State and local officials react to Chauvin verdict

State and local officials react to Chauvin verdict

By Mariella Miller

April 21, 2021

Across Pennsylvania – and the Lehigh Valley – officials reacted to the Minneapolis verdict on April 20 that convicted Derek Chauvin of the murder of George Floyd. 

But all of the statements were directed to the late George Floyd and his family. 

Gov. Tom Wolf called Floyd’s murder a tragedy that has been repeated time and time again in our nation.

“We are living within a broken system,” Wolf said.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the verdict is “one step of accountability on a long road toward justice,” and that, “My heart is with…the Floyd family, who will spend their lives missing George Floyd.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) said the verdict was about accountability, but it was not justice.

“True justice will only come when we….begin to right the wrongs created by systemic racism and injustice,” Casey says.  

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) expressed his sympathies to the Floyd family saying, “I do hope this verdict brings them a degree of solace.”

Joe Welsh, founder and executive director of the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute, said he hopes the verdict is the beginning of a new era. 

“Our hearts and admiration go out to the George Floyd family for their almost yearlong, tireless quest for justice, having to relive this horror day after day,” Welsh says. 

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