Five years ago, on May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Minneapolis part-time security guard, died in a police encounter. An officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. The incident, caught by a teenager and posted on Facebook, set off months of massive protests across the country.
But since then, justice seems to have taken a step backward, says Jami Hodge, Executive Director of Equal Justice USA, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing violence in the justice system. She spoke with URL Media about where we sit at this point. Below are some edited excerpts from that interview.
URL Media: We’re at the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, and a lot has happened. In your opinion, has racial justice in America come forward or gone backward?
Jami Hodge: It’s gone significantly backwards in the five years since George Floyd was murdered, and it’s not that surprising because, unfortunately, we see that often in our history. When we have some steps of progress, it’s usually followed by backlash. We saw that with Reconstruction, having Black people who had been formerly enslaved be able to hold political office and gain these freedoms, and what happened right behind it? Jim Crow. And when George Floyd was murdered, what happened was almost like an awakening of our national consciousness around the relationship between race and policing. Five years later, the words diversity, equity, and inclusion are essentially being almost outlawed by our federal government.
URL Media: It’s clear that the Trump administration has rolled back on the progress his predecessor had made on holding police accountable. Where does that leave us, those of us who are vulnerable?
Hodge: I think we’re facing pretty scary times. Even with that sort of brief window of recognition, the country was at this precipice where we could have decided to really lean forward and to truly address the systemic racism that [contributed to] George Floyd’s murder. I think it was one of the first times where the protests and the uprisings weren’t just about we need to arrest and punish the officers. It was a call to dismantle the system that allows this to continue to happen.
So we already know there’s so much work to do to address the harm of systemic racism. But now I think things are worse than they’ve been in a long time because we no longer have the moral imperative that came right after he was killed. We need to explore some different options. We saw for the first time a federal investment into community violence intervention and prevention instead of traditional policing, and now we have rolled all of it back.
URL Media: What can we do at the grassroots level?
Hodge: The strategies haven’t changed: Organizing and mobilizing. I think the thing that might shift, especially with the recent change in administration, is just making sure that those that we’re targeting with that organizing and mobilization are more at the local level and not necessarily at the federal level. I think, especially right after George Floyd’s murder, there was a big push to get laws changed at the federal level to get the George Floyd Act passed by Congress, which never happened… But I think now really, there’s no point in advocacy towards the federal government, which means we need to double down in our neighborhoods, in our cities, in our states with targeting, because that is a place where we can still change policies and laws.
URL Media: The Justice Department just abandoned reform settlements with Minneapolis and Memphis and Louisville so what can the families of people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tyree Nichols, and many others this has happened to, do now?
Hodge: I think again you pivot to your state and local policymakers and policyholders and budget holders just because the federal government has now withdrawn these investigations.
It’s a blow because what the federal government does is it sets an example, and people look to it to see how people should interpret what’s happening. But we know that this administration is…I’ll just say they’re flat out wrong on these issues. So now we need to think about who the people are that can be convinced, that can be moved. Our tax dollars don’t just support the federal government; our tax dollars support our local governments. And so moving those efforts to the local level and pushing as much as they can there.
URL Media: In this current climate, what are some of the things people can do if they feel the Justice Department won’t support them in cases of police violence?
Hodge: I think you still you still gather the information. No one would’ve known what happened to George Floyd, but for Darnella Frazier. It was her courage to stand there — and it didn’t matter if the police were there — she was recording it so that we could have the truth of what happened. I don’t know if folks remember, but if you go back and look at the police report that the police put out after George Floyd was murdered, it said he died because of a medical incident. It talked nothing about the force that was used against him, and we would’ve never known that truth except for her recording.
So as things happen, like still gather the information, still share it out. Social media is a powerful resource to be able to get stories out, to get videos out, to tell the truth about what people are facing. And administrations change. We had a justice department before this administration that was willing to investigate. I believe we’ll have another justice department after this administration that will be willing to investigate. And we should continue to gather the information, share the information, and again, continue that fight at the local level in the meantime.
URL Media: There is talk of a federal pardon for Derek Chauvin, although he still has to serve a state sentence. If that happens, would that set a precedent for other federal pardons of police who are convicted and killing people?
Hodge: The presidential pardon is a right that every president has. I think what is dangerous about this particular precedent is the intentionality of pardoning someone, even though you know it’s not going to get him out of prison.
It’s to send the message that what he did was not wrong. And that’s why I think what we’re facing now is very dangerous in terms of law enforcement being emboldened that no, you can put your knee on the neck of a Black man and kill him in front of cameras, and the whole world can watch and you’ll have the highest, most powerful person in the country say that’s not wrong. That’s what’s dangerous about this potential presidential pardon.
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For more information on the efforts Equal Justice USA is making toward addressing violence in marginalized communities, visit their website at www.ejusa.org.
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