A true verdict.

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Today’s Edition (Vol. 2, No. 68).  A true verdict.

          As I write, my family is waiting for the jury to deliver its verdict in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. My wife is in another room, singing our granddaughter to sleep. The world sits on edge, waiting anxiously—hoping—for the arrival of a better future in which justice and fairness prevail. The world is always in the process of becoming and is always on edge, waiting to be tilted for good or ill by men and women strong enough to shape its course. Let that be us—so that we can bend the world towards justice.

          The jury has just delivered its verdict, and my granddaughter is still sleeping.  Tomorrow, the task of shaping the world’s course begins anew. Let that course be shaped by us—for our grandchildren and generations to come.

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          The jury said the truth: Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. It was a true verdict after a fair trial. That verdict would have been impossible but for video taken by a brave teenager with a cell phone. Despite her misgivings and fear, Darnella Frazier recorded the gruesome suffocation of a Black man in full view of the public. See Washington Post, “By bearing witness — and hitting ‘record’ — 17-year-old Darnella Frazier may have changed the world.” It is tragic that unimpeachable video is required to convict a white officer for killing a Black man, but we should recognize that in living memory, white juries would have disregarded such evidence and acquitted the officer. But in the era of smartphones and internet streaming, the eyes of the world are on police and juries alike.

          If progress is to be made only because accountability has increased, so be it. The Biden administration is accepting the challenge, seeking to increase accountability through the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 H.R.1280.” The Act would:

• Reduce the availability of the “qualified immunity” defense for officers who violate a plaintiff’s constitutional rights;

• Authorize the Attorney General to investigate “pattern and practice” of misconduct in local police departments;

• Establish a national registry of police misconduct;

• Require federal officers to wear body cameras; and

• Restrict the transfer of military equipment to police departments.

          The George Floyd Justice Act passed in the House on February 24, 2021. As is too frequently the case, the bill’s prospects in the Senate are doubtful because of—wait for it—the filibuster! See The Hill, “Democrats renew push for George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.” Per The Hill, Republicans say they oppose the bill because it would remove qualified immunity protections. The doctrine of qualified immunity is a legal thicket. Generally, it limits the circumstances under which a government official can be sued for damages for violating a plaintiff’s constitutional rights. See generally Lawfare, “What Is Qualified Immunity, and What Does It Have to Do With Police Reform?”

          If you want to contact your U.S. Senators to tell them how you feel about the George Floyd Justice Act, see Everytown for Gun Safety, which has an automated interface for contacting your U.S. Senators. Now is a moment of maximum pressure. See Politico, “Chauvin conviction squeezes Congress on police reform.”

          As the nation heaves a sigh of relief, we must recognize that Joe Biden’s steady hand made a difference even with three guilty verdicts. The previous president would have found a way to convert a just verdict into a national wound. He may yet. But in the meantime, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris delivered measured remarks from the White House that recognized that justice was served in this instance but remains elusive in many others. See NBC News, “Biden calls guilty verdict in Derek Chauvin trial 'a step forward'.” Much remains to be done. But, today, we can be thankful that a jury of Derek Chauvin’s peers spoke the truth.

Economic boycotts matter

          Republicans are acknowledging the sting of economic boycotts in response to Georgia’s voter suppression legislation. During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley described the MLB’s decision to move the MLB All-Star game “economic terrorism.” Ouch! See Talking Points Memo, “Grassley Calls MLB Decision To Move All-Star Game From Atlanta ‘Economic Terrorism’.” Remember that time—a month ago—when Republicans were best buddies with American businesses? Now, Republicans are labeling an American business an “economic terrorist.” While I’m sure Senator Grassley meant that insult in the nicest possible way, it is an odd way to show gratitude to the MLB Political Action Committee, which donated $10,000 to Grassley’s last reelection effort.  (The fact that Major League Baseball has a political action committee says all we need to know about the pervasiveness of money in politics.)

Biden’s Climate Summit

          Given the dramatic domestic developments in the U.S., a global climate summit organized by Joe Biden has garnered little attention. The summit will bring together 40 international leaders. Most importantly, China and the U.S. are talking about cooperating in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. See “China's Xi Jinping to speak at a U.S.-led climate summit on Thursday.” China and the U.S. are the two largest producers of greenhouse gases, so their willingness to work together is significant. Also significant is the fact that China’s President Xi Jinping will speak at the summit on Thursday during a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and China.

          Although the filibuster threatens Biden’s legislative agenda, he continues to deliver on campaign promises through executive action and international diplomacy. Many of those efforts are directed at reversing the damage inflicted by the previous president. Though Biden has not been perfect (see, e.g., his misstep on refugee caps), the start to his administration is being compared to that of FDR and LBJ. To be clear, Biden is no FDR or LBJ (yet), but the fact that anyone is making the comparison says a lot. We should be grateful.

The News Bubble.

          Although the previous president has been silent on the Derek Chauvin guilty verdicts, his surrogates are doing his dirty work. A Newsmax host said on Tuesday that the jury decided to “sacrifice this guy to the mob.” The extreme right-wing media is labeling BLM “as a terrorist organization worse than the KKK” and claiming that Rep. Maxine Waters has started “a war on cops.” Two media outlets are leading with headlines about “mask tyranny,” while another is claiming that an autopsy report on Officer Brian Sicknick stating that he died of natural causes is “proof” that the media has misrepresented what happened on January 6th.

Concluding Thoughts.

The migration of the newsletter from Constant Contact to Substack has not been glitch free. I am still working my way through emails from readers and will answer them all. Please note that if Today’s Edition newsletter doesn’t show up in your inbox (and it isn’t in your spam or junk folders), you can always view the newsletter online at this address: https://roberthubbell.substack.com/.

          For those of you who followed my direction to unsubscribe from Constant Contact, you may have unsubscribed from my Managing Editor’s newsletter—Jill’s Garden Blog. If you were a devoted fan of my wife’s daily videos and they suddenly stopped arriving, you can resubscribe here: Jill's Garden Blog.  If you would like to see what my wife’s blog is about, a good example is here: My Spring Garden.

          With the benefit of a few hours of reflection after the guilty verdicts, the sense of relief is already giving way to the realization of how much further we must go to achieve racial justice in America. Achieving that goal will take decades or longer. But the threat we face at the moment is the retrograde efforts of Republican-controlled legislatures across the nation. Our strategy in reversing those actions is to recognize that state legislatures are more sensitive to business and community pressure than are members of Congress. As I noted last week, members of the part-time Georgia legislature have lost clients and employment for supporting the voter suppression bills in Georgia. As Tip O’Neill was fond of saying, “All politics is local.”

          In the run-up to 2022, make an effort to track elections in your state legislature. Flipping a few seats at the state level can have an outsized effect on national politics. In the run-up to 2018, there were dozens of organizations that were actively focused on flipping state legislatures. If readers are currently involved in active organizations that are focused on flipping state legislatures, let me know and I will share those organizations with the Today’s Edition community so that everyone can pitch in. The verdicts in the Derek Chauvin trial should instill confidence in each of us that our efforts matter. Tell a friend.

          Talk to you tomorrow!