Zac Schultz:

One week from today Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd will receive his prison sentence for the crime that set off a worldwide social justice movement. “Here & Now” special project journalist Murv Seymour took his camera to different parts of Wisconsin to listen to why so many people are bracing for the upcoming sentencing.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

The Urban League is one of the oldest civil right organizations in the nation. Been around since 1910, here in Madison we’ve been around since 1968. People have been wronged in our community. We fight for our citizens when injustice happens in one place, you know, we know that there is the probability that it can happen across the land. So we’re watching closely what is happening with the sentencing.

David Bowen:

Much of the anxiety, I believe, that we felt in our community was around if he’d be charged at all. If he would be convicted at all. We know we can’t always stop all these situations from happening but what we do know is that actual law changes actually do make a shift.

Jeffrey Butler:

I’m here with my grandsons. I don’t want the same type of things to keep going on that has been going on for years and years and years. I wanted to document this because right now, you know, they can’t grasp it right now but in the future they will be able to grasp it. Stop biting me.

Desmond Leidich:

We don’t always get justice. We’ve gone so many years now where it just feels like something happens to one of our people, you know, police brutality and we haven’t gotten — it seems we haven’t gotten accountability for it. We need to keep going. This isn’t the finish line. This one case isn’t the end of it.

Lateria Garrett:

I know there is good and bad in everything. We definitely have endured and seen enough that we’re very hesitant to trust. I have had encounters with good police. I also know living in this community that if I need the police, I have a fear of which one is showing up. You know? You just hope it’s the right one. The one that is there to truly protect and serve no matter what color you are, no matter your financial situation.

Jeffrey Butler:

The verdict has already been handed in and he has been found guilty.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

People are concerned that a law enforcement officer will be given a break.

Desmond Leidich:

It’s always a feeling of yeah, but.

Jeffrey Butler:

You have to feel for people that are frustrated with the system.

David Bowen:

So many times in the past we kept putting our trust in the system that essentially was rigged against us and would not allow the chance for true justice to be shown in charging, in sentencing, in holding officers accountable.

Desmond Leidich:

What we got on April 20th was the correct thing to be guilty on all three counts. I think a just sentence would be the maximum sentence they could give.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

He was blatant and irresponsible.

Jeffrey Butler:

I think the sentencing should be a harsher sentence simply because he is a figure of authority, a man that was given power not to abuse it.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

If the sentencing is different than anyone else who has committed those same crimes, that’s unjust.

Lateria Garrett:

There is a life that’s taken that I feel wasn’t necessary.

Jeffrey Butler:

He literally murdered a human being.

Desmond Leidich:

I want to make sure we can set a precedent that this can’t keep happening.

Jeffrey Butler:

He should be sentenced to the full extent of the law, to not just send a message, but to give assurance to the Black community, to all the community, to everyone, that this type of stuff cannot continue to happen and go on.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

It could be one of those moments where, you know, people might be totally disappointed, you know, if the sentence is light.

Lateria Garrett:

We need to set the stage for what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable and I think it will defer people from doing something like that ever again.

Jeffrey Butler:

We’ve been going through this for years and years. And as you can see I’m here with my grandchildren, and I don’t want them to be a victim and they should never be a victim of police.

Lateria Garrett:

I’m raising three African-American boys and it hits home quite naturally with me that yeah, I want them — if they go out and make a mistake, I want them to be held accountable in the court of law, not held accountable in the streets.

Desmond Leidich:

It will convey that this can’t keep happening anymore. And that George Floyd’s life mattered.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

Just when we think we’ve got justice and we start to heal, we get set back and then we’re back where we were Ruben Anthony, Jr before. I’m not trusting the system and I’m feeling like justice hasn’t been served.

Lateria Garrett:

It is not going to be something that we are just open arms to trust overnight but I think the more that people do the right thing, right? And by people I mean our leaders, do the right thing that will grow.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

The country is at a very delicate place.

Desmond Leidich:

It is important for the people of Wisconsin because —

Lateria Garrett:

Minnesota is not very far away.

Jeffrey Butler:

We’re neighbors to Minnesota and these type of things have happened in Wisconsin lately.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

Those things that happen across the nation have local impacts.

Lateria Garrett:

To me I felt like I needed to hug my children tighter. I needed to have conversations that I didn’t necessarily want to have.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

I do have sympathy for him because his life is going to be changed. He was a police officer. He was a public servant, but he just went wrong on this day. He committed the crimes and he should serve the time. People make mistakes. He’s obviously made a mistake in this situation but he still has to pay.

Jeffrey Butler:

I don’t think it’ll ever be over. We’ve had a Black president. We have a Black vice president as of now but we are still considered way down the totem pole as a people.

Desmond Leidich:

We still have a lot of work to do to make sure this sort of stuff doesn’t keep happening and our little — our kids in our community don’t have to grow up fearing police.

Lateria Garrett:

We’ll know when there is a lot more leaders, people that are in service positions that look like us.

David Bowen:

We’re already over a big hurdle.

Lateria Garrett:

I feel hopeful it is going to be justice served.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

We’re headed in the right direction. We just hope again that justice continues to be rendered as we wait for the sentencing.

Lateria Garrett:

I know there is a term of being “woke” and I do feel like there has been an awakening where people are sitting up and taking notice and I feel like African-Americans, Asians, LGBTQ, they’re some alliances that are being formed and we have allies and that’s what we need to be able to move forward.

Jeffrey Butler:

Let’s pray that everything goes as it should.