George Floyd and his family finally received justice on June 25, when Judge Peter Cahill sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 22.5 years in prison. Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and will serve out his sentence at MCF Oak Park Heights, a maximum-secuirty prison. However, he was given the possibility of supervised release after 15 years. While many are content with Chauvin being punished for his crime, others feel like it is too little too late. The Floyd family is vocal about how the trial and sentencing has affected their grieving process, and one of George’s brothers said the sentence was “a slap on the wrist.” They have expressed that they “were served a life sentence” because they will be dealing with the pain of losing a loved one for the rest of their life. Also, the other officers involved with Floyd’s murder still need to face consequences, so the family still has much more to go through. While they are glad some legal justice was served, with situations like these there is no emotional justice.

As for the activists who came together last summer to call for an end to police brutality after the tragic and unjust murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many more, the sentencing of Chauvin is bittersweet. The general thoughts on it seem to be that while we are thankful for the Floyd family winning the case, this is a very rare situation. Had there not been so much attention given to this case, it would, unfortunately, have gotten covered up as many police brutality cases do. Countless cases like these are swept under the rug by those in power and the majority of us never even hear about them. 

Even cases that get a large amount of media attention may not have a justified ending, such as the case of Eric Garner. Neither of the two officers that were most directly involved with the murder of Garner were indicted with anything, and only one of them was fired. Despite being all over social media and the news, Garner and his family never got the justice they deserved. The same is true of so many cases of police brutality towards Black people. This is an entire aspect of the Black Lives Matter movement. Activists have urged people to be more involved with informing and educating others so it is harder for police departments to hide these crimes and protect their own. Fortunately, George Floyd’s case was widely publicized and caused millions of people to advocate for an end to the systemic racism that allows for these types of things to happen. Floyd and his family were able to get justice for his wrongful death, but the majority of Black people who are victims of police brutality do not. We can be both grateful that Chauvin is getting what he deserves and angry that this rarely happens to the people who abuse their positions of power. 

So, what can we do to make sure more perpetrators of systemic racism are held accountable? Chauvin’s indictment should set a precedent for police brutality cases and remind us that we need serious police reform to protect the most vulnerable groups in our society. Police departments can no longer brush off these cases, and if they do then they are complicit. Politicians need to work on creating more legislation that protects the rights of all citizens when dealing with police and other authority figures. There needs to be an effective method for both regular people and officers to report police misconduct and ensure that there are consequences. Third-party organizations can be created to check and corroborate how police departments handle these cases so they can not go on protecting guilty officers. There are countless more steps that need to be taken in order to actually change the systemic racism that runs rampant in police departments and they go way beyond the ones listed here. 

Much of the mainstream conversation on police reform centers around what to do after an officer has already committed a violent attack. We also need to focus on what to do to prevent them from happening in the first place. Officers should be made aware of what to do in situations that begin to escalate. Physical violence should be the absolute last resort only when there is a serious danger present, which almost always isn’t the case with police brutality. Police departments need to ensure that the officers do not have a racial bias in their records, as many of the cops who kill innocent Black people tend to have a history of racism. Being careless about the past actions of the people who are put into positions of power leads to these horrible crimes. 

Throughout the trial of Derek Chauvin, many feared it would end in the way that police brutality cases usually do: Chauvin would be freed after his department vouched for him and vilified Floyd. Thankfully this was not the case, but people still had every reason to be worried. More often than not, innocent Black people and their families who become victims of police crimes never get justice. The systems of power that allow for officers to be violent towards Black people also allows for the justice system to be unfair and discriminatory. We can all be relieved by knowing Chauvin will face time, but it still isn’t enough. The fight for Black lives does not end with this, and we have to keep advocating for meaningful change.