Ice-T Weighs in on Derek Chauvin’s Conviction

Rapper Ice-T was among the thousands to react after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, the unarmed Black man who died last May after Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. On Tuesday, after deliberating for about 10 hours over two days, Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

As people across the country reacted to the verdict, Ice-T took to social media to share his thoughts. In the first of several tweets shared within the span of just an hour, the rapper quoted a tweet with a screenshot of Chauvin’s face as Judge Peter Cahill read the verdict. The original post was captioned, “Guilty!” and tagged Ice-T, who retweeted it along with the words, “That moment when you realize….” He then shared a gif of himself from his Oxygen true crime series In Ice Cold Blood, showing him saying, “Guilty. On all counts.”

The rapper and TV personality returned to the social media platform just minutes later to caution people from breathing a sigh of release prematurely, noting, “Before we throw that Pool Party…………… SENTENCING is still down the road.. Just sayin.” According to CNN, the judge of Tuesday noted that among the next steps following the verdict is scheduling sentencing in eight weeks’ time. Chauvin faces possibly decades behind bars, as he faces a 40-year maximum sentence for the second-degree unintentional murder conviction, a 25-year sentence for third-degree murder and a 10-year sentence for second-degree manslaughter, according to CBS News. However, sentencing guidelines recommend less time for offenders with no criminal history.

Ice-T also shared an emotional cartoon highlighting the issue of police violence against Black communities. The cartoon showed a white police officer sitting beside a Black child, the officer asking, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” While the question would typically spark vibrant responses from children of their dreams and aspirations, the child states, “Alive.”

Ice-T was just one of many to react to the Tuesday verdict. Former President Barack Obama said “the jury did the right thing,” adding “we cannot rest,” with current President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris saying in a joint address that the verdict is a “giant step forward in the march towards justice in America.” Biden also said he talked to Floyd’s young daughter Gianna, telling her, “daddy did change the world.”