But otherwise, there is little evidence that each party’s reporting will change, with Democrats campaigning for measures against racial equality and extensive police reform and Republicans prioritizing law and order. The attacks on each are probably well known: Democrats will continue to view the GOP as a party hostile to the interests of people of color, while Republicans will continue to portray Democrats as a party of extremists who would “defend the police.”
Following the verdict, nearly every Democrat at every level made statements, many of which heralded a “step forward” for racial justice while continuing to call for reform – a sign of the importance of the issue ahead of the midterm elections and 2024.
But on the Republican side, almost the opposite was true: Few lawmakers saw the need to weigh in at all. And as it has been since George Floyd’s assassination last May, the GOP’s coverage remained more focused on the prospect of civil unrest than on the police brutality it caused.
For almost For a year – even as Floyd’s murder shed light on the recent deaths of dozens of other people of color, including Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain and Daunte Wright – Democrats have been calling for police reform, joining their base of black voters last year’s election. Republicans, in an open appeal to suburban whites, responded to a summer of civilian uprisings with calls for law and order.
In the run-up to Chauvin’s ruling, Republican attention remained focused on the protests against police brutality, characterized by the introduction of legislation in more than 30 states to curtail protests. Florida Government Ron DeSantis, a leading 2024 potential candidate, signed a controversial “anti-insurgency” law this week.
After the decision was made, DeSantis speculated that the prospect of unrest might have influenced the jury’s decision. “If that’s something that could potentially happen, where you basically get justice because the jury is afraid of what a crowd can do – and again, I’m not saying that’s what happened here … [but] that is completely contrary to the rule of law. “
“To think [rioting] affect the way the rule of law is applied would be a total disaster if that idea catches on, ” he said.
On Wednesday morning, as the black communities breathed a sigh of relief and talked about the work still to be done, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was still talking about the failed attempt to convict Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) For telling the story. protesters in Minnesota on weekends to “stay on the street” and “get confrontational.”
In an interview with Fox News, he said the Democrats had the opportunity to “condemn this violent rhetoric” and instead “condone it, which only weakens the House of Representatives and the Justice Department.”
Senator Tim Scott, the GOP’s only black senator, who introduced the GOP’s police reform law last summer, got close to pushing the party in a new direction. In a lengthy statement on Tuesday, he said while the verdict was on “should give us a renewed confidence in the integrity of our justice system, we know more work needs to be done to ensure that the bad apples don’t define all officers – the vast majority of whom don the uniform every day with integrity and a serving heart. “
More typical were the reactions of conservatives in Congress and the media framing the verdict as evidence that the justice system works, and rejecting calls from progressives for comprehensive criminal justice reform as unnecessary.
Before the GOP bombers, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed on Twitter on Tuesday that “DC is completely dead tonight. People stayed indoors and feared going out for fear of riots. “
She wrote, “#BLM is the strongest terrorist threat in our province.”
Just as Tuesday’s verdict revealed much about the ongoing political resonance from racial justice and police ahead of the midterm elections, it also suggested how little the form of the debate is likely to change.
In an investigation into the political ramifications of the verdict, state Rep. Omari Hardy, a black progressive man pushing for legislation that the police reconsider, said: “The verdict doesn’t change anything. This was not the justice we were marching for. This is justice in the thinnest sense of the word. “
He said, “We have been divided on the value of black lives for over four centuries, so I am not surprised that it is divisive. There have always been and will always be people who don’t value black lives. “
Even at Chauvin’s trial, dozens of people died nationwide at the hands of the police. And just after the verdict was read, it was news of another deadly police shooting: 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant.
“There is a lot of relief today, and that is a positive thing,” said Mike Erlandson, a former chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. “But at about the same time that we take a deep breath, another police officer is on trial.”
It is possible that concerns about racial justice and the need for police reform will receive more attention in the midterm elections than in the 2020 campaign, a race in which the coronavirus pandemic overshadowed all other issues. Even then, a historic summer of civil unrest echoed in presidential competition and local races across the country.
Doug Herman, who was a lead mail strategist for Barack Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012, said on the topic of police brutality and protests: “This was a big problem in 2020, it will remain a problem in 2022.”
Last year he said, “The Republican Party had two attacks that they used with some success, namely that the Democrats want to defend the police and they are all socialists.” To the Democrats, he said, “We have made another round of reform struggles, but we are still a long way from the end.”
Locally, there seemed to be political movement in the verdict in Minnesota, a critical state, where protests gave way to scenes of car horns blaring and activists wailing in relief. Keith Ellison, the state’s attorney general, called the outcome a “first step towards justice.” For Ellison, the former lawmaker who oversaw Chauvin’s prosecution, the verdict was a major victory. And the resolution of the matter will come as a relief to Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz, who had come under criticism of progressives after the murder of Wright and the management of protests in the state.
More broadly, said Michael Brodkorb, a former deputy chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, the final verdict of a verdict could increase support for police reform – and for the candidates who ask for it.
“I think anyone who wants to take up the mantle will find a receptive audience,” said Brodkorb. “Right now … the thoughtful discussion of meaningful reforms, most of which is defended by Democrats.”
In fact, Floyd’s death and the protests that followed have led cities and states to implement reforms ranging from measures to increase transparency to bans and “no-knock” orders. Some cities reduced their police funding, as activists asked to spend money instead on early intervention and other non-police measures to improve public safety.
Yet the parameters of the debate surrounding those measures have not fundamentally changed.
When the Chauvin lawsuit got underway last month, a USA Today / Ipsos Poll Found Americans’ support for the Black Lives Matter movement has waned in the 11 months since Floyd’s death, while confidence in law enforcement has grown. More than two-thirds of Americans – 69 percent – trust the police to promote justice and equal treatment for people of all races, 13 percentage points higher than last year. Meanwhile, half of Americans think the same about Black Lives Matter.
In a separate poll this month, by Morning Consult, found a drop in the proportion of Americans who view police brutality as a serious problem – down 10 percentage points from last year to 69 percent. In either case, the gap in attitudes between black and white Americans is wide.
Rashad Robinson, chairman of the non-profit civil rights organization Color of Change, said, “I don’t think so [the] judgment inherently changes everything. “
He distinguished between accountability issues and concerns about justice, saying the latter “cannot be served by 12 jurors. It’s because of changing the rules, because of changing policies and practices. ”