George Floyd protests: Ava DuVernay calls four cops 'murderers', fans wonder if the jury will find them guilty
Ava DuVernay's powerful social media message has her fans charged up. It comes on the heels of new criminal charges that have been leveled against the four Minneapolis police officers — Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao — involved in George Flyod's killing. The filmmaker made the purpose of her post very clear, she wants everyone to remember the faces of policemen who murder because usually such cases are hardly ever investigated, as a result of which they are able to disappear easily.
"Usually police who murder disappear. We don’t remember their names. We don’t know their faces. They move from one department to another. They get paid while being investigated. And then the investigations never lead anywhere," she added in her post and pointed out that such people need to be held accountable.
"The statistics on them being held accountable are dismal. We need to hold them accountable. We need to not let them retreat into the dark. So I’ll use my page to make sure we remember these faces. And these names," Ava continued.
The idea was probably to expose how internal police reviews hardly ever matters. The judicial system too cannot be trusted or depended on. If left to the system, policemen of the likes of Chauvin will always roam free, she implied. "We can only depend on ourselves. They cannot hide from our attention, our scorn. Not now. Not in the future. Not anymore," Ava ended her note.
Meanwhile, fans have called the four policemen gang members. "They look like gang members," a user commented, to which another responded: "Because they are. Fraternity. Gang. Mob mentality. Whatever you want to call it."
"They were an armed mob of thugs. despicable. the charges need to be upgraded further. and then we need convictions," a user demanded. "lawless, wild animals," another replied.
"Are they sorry? Are they embarrassed? Do they accept that they've brought shame to their families? Do they care? I see nothing, absolutely nothing, on their faces," one user tweeted while another asked: "But will a jury find them guilty? We have seen this episode too many times."