Daunte Wright And George Floyd Were Connected and Both Deserved Better
By: Cory Utsey
Sunday, April 11 marked the end of another Black man’s life.
Daunte Wright was murdered by ex-officer Kim Potter, who is now being charged with second-degree manslaughter, during a traffic stop after she allegedly mistook her taser for her gun. He was only 20 years old.
This senseless act, which took place in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, is less than 15 miles from where George Floyd was murdered in May of 2020, but the interconnected nature of these two men extends past location and even past police brutality.
George Floyd’s girlfriend Courteney Ross was a former teacher of Daunte Wright.
Two men, two fathers, two human beings whose lives were stolen in a similar manner, one of which took place amidst the trial against the murderer of the other.
The connection between Floyd and Wright is eerily reminiscent of the ties between US Army 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario-- who was pepper sprayed and thrown to the ground by two Virginia police officers in December-- and his uncle Eric Garner, who was killed by police in 2014.
Even further back in time lies the connection of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy who was lynched in 1955 Mississippi, and Fred Hampton, a prominent figure of the Black Panther party who was killed by the FBI in 1969 at the age of 21. Hampton’s mother babysat Till in his adolescence.
Nevertheless, the lives of Black people remain intertwined in violence and trauma that is inflicted by racist police, and reinforced by a system that values property more than Black lives. In the wake of Wright’s death, protestors have been met with curfews and the presence of the Minnesota National Guard; this response is much different than that of the storming of the Capitol, for instance, where actual agitators were given much more leeway.
The fact of the matter is, Daunte Wright deserved better.
He was ultimately stopped because of expired license plates and for hanging an air freshener in his mirror. However, even if he was doing something “wrong”, guilt should not breed a death sentence.
George Floyd deserved better. It should not matter whether or not he potentially ingested carbon monoxide, or even if he had drugs in his system-- no one should have their neck knelt on for over eight minutes.
Emmett Till deserved better. Breonna Taylor deserved better.
Adam Toledo, the 13-year-old boy who was shot and killed by Chicago police in late March, deserved better, and so do the many others whose lives have been stolen.
Police brutality, gun violence, and the overall abuse of power should not be normalized, neither should negligent justice be expected.
The value of Black lives should not have to be reiterated time and time again--the state of “matter” should be the minimum. And this cycle of trauma and death should not have to continue.
Change is not an option, it is a necessity.
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