Minnesota residents with loved ones who died at the hands of police spoke out Thursday about the state Republican Party holding a public prayer for Derek Chauvin, the former police officer in prison for murdering George Floyd.
鈥淭hat is the most hurtful thing you can do,鈥� said Valerie Castile, the mother of , a 32-year-old school cafeteria worker who was shot and killed by a Minnesota police officer in 2016. 鈥淵ou give a moment of silence to a murderer? Come on.鈥�
Castile was among several members of the community who spoke at a news conference organized by Twin Cities Coalition For Justice.
The nominating convention held a moment of silence last weekend for .
When the action became public knowledge, it triggered intense backlash.
Racial justice groups, civil rights advocates and Democratic public officials swiftly condemned party officials, accusing them of blindly supporting law enforcement and disrespecting Floyd and his family.
Chauvin has been in federal prison since 2021, after he was convicted of murdering Floyd six years ago. Cellphone video of Chauvin putting his knee on Floyd’s neck for over 9 minutes despite Floyd’s pleas of 鈥淚 can’t breathe” sparked the numerous racial reckoning protests that dominated the latter half of 2020.
On the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death, people symbolizing the 9 minutes and 29 seconds Floyd was pinned down.
A delegate at the Minnesota GOP gathering in Duluth on Saturday proposed acknowledging Chauvin, according to reports from local news outlets. It occurred days after the sixth anniversary of Floyd’s death.
鈥淭he moment of silent prayer was a spontaneous motion brought forward from the convention floor. It was not part of the official convention program, it was not proposed by Convention Chairman Danny Nadeau, and it was not a statement from party leadership,鈥� the Minnesota Republican Party said in a statement.
Castile said it didn’t matter if only one person participated, it was still hurtful.
鈥淚 am proud of the ones who did not do the moment of silence,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hose that did, they should be reprimanded in some fashion.鈥�
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who led the state’s prosecution of Chauvin, said in a statement this week he was 鈥渉eartbroken and frankly shocked” by the prayer.
鈥淭his decision dishonors the memory of George Floyd and wounds his loved ones all over again. As the lead prosecutor whose team presented this case to a jury of twelve Minnesotans and then prevailed at every step of the appeals process, I am deeply troubled by what this says about the state of our politics,” Ellison said.
Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, the attorneys who represented Floyd’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit, were left 鈥渟ickened by this lack of respect.” They also demanded the Minnesota GOP retract their moment of silence and apologize to Floyd’s family.
鈥淭he audacity of the Minnesota Republican Party to honor an individual who has both been convicted by a jury of his peers for the murder of a fellow human being, while at the same time (violating) a professional oath to protect and serve his community, is disgusting,鈥� they said in a statement.
Reached via text message on Thursday, Floyd鈥檚 New York-based brother, Terrence Floyd, said he was 鈥済lad to see people are still fighting with us for complete justice.鈥�
The moment of silence for Chauvin fits a pattern of with 鈥渂ack the blue鈥� initiatives. Long before 2020, when George Floyd’s murder catalyzed the largest racial justice demonstrations since the Civil Rights Movement, some officers were symbols of 鈥渓aw and order鈥� or anti-Black Lives Matter sentiment.
For example in 2014, after Darren Wilson 鈥� the former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who is white 鈥� fatally shot 18-year-old , who was Black, a GoFundMe website raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the officer鈥檚 family and legal defense. The amount dwarfed the total raised for Brown鈥檚 family. Wilson ultimately did not face criminal charges or federal civil rights offenses.
Officers in the high-profile cases in which police killed in Chicago and in New York also drew sizable support from law enforcement unions that recast the criminal prosecution or discipline of officers as unjust and politically motivated.
Although legal outcomes vary a lot in these cases, most prominent examples of support for officers charged in killings do not result in overturned convictions.
___ Associated Press editor Aaron Morrison in New York City contributed to this report.
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