Founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative Dr. Yohuru Williams commented for Politico on the trial of Kim Potter, the former Brooklyn City police officer charged with killing a black motorist during a routine traffic stop.
From the article: Yohuru Williams, a professor of history, disagrees with O’Donnell’s assessment. Williams says the swift action to bring Potter to trial for Wright’s killing is the culmination of factors brought on by the “perfect storm” of events: the pandemic, the killing of George Floyd and swift release of the video of the encounter.
“The response to that moment has been this hypervigilance,” said Williams, the founder of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, based St. Paul.
“The instantaneous access to the body cam footage, the fact that you have [Minnesota Attorney General] Keith Ellison acting very quickly, the fact that you have so much attention because of the Chauvin trial here ... there was this pressure on the Brooklyn Center police to act.”
