“I believe that we will win. I believe that we will win. I believe that we will win.”
Those words could be heard echoing off the walls of the Madison Police Department building as demonstrators gathered to celebrate today’s conviction of Derick Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd nearly a year ago.
The demonstration, organized by Freedom Inc., began at 6pm, nearly two hours after the verdict was read,a and drew a crowd of nearly 60 people.
A variety of speakers spoke at the event including members of Freedoms Inc such as Jessica Williams, Black Domestic Violence Advocate at Freedom Inc., and a member of Freedom inc.’s Community Power Building team, Crystal Ellis. A representative from Freedom Action Now, Phooyw Moua, also spoke.
“Do y’all think he had a guilty verdict because, this time, our justice system just did it right?,” Williams asked. “No! Why did we win this time? We won because of the power of the people. We won because the people have been in the streets for decades, pushing and fighting, fighting for abolition, fighting against racist police violence and terrorism against black people. That’s why we won.”
“I believe in the power of the people because the power of the people don’t stop,” she added.
However, despite today’s victory, Williams noted that there is still more work to be done.
“Although we’re here and we’re celebrating this victory, this victory is huge because the police don’t get held accountable, but it’s a small victory in the bigger scheme of what we want to do and the changes that we want to have in this world,” Williams said. “So let’s remember that while we’re celebrating, that we need to continue the fight, we need to continue to struggle in our black communities, we don’t get to read, we don’t get to stop because every day, every minute, we hear about some other violence and some other harm that’s come to our community … so we have to keep going we have to keep fighting and keep pushing.”
A recording of the event can be found here on the Freedom Inc. Facebook page.
