#Letters to the Editor — April 22, 2021

The Issue: Former Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict in the murder of George Floyd.

Last May, when I first saw the video of Derek Chauvin with his knee on the back of George Floyd’s neck, I was angry (“Guilty,” April 21).

I felt compassion for George Floyd. Everyone in America should have been shaken by this senseless violent murder.

I wanted Chauvin to pay for his crime. On April 20, Chauvin was found guilty of murder and will pay.

Shortly after Floyd’s senseless murder, Democrats tried to spin this as systemic racism. They tried to use Floyd’s tragic death for political gain.

I believe that the vast majority of Americans — black, brown and white — were appalled and disgusted by what happened to Floyd.

It was the Democrats who interjected politics and race into this horrendous murder.

Michael Hart

Kokomo, Ind.

The system held. Chauvin was found guilty by a mostly white jury.

As a country, though, we still have a long way to go, with millions of people, mostly people of color, locked up in prisons by Chauvin-type thugs.

Some 400 years of systematic racism is a charge not easily refuted even by the most naive of true believers.

Ron Spurga, Manhattan

The Chauvin guilty verdict was a just one. He disgraced an honorable profession. People should note that he did not have the support of any police union across this country. His actions were universally condemned.

I implore reasonable people not to view all police in this manner.

I concede there are potentially other unfit officers in the ranks, just as there are unfit people in other professions.

The challenge is to identify and separate them from the service. Radical solutions are not the answer.

Phillip Serpico

Queens

Finally, a judge and jury got it right — not like the bungled Rodney King trial.

Chauvin proves sadly that police brutality exists.

Matt Engel

Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the nation after the Chauvin verdict (“ ‘Stain on our soul,’ ” April 21).

The two of them repeated their claims that both the American criminal-justice system and the country itself are systematically racist.

Harris was both district attorney of San Francisco and California attorney general. She was the system.

Kenneth Fitzgerald

Hicksville

A recent editorial chided Biden for having spoken on the Chauvin trail, saying he was praying for a guilty verdict (“Turn Down the Temp,” Editorial, April 21).

Does The Post not believe in free speech? What the president said wasn’t even inappropriate.

All Americans are entitled to voice their opinion, and quite frankly, they are entitled to that even before the evidence is in.

Brian W. Barnett

Newport, Vt.

I am OK with Biden’s verbal approval of the guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial. The video was proof enough for the jury to form that decision.

What offends me, however, is Biden’s statement that America is “systematically racist.”

This is the height of hypocrisy. Biden’s previous comments, like: “If you ain’t for me, you aint’ black,” plus his past association with Sen. Robert Byrd, a former KKK member, make it hard for me to accept his caustic racist remarks about our country.

Warren Goldfein

Mount Arlington, NJ

This verdict established that no one is above the law. As a nation, we need to move forward in our fight against racism. We are all brothers and sisters and need to respect one another.

Make no mistake, serving on a jury is a stressful and demanding experience. I praise the jury in the Floyd case. A whole nation was watching.

The majority of police officers in our country are doing the best job they can protecting us, and endangering their lives in the process. But this jury got it right.

Frederick Bedell

Bellerose

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