass (1849)
Jury finds Chauvin guilty of murder, manslaughter in Floyd killing
Family and Friends Mourn the Loss of Violet Jean Rose Obituary News
Jon Collins, Riham Feshir, Brandt Williams and Matt Sepic
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is being handcuffed after guilty verdicts were read in his murder trial on Tuesday.Screenshot of Court TV video A Hennepin County jury on Tuesday found ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd. In one of the most consequential verdicts in Minnesota history, Chauvin was found guilty on all counts, including second-degree unintentional murder, thirddegree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s killing last May. Chauvin was led away in handcuffs after the verdicts were read. Chauvin was one of several officers called to a south Minneapolis street corner May 25 on a report of a man allegedly using a counterfeit $20 to buy cigarettes at a local store. He arrived to find other officers struggling to arrest Floyd and get him in a squad car as Floyd pleaded that he was claustrophobic. The encounter turned fatal as officers pulled Floyd to the ground to subdue him during the arrest. Bystander video captured Chauvin with his knee pressed against Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as the man lay pinned to the street, handcuffed and face down, pleading that he couldn’t breathe while people shouted from the curb that Floyd was dying. Crowds cheer, celebrate after Chauvin convicted of murder, manslaughter Weeks of trial testimony revolved around a basic question: Who or what was responsible for Floyd’s death? The defense pointed to Floyd’s health conditions and the drugs in his system. The prosecution put the blame on Chauvin’s actions and his knee on Floyd’s neck. Chauvin and three other officers were fired over the incident. The other officers have been charged with aiding and abetting. They’re expected to go on trial this summer. Gov. Tim Walz called the
verdicts "an important step forward for justice in Minnesota. The trial is over, but our work has only begun." Minnesota, he added, must work to rebuild confidence between police and communities of color. "Too many Black people have lost — and continue to lose — their lives at the hands of law enforcement in our state,” an apparent reference to the recent killing of Daunte Wright by a Brooklyn Center officer. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office oversaw Chauvin’s prosecution, c a l le d t he c o nv ic t io n s “accountability, which is the first step towards justice.” Tensions remained high in the Twin Cities and across the country during the trial and the jury’s deliberations. Floyd’s killing sparked worldwide outrage when the video of the police subduing him went viral on social media, driving peaceful mass demonstrations that sometimes spasmed into violence. The image of a white police officer who appeared indifferent to the suffering of a Black man under his knee begging for mercy made race an inescapable part of the story. Weeks earlier, the city of Minneapolis settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the Floyd family for $27 million. State and local leaders appealed for calm prior to the verdict, deploying National Guard troops and bringing state troopers from Nebraska and Ohio to supplement an already historically large law enforcement presence. ‘He betrayed the badge’ I n closing arg u ments, prosecutors painted the ex-officer as a cop who disregarded his training, his department’s use of force rules and Floyd’s suffering. “What the defendant did was not policing. What the defendant did was an assault,” prosecutor Steve Schleicher told jurors. “He betrayed the badge.”
Hennepin County Medical Examiner Andrew Baker ruled Floyd’s death a homicide last year, saying Floyd went into cardiopulmonary arrest as thenofficer Chauvin kept his knee pressed on the neck of the prone, handcuffed man. On the stand in early April, Baker stood by his findings and described Floyd’s health problems and the drugs in his system as contributing — not direct — causes of his death. Chauvin’s actions, he said, “tipped (Floyd) over the edge” from life to death. Defense attorney Eric Nelson worked to sow doubt in the jurors’ minds as he recounted Chauvin’s actions and Floyd’s health problems, including compromised arteries and an enlarged heart, and the drugs in his system. He suggested that Chauvin’s concern about the tensions with bystanders watching Floyd’s arrest distracted Chauvin and kept him from rendering CPR as Floyd lost consciousness. Prosecutors pushed back, noting that despite their panic at what was happening to Floyd, the half dozen or so bystanders, including several teens and a 9-year-old girl, obeyed police commands not to interfere. Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell emphasized that Chauvin and the officers were in complete control of the situation. “He had the bullets, the guns, the Mace that he threatened bystanders with,” Blackwell told jurors Monday. “He had the backup. He had the badge — all of it.” The defense also urged jurors not to focus on the nine-plus minutes that Chauvin’s knee was on Floyd’s neck but to think about the prior 17 minutes as officers struggled to get Floyd to comply with orders and get in the back of the squad car as Floyd resisted, saying he was claustrophobic. “ Hu m a n b e h av io r i s unpredictable, and nobody knows it better than a police officer,” Nelson told jurors.
‘Blue wall’ falls Nelson argued over and again that Chauvin was just doing his job to subdue a suspect within the bounds of Minneapolis police policy and training. But that argument took repeated hits during the trial from a line of officers, including Chauvin’s bosses. Minneapolis Police Department trainers said they’ve never trained the knee-on-neck technique. The head of the homicide unit testified the use of force officers used on Floyd was “totally unnecessary.” Lt. Richard Zimmerman told jurors that after reviewing the body camera footage of the fatal encounter with Floyd, he concluded the officers went too far. “Pulling him down to the ground, face down, and putting your knee on the neck for that amount of time — it’s just uncalled for,” Zimmerman said. “I saw no reason why the officers felt they were in danger, if that’s what they felt, and that’s what they would have to feel to be able to use that kind of force.” Chief Medaria Arradondo testified that once Floyd stopped resisting and then stopped responding, “to continue to apply that level of force to a person, proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that in no way shape or form is anything that is by policy. It’s not part of our training, and it is certainly not part of our ethics or values.” These were extraordinary moments. Police often rally around fellow officers accused of killing people on the job. The reluctance of officers to speak out against another officer is often called the “blue wall of silence.” Not this time. Chauvin declined to testify in his own defense, but he did leave a clue to his mindset at the scene. Prosecutors played footage during the trial from Chauvin’s body camera showing a man at the scene criticizing the officer afterward for the way he restrained Floyd. “That's one person's opinion,” Chauvin can be heard responding to the man on the video. “We gotta put force, gotta control this guy because he's a sizable guy. Looks like he's probably on something.” They were the only remarks heard during the trial from an officer in an MPD uniform justifying the level of force used against Floyd. Following the convictions Tuesday, experts expressed hope that good officers in Minneapolis continued on page 6
September 25, 1949 - April 12, 2021 Violet Jean Rose truly lived up to the beautiful name she possessed. As a resident of San Bernardino for nearly 50 years, you could find her in her uncle's music store from a teen on up. Violet had a gift for knowing good music. As an adult she would manage AMC music store and would hire many from the community. Most were given their first opportunity of employment because of her generosity. While dividing her time between both her father's newspaper business, the San Bernardino American News, and Alvin's Music Center, she made the decision to further her education. Violet would become a sign language interpreter for the State of California. She was an educator of the deaf for over 20 years. In her free time she would plan numerous unforgettable parties. Violet retired from the California School for the Deaf of
Riverside, and would later reside in the city of Riverside. Violet Jean made her Christian dedication as one of Jehovah's Witnesses on July 17, 1970. She would spend the remainder of her life enjoying her Christian ministry, her family, good food, and loving friends. Violet Rose fell asleep in death on Monday April 12, 2021. She leaves to cherish the memory of her beautiful smile and tender heart, her children, Michael Ponder Jr., Jennifer Baker, Lymond Ponder, and a bonus daughter La Tresa Ponder. Her grandchildren, Jemeryn Jenkins, Jeanise Sayre (Duayne), Ronnie Baker III and her great-grand daughter Jolie Rose Sayre. Her siblings, Mary "Flo" Harris (Clifton), Samuel Martin Jr. (Barbara), and Barry Martin (Monique). As well as a host of nieces, nephews, family and friends.
Op-ed Submission: If Neither Justice, Nor Mercy, Then What Will Save Us? By Keith Magee
Keith Magee I am completely baffled. I cannot understand why Black people continue to be killed without every single American demanding that all police officers across the country just stop it. Stop killing Black people! Can we not collectively insist that those who have sworn to protect us focus on public safety first, and law enforcement second? And why, why, do these police officers’ minds not equate Black bodies with the inalienable right to live? Who accidentally shoots another person? Who doesn’t think at least twice about their own actions while kneeling on a dying man’s neck? As the trial of Derek Chauvin moves into its final stages, and we await its outcome with trepidation, I sat down today to write about justice. I am constantly striving
to sharpen my awareness and comprehension of the subject. I have recently published a book entitled Prophetic Justice. I am the founder and director of the Social Justice Institute, and a Professor of Social Justice. I have spent many years studying and seeking not just the divine justice of God, but earthly justice in all its forms – racial justice, social justice, climate justice, gender justice … The list of the areas of our lives in which equity still seems a distant dream goes on and on. Writing and speaking are what I do, they are how I preach, teach, calm, comfort, learn, share, protest. Words have always been my weapon of choice in my personal battle against the injustice I witness every day. But today, words fail me. I look at pictures of two more traumatized families of Black citizens slain by police officers, weeping together outside a courtroom in the snow and words utterly fail me. Where is the justice? What does justice even mean anymore? Even if justice is seen to be done, just this once, or maybe even twice, how will it continued on page 3