WNY leaders react to the Derek Chauvin verdict

The Buffalo News and several local news outlets quoted from UB President Satish K. Tripathi’s statement on the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial in a roundup of local and state leaders’ reactions to the verdict. Tripathi described the landmark trial as a referendum on police accountability and brutality against Black and Brown Americans, noting that, as such, it has been closely followed by millions who are demanding the abiding structural change that is long overdue in the United States. “Of course, the deep-seated hurt, sadness and anger that George Floyd’s murder evoked cannot be wiped away with the reading of a guilty verdict,” Tripathi said. “It is my ardent hope that as we pause and reflect on the verdict, we consider how we can transform this moment in our collective history into a turning point for genuine reconciliation and change: change in our hearts, our minds, our practices, our systems,” Tripathi added.