{"id":11938,"date":"2021-04-22T05:39:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T12:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=11938"},"modified":"2021-04-22T05:39:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T12:39:13","slug":"darnella-frazier-is-a-hero-in-this-story-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=11938","title":{"rendered":"“Darnella Frazier is a hero in this story”, The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michele L. Norris, Opinion, April 21, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Can we all take a moment to sing a praise song for Darnella Frazier, who had the presence of mind to record the video that made such a difference in the Derek Chauvin case<\/a>? The intrepid Minneapolis teenager must live with a ghastly memory that will float alongside her for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

She was just 17<\/a> on that gruesome day last May, strolling to the store to buy a snack with her 9-year-old cousin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

When she saw George Floyd<\/a> lying on the pavement with Chauvin\u2019s knee on his neck, she raised her cellphone long enough to record<\/a> the 9-minute-and-29-second murder. She kept her arm flexed. She kept her lens focused as the circle of bystanders begged Chauvin to get up and let Floyd live. She didn\u2019t back away when Chauvin glared in her direction. She fixed her gaze and allowed the country to do the same when she posted the video on her Facebook page.<\/p>\n

\n

It is hard to imagine the outcome of this trial without that video. Remember: The first official statement<\/a> from the Minneapolis Police Department carried the headline, \u201cMan Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction.\u201d It obliquely described police responding to \u201ca forgery in progress,\u201d encountering a suspect who physically resisted officers when asked to step from his car. \u201cOfficers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

When Darnella Frazier\u2019s video went viral, the world saw what really happened on the pavement in the 3700 block of Chicago Avenue. The moment is now seared into our collective memory. All because a 17-year-old videotaped 10 minutes of pure evil and was strong enough to not look away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

We should take a lesson from that. Her bravery is a reminder that we too must not look away, and not just in the most wicked moments of bias but also in the small things that grease the runway toward larger prejudice. We must not look away when we see the softer brand of oppression that masks itself in offhanded comments, and jokes, and the denigration and dismissal of \u201cthose people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

And when I say \u201cwe,” I am also talking about our public servants and especially our law enforcement officers who know too well that there are those in their ranks who \u201cpolice\u201d from a dark and dangerous perspective. They know that some officers are guided by prejudice and proceed from warped beliefs. Those officers debase the entire profession.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

I don\u2019t want to hear any more talk of \u201cbad apples\u201d in these departments. I want to know that the good cops will root out the rot. Just as we imagine what this trial might have looked like without that video, we should imagine how the whole ordeal would have played out if the three other cops on duty that day had stood up to Chauvin or challenged his manifest abuse of power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Police have a tradition of calling for backup when they need more force. More need to learn how to call for backup when the brutes among them will not stand down.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michele L. Norris, Opinion, April 21, 2021 Can we all take a moment to sing a praise song for Darnella Frazier, who had the presence of mind to record the video that made such a difference in the Derek Chauvin case? The intrepid Minneapolis teenager must live with a ghastly memory that will float alongside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11939,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11938\/revisions\/11939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}