SAN ANTONIO – The name has become synonymous with change, with disparity, and even with hope -- George Floyd.
One year ago, Floyd died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over nine minutes in front of a horrified crowd of people.
On Tuesday, people across the U.S. turned inward on their own communities.
“Every single day I think about George Floyd. There has been a lot of positive that has come out of this tragedy, but it really is a day of reflection,” said San Antonio activist Valerie Reiffert.
Her emotions on this solemn and important anniversary have ranged from frustration to gratitude.
“Gratitude of the timing of it, when the world was just literally standing still and had nothing else to do but pay attention. There were no more excuses of, ‘Oh missed it,’” Reiffert said.
Floyd’s death awakened the activist in Reiffert, who co-founded the grassroots organization Radical Registrars in San Antonio.
“We really did put protest to policy and we started going out there and make these laws change because that’s really what’s going to bring relief into our community,” she said.
The group registered about 1,000 voters last year and continues to inform people about what’s on the ballot each election.
The group’s main current focus is police reform in Texas.
“House Bill 831 would have banned chokeholds. House Bill 832 is the duty to render aid from other officers. And House Bill 833 is that lethal force. All of those bills got knocked out,” Reiffert said.
She said what’s left is House Bill 830.
“It used to be named after Sandra Bland. House Bill 830 would make it so that any traffic offenses that are fineable that you just get a ticket and you do not go to jail. I believe that would have kept over 60,000 Texans out of jail. It would have kept families together, it would have kept people working out of jail, and with this on their record keeping them from being able to get a job or get a home,” Reiffert said.
She and other activists are also working on broader local changes to rooted systematic racism.
“San Antonio is actually one of the most economically segregated cities in the United States,” she said. “Everybody should have access to a quality education. That’s really where it starts. Everybody should have access to quality food.”
Even in a city as culturally diverse as San Antonio, she said change is not only possible, it’s mandatory.
Reiffert mentioned Mayor Nirenberg and other local leaders in the aftermath of Floyd’s death, saying they want to be held accountable.
Local activists say they’ll continue to do that, requesting the city allocate resources to fill those racial gaps like education and food security.
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