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Derek Chauvin mugshot

Source: Minnesota Department of Corrections / Minnesota Department of Corrections

Today (June 25), ex-police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 270 months, 22.5 years, for the murder of George Floyd. While he will serve time for his crime, the collective response from social media, unless you’re a card-carrying bigot, is that the sentence was not harsh enough.

The maximum sentence that Chauvin was looking at was about 40 years, which the Floyd family asked for. While handing down the sentence, and saying he took into account the testimony of the Floyd family, including George’s daughter, Judge Peter Cahill said his sentence did not involve emotion.

“This is based on your abuse of a position of trust and authority and also the particularly cruelty shown to George Floyd,” said Judge Cahill, who also added that the sentence was due to Chauvin’s “particular cruelty shown to George Floyd…”

To be clear, no sentence, besides life, maybe, would be perfect because George Floyd is not coming back. To be fair, the sentencing guidelines called for about a 12.5 year sentence. But Black people are sick of the moral victories right about now. The passionate responses to this piecemeal justices across the spectrum of social media users makes that fact obvious.

We compiled some of the more compelling and insightful reactions below.

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