Black Lives Matter (BLM) Saint Lucia has welcomed Tuesday’s guilty verdict in the slaying of George Floyd.
BLM Saint Lucia Interim Chairman, Peter ‘Ras Ipa’ Isaac said the group is ‘extremely elated’ over the trial outcome.
Isaac said the local BLM chapter was proud that it stood up in solidarity with American black people.
He said that the BLM movement here has also stood up for justice in Saint Lucia.
“Even when we were not given permission, we were a bit defiant and we came out,” Isaac recalled.
It was a reference to a peaceful protest the BLM local chapter had organised last year.
But the police did not grant permission for the event.
However, the activity went ahead nevertheless.
“Some people didn’t come out because probably they saw themselves as law abiding citizens,” Isaac stated.
“Or maybe they’re very serious about abiding by the law, so they did not come out and give the kind of support that they wanted to,” Isaac noted.
But he declared that BLM Saint Lucia was proud that it was defiant.
He acknowledged that they risked arrest by the police.
But while expressing elation over the verdict in the George Floyd matter, Isaac asserted that the United States and other countries need to do more to put measures in place to prevent such incidents as the one which led to Floyd’s death.
A court found Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin who knelt on George Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes last year, guilty of all three charges against him.
The court found him guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The jurors deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days before coming to their decision.
According to CNN, Chauvin, 45, had no apparent reaction to the guilty verdict.
CNN said the court revoked his bail.
Thereafter, law enforcement officers handcuffed him and removed from the court through a side door.
Headline photo caption: Peter ‘Ras Ipa’ Isaac (Stock image)
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