It's been a long time coming. After countless cases resulting in "not guilty", more cases that never resulted in criminal charges, and even more incidents that were never investigated or reviewed, one of the most egregious cases of murder-by-cop has resulted in a guilty conviction.

Guilty, guilty, guilty - all three counts.

The trial was a textbook example of how to build a strong case, as well as how those defending murderous cops will smear the victim any way they can in an effort to make the jury see them as deserving of their fate. The entire country held it's breath as the verdicts came back after only 10 hours of deliberation.

Guilty, guilty, guilty - all three counts.

Along with the relief and happiness at the result, one has to temper that with the question: Is this what it takes to get a conviction? There have been countless videos showing police doing all kinds of heinous and unprovoked behavior, with nary a trial, much less a conviction. Is it really going to take a 9 minute video of an unarmed man being tortured to death to get justice in this country? Is this the new bar? One hopes that this is the proverbial crack in the dam which leads to a torrent of further convictions, so much so that police will change their behavior, lest they end up with the surprise/shocked/concerned face Chauvin had as he heard those three little words:

Guilty, guilty, guilty - all three counts.

Of course - there will always be those "thin blue line" types who will always side with the cops - regardless of the evidence. They'll claim that police kill more white people, disregarding the relative population percentages of white and black Americans. They'll ask "what about Chicago?" as if people killing each other is in any way relevant to white people in a long-standing position of power killing black people in a long-standing position of powerlessness. Sure - convict people who kill each other - those convictions aren't exactly rare. But convicting white cops for killing innocent black civilians? How often does THAT happen?

You know the answer - almost never. This case was seen as the police going a step too far, which is sad commentary on where the boundary line is. George Floyd gasped "I can't breathe" as he was suffocated for 9 very long minutes. The State of Minnesota and City of Minneapolis spoke on his behalf because he is no longer with us to speak for himself, to demand justice for the grotesque vicious crime perpetuated upon him. The state spoke; the jury spoke...

Guilty, guilty, guilty - all three counts.

We can all breathe a little easier now. I certainly hope George Floyd's family can.