CNN’s Van Jones is predicting if former police officer Derek Chauvin is not convicted of charges against him in the death of George Floyd, it will be “perceived as open season” for other police officers to act the same way.
“Everybody I’m talking to are frustrated, re-triggered, re-traumatized. Seeing that video, seeing the complete contempt for life. You have a generation of African Americans and their allies … that is watching this to see if America. … The system is on trial and I can’t tell you, people have tried to push away from this, move on from this,” Jones said on Monday night.
He added, “If this is considered legal conduct from a police officer, if you can do this in broad daylight, and not go to jail, it will be perceived as open season telling police officers from coast to coast, ‘You can literally get away with murder in broad daylight.’
Watch his comments below:
"Today brought it all back home for tens of millions of people," says CNN's Van Jones about the first day of Derek Chauvin's murder trial in the death of George Floyd. "If this is considered legal conduct from a police officer… it will be perceived as open season." pic.twitter.com/eqgjzMiJAw
— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) March 30, 2021
Chauvin is charged with second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death. He has pleaded not guilty on all charges.
According to the complaint against Chauvin, the former police officer knelt on the back of Floyd’s neck. Floyd said he could not breathe repeatedly, the complaint reads.
Floyd was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Chauvin along with three other police officers were fired the following day.
The city of Minneapolis announced earlier this month it would pay $27 million to settle a lawsuit by Floyd’s family over his death.
In the weeks following Floyd’s death, at least 15 million people across the United States took to the streets to protest. As a result of the protests and riots, at least 18 Americans died, including eight Black Americans.
