The Best You Can Do Is Witness, and Report

Darnella Frazier is the model for all of us

I watched the Derek Chauvin trial in my office rather obsessively throughout the last month, and while the case for his guilt seemed to grow more overwhelming by the day — and it was pretty overwhelming in the first place — I, like a lot of Americans, was skeptical that there would be a conviction, based on, you know, American history. So Tuesday’s conviction was a relief, albeit several clicks short of equaling the scales. Justice was done. But as so many have pointed out, the conviction was a rarity. There is another trial next month, in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed while jogging in Georgia in February 2020. His father, interviewed after the verdict Tuesday, said, “I’m feeling real comfortable right now because I’m seeing my son will get some justice,” he said. “It looks like he’s going to get some justice now because of the way they handled that case [Chauvin trial] was real professional and they looked at people as people.” I hope he is right.

But the first person I thought of after the verdict, looking back on the trial, was Darnella Frazier. Frazier is the teenager who continued to film for the entire nine minutes that Derek Chauvin kneeled on the neck of George Floyd. Her video is the reason there was justice for George Floyd. Darnella Frazier may be…