Gavin Newsom: ‘George Floyd Would Still Be Alive If He Looked Like Me’

California Governor Gavin Newsom reacted to the conviction of former Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd on Tuesday by suggesting he was killed because of his race.

“George Floyd would still be alive if he looked like me,” Newsom tweeted.

“Now, we must continue our work to root out the racial injustice that haunts our society,” he added.

In a more extensive press statement, Newsom said:

The hard truth is that, if George Floyd looked like me, he’d still be alive today. No conviction can repair the harm done to George Floyd and his family, but today’s verdict provides some accountability as we work to root out the racial injustice that haunts our society. We must continue the work of fighting systemic racism and excessive use of force. It’s why I signed some of the nation’s most progressive police reform legislation into law. I will continue working with community leaders across the state to hear concerns and support peaceful expression.

Race hardly came up during the course of Chauvin’s 16-day trial in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The prosecution and the defense focused exclusively on the facts in the case and the testimony of expert witnesses.

Last year, Newsom signed a law creating a state commission to study reparations to African Americans for slavery, even though California entered the Union as a free state in 1850.

Major cities in California had braced for rioting, regardless of the verdict. Last week, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he would call on the California National Guard to be ready to prevent the devastation of last year’s riots.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.