GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — The Chief of the Green Bay Police Department is reacting to the verdict in the Derek Chauvin case in Minneapolis.
Chief Andrew Smith says he isn’t surprised that former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts in the death of George Floyd last May.
“Well I think a lot of people expected that,” said Smith immediately after the verdict was read. “I think looking at the videotape and looking at the evidence presented, I think it really wasn’t a terribly big surprise that he was found guilty.”
“I think it shows that our justice system works,” he added.
A former Los Angeles Police Officer, Smith called Floyd’s death a “watershed moment” in American policing on par with the beating of Rodney King, which set off the Los Angeles riots in 1992 after the police officers involved were acquitted.
“Often times in law enforcement there are watershed moments,” Smith said. “I think this was one of them. I think Ferguson was one of them. I most certainly believe the Rodney King incident was one of them. When incidents like that occur there are big changes in policing.”
Smith called for calm in the wake of the decision, which set off protests and riots last summer.
“We support everybody’s right to peacefully protest. We want to support people’s rights,” Smith said. “But when they cross the line into criminal behavior, that has to be line that we draw.”
Floyd, who was black, died after Chauvin, who is white, knelt on his neck for around nine minutes during an arrest.
Floyd’s death last May set off a summer of riots and protests across the country, including several in Green Bay and Appleton.
