Justice Requires Much More Than a Guilty Verdict - Joanna Gislason
Relief. It was the overwhelming first sensation, a flood of it raining down across the world as millions of human bodies exhaled, let go of tears and wept. ‘Thank God’ the first words, because prayers had been answered. Relief, because even though there was no question that Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd it was so much more likely than not that the verdict would be not guilty. “Guilty on all counts” was so profoundly unlikely as to be a miracle in a context where one percent of police killings result in criminal charges and those that go to trial … well we know how those turn out.
Unexpected vindication. This is what the tears express. Vindication so long overdue as to be implausible. Not justice. Vindication is a baby first step of justice. Vindication is the honoring of a promise that is made to every human being, that our inherent dignity, equality and value will be recognized and upheld. That when it is violated, together the community will say in one clear strong voice, “what happened to you was wrong.” In a context where black-bodied people have been shown with relentless and brutal consistency that their lives don’t matter, that what happened was not wrong, or worse – didn’t happen at all – vindication is the same kind of surprise as sun on your face after a long confinement in a dark room, that food is to a body that has been starved. As vindication whispers “justice is served” it inflicts a wound. It asks those who have been betrayed to trust the very system that continues to betray them.
“This is only the beginning. This is only a start.” These were the words of George Floyd’s niece moments after hearing the three guilty verdicts. “This is the beginning of something new”, his sister echoed. New to have state sanction on the fact that black lives matter. New to witness the tectonic shift of police testifying against their own. New to feel the truth of suffering of black-bodied Americans spilling over into the daily awareness of white-bodied ones. New to experience a promise kept for the first time.
Justice will require much more than this. A broken justice system will not deliver it. Justice will not be delivered. It will be claimed. Justice lives in our bodies, not in white stone buildings. Justice is the palpable state of public good in which the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings is upheld and revered and our interrelatedness is recognized. Justice is the feeling in the pit of the stomach of the old man, the young child, the off-duty firefighter, the teenager with a phone with a video camera who were walking by and then chose to stop and bear witness as a black man was pinned to the ground under the knee of a white police officer in front of a convenience store. Justice is the ache in our hearts that has us stand up for each other. “Never forget”, Cornell West reminds us, “that justice is what love looks like in public”.
We know what the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights says whether we have read it or not. We knew it before it was written. “Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. No one shall be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. All are entitled to equal protection of the law without discrimination. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of their person. We know what we owe to each other.
Retribution matters. There is a part of us that needed to see Chauvin’s wrists locked into cuffs behind his back, to place that image as an (albeit inadequate) counterweight next to the one of George Floyd’s handcuffed body pinned and tortured under Chauvin’s weight. But let us not confuse retribution with justice. Retribution asks nothing of us.
The justice that abides our dignity, recognizes our interconnectedness and belongs to our human bodies asks: what harms us? what harm have we done? what makes us safe? what is needed to heal the root causes and daily truth of suffering within and between us? It asks that we rest our attention on the crimes of economic inequality, racism, lack of access to health care, housing and quality education, a profit-driven prison system. It asks that we hold ourselves and each other accountable to make things better.
The white-bodied among us in particular must commit our attention and our courage to meaningfully supporting the calls for a transformation of the so-called justice system from one that criminalizes, incarcerates and polices black bodies to one that upholds dignity and promotes true safety.
It must be our practice to bear witness to the truth of racial injustice and to engage in brave and skillful action to end it. The justice that honours George Floyd will do more than send a white cop to jail; it will transform the system that shaped him.
This verdict is only a start.