On that faithful 25th day of May 2020, if anyone had told George Floyd that the African-American it would be his last, I presume the African American blood in him would have sparked up some rebuke religiously or spiritually such as;’May the gods forbid’,’ I rebuke that in Jesus name’,” It isn’t my part’ and so on. That is the African spirit and it doesn’t know bounds even when you are on the white person’s land.
To conquer the common phrase of a trigger happy authorities’, he opted to sniff life from a fellow guy using choke — holding him down by the throat with his knee. I observed in pain wondering what he was thinking to subject Floyd to such a gruesome act resulting in his death. His faint voice I can’t breathe’ have to have melted Chauvin’s heart but it seemed he had non at the time. It was grieving to see that movie on social programs and cable networks.
This spurred a rampage in the complete Minneapolis that caught the attention of the world. My heart is heavy not simply for Chauvin’s actions that denied a healthy-looking brother of his right to existence. But I despair more for my home country, where a lot of these have occurred and justice is swept under the rug.
It was agitation to terminate the incessant harassments, molestations, and killings of innocent citizens from the men of the Nigerian Police. As opposed to yield favourable effects or alter it resulted in what sounds like a hijack to dent the development causing a shipwreck.
Countless better still thousands of Chauvin’s exist at our Police Force and they execute life-threatening actions resulting in loss of lives that are unaccounted for. Where the offenders are booked, the legal system hasn’t managed to convict lots of these and they’re still in the force wielding around with guns purchased with taxpayers’ money. Among the cheering elements of Chauvin’s story was how he had been fished out immediately and turned into a public figure to get the negative or incorrect reason.
Derek Chauvin was not just charged with three count charges of third-degree murder, second-degree murder, and manslaughter, he was tried and convicted in the space of 11 months. It began from his trial lasting just 15 days, together with 44 witnesses into the case. The peak of it was that that Judge Cahill didn’t wait for long but only about 11 hours to reach a verdict and obtained Chauvin convicted of three charges.
This occurs where the associations are properly ordered and run independently. Of course, the American Judicial system might not be 100 percent in its modus operandi, but this sweet judgment has put their judicial procedure on a high pedestal on an issue that brought a worldwide audience.
Justice of this magnitude is a herculean task in a system knotted in coercion, corruption, manipulation of judges, intentional delay of case files where trials can be hauled for half a decade or more, decayed and dilapidated court infrastructure, poor wages for judicial staff which has led in an indefinite strike by Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) since April 06, 2021. This sort of system will barely deliver justice and it is only going to continue to soften the expectation of the masses such that they would rather let the thing off the grid compared to waste time looking for legal proceedings. This is normal people as a people and it is prevalent in our judicial system.
Does one wonder how a lot of the trigger-happy police officers have been shamed nationwide? Often, we only hear that the Force has apprehended the officers in question and would be attempted. From there, we’re kept in the dark and that is it. Where they are declared to be dismissed, instances of them in service abound and they walk openly while the sufferer’s family remains in misery. Who hasn’t heard men of the police force in Nigeria boast how they have killed, and nothing happened? Actually, they make statements such as;’ I move to kill you and nothing go occur’; ‘e p do me make I mild (take ) individual’;’ I move to kill you throw way (off )’ and lots of unimaginable statements to sabotage the innocent and overburdened citizens they took an oath to guide and protect. These officers have become reckless with words from the ability of the guns they carry.
Not to forget the area of the eyewitness, the role of Darnella Frazier was well recognized with her video recording of this episode, which she uploaded on her FB wall that triggered the global protest of police brutality and racism. As a people, we have heroes and heroines who cover Chauvin-like scenes, but they are soon found and taken care of. I’ve had to go to Ibadan in August 2020 in the simplicity of the lockdown and interstate journey. A neighbour was unlawfully detained for 72 hours because the Police punish him together along with his mobile phone while his car approached the checkpoint. His offence was that the police watched him holding his telephone at one of the (illegal) checkpoints. His phone was captured and smashed living him without a phone a reach his family.
This is what happens in our society in which the uniform guys abhor civilians holding their telephones within their premises or sight.
The fear of not being caught has inhibited the type of evidence required to nail a mean Nigerian police officer who displays’Chauvinism’ on civilians. This must be addressed by possible legislation which enables the citizens to be permitted to utilize their camera-enabled cellular devices to catch any scene of a crime or interest scenes by law enforcement agents. For years now, an average road user around the nation’s highways can’t or dare not get or make a call or be seen with his or her phone handy whilst approaching a roadblock or checkpoint from the uniform guys be it NPF or NA. It is a crime that would amount to impounding the vehicle, regular search of passengers, and invading their privacies at will. This is supposed to be assessed and stopped.
Space would not permit me in this piece to list some names of sufferers of Police brutality and no one has heard anything about the guilty officers. We will need to make deliberate efforts to emulate what is right and not in books. The #BlackLivesMatter campaign was a major trend on societal platforms. We also need to champion more home-related problems of police brutality. If we keep quiet, we all could become victims and also our blood spilt on the roads with one to hold accountable.
Beyond protesting and agitating against the excesses of the authorities, we also need to start drumming for the judiciary to be instantaneous in delivering conclusions of Chauvin’s related cases or issues in our country. It’s no longer sufficient to get the officers dismissed, the entire court procedure from trial to certainty ought to be publicized at each stage as we saw in the event of Chauvin. The world needed a regular update on the case, and it arrived through the desire of most.
Their faces should tendency across media channels to a degree that they’d beg the ground to open and swallow them before they are convicted.
If this becomes a practice, it is going to go a long way to reform law enforcement and judicial institutions. Uniformed employees will start to believe twice before satisfying their urge to spend the life of another, whom they never created. It will lessen the rising death profile of our young ones in the hands of police brutality. It will restore confidence to believe in the force and embrace personnel as a compatriot.
