Cortez Rice, 31, kneels in defiance of a helicopter circling over the Hennepin County Government Center on Monday, March 29, 2021. Rice said he was a family friend of George Floyd’s, and that Floyd would be happy he created a racial justice movement.(Samir Ferdowsi/VICE News)
After two weeks of jury selection, arguments in the case began Monday morning at the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis. As attorneys made their cases, around 20 protesters started gathering outside, against a backdrop of $646,000 worth of high-security fencing and barbed wire that was installed before the trial. The militarization of downtown Minneapolis speaks for itself, they say—in other words, that Floyd won’t get a fair trial. “They try to put this message in our face of, ‘There are four Black jurors, so we’re going to get the justice Black people deserve,’” said 31-year-old Cortez Rice, who’s a member of several local activist groups and said his whole family was close to Floyd. “That’s a smack in the face, is what that is. Why then did you put a million dollars into militarizing our streets? You’re putting millions of dollars into protecting this building, but what about our people?”
A wooden coffin encrusted in mirror shards sits outside the Hennepin County Government Center on Monday, March 29, 2021, as opening statements in the trial of former officer Derek Chauvin got underway. On one side of the fence is the coffin with a written tribute to those who have died at the hands of police without seeing justice. On the other, a National Guard armored truck. (Samir Ferdowsi/VICE News)
The jury consists of four white women, two white men, two multiracial women, one Black woman, and three Black men. Several potential jurors were dismissed for showing too much support or distaste for the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements. Although no one was explicitly dismissed because of their race, experts told VICE News it’s impossible to divorce the issue from the trial of a Black man killed by a white cop.
Chaz Neal stands with other Black Lives Matter protesters on Monday, March 29, 2021, across from the courtroom where former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial. Protesters have decorated the surrounding area in downtown Minneapolis with memorials to people killed by police violence and art condemning systemic racism. (Samir Ferdowsi/VICE News)
Signs denouncing police brutality and demanding justice for George Floyd flutter around Minneapolis on Monday, March 29, 2021. Signs with messages like these can be found all around the courthouse, the city, and surrounding areas in Minnesota. (Samir Ferdowsi/VICE News)