"Someone" has a Name

The first words on this website are, “The cell phone videos are hard to watch but watch them I do.”  And, “It’s never far from my mind that someone risked their safety to press the Record button, to document the humiliation, abuse and sometimes death of Black Americans taking place on the other side of the lens.”

Today that “someone” has a name. Darnella Frazier was 17 when she pressed Record to document George Floyd’s death. I have listened to her testify that she lies awake at night apologizing to Floyd for not doing more, for not being able to save his life.

In the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, the witnesses for the prosecution are heroes.  They tried to stop the killing, they pleaded and begged and swore.  They called the cops on the cops.  On the stand, they were subjected to a basket of racist and sexist tropes to try to undermine their testimony.  The angry Black man.”  ‘The incompetent, easily rattled woman who won't shut up”. It didn’t work.  They saw what they saw and if they couldn’t prevent George Floyd’s death perhaps they could help bring his killer to justice.