PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Reaction following the Derek Chauvin trial continues to pour in from local leaders and advocacy groups throughout South Florida.
After the verdict was read, WPTV spoke with Palm Beach County Urban League President and CEO, Patrick Franklin.
When asked to weigh in on the jury's guilty verdict, he stated the move was a step in the right direction symbolizing a small victory for everyone impacted by recent injustices.
"We saw equal justice being served today. Everybody got a little piece of something today, everybody got a little piece of healing from this one verdict."
Franklin went on to stress the importance of unity and working together instead of creating division.
"This feeling that me against you no, no. We should be together and we got to find better paths to help each other and at the same time we need to feel that we are going to get equal justice in this country," said Franklin.
He also tackled a few lessons learned from the case which he says should now be considered moving forward.
"We don’t need to apply brutal force at everything we do and we need to just be a little more compassionate in policing and interaction and I think we all need to learn from this in how we interact with the police force and how the police force interacts with us and how we can tone this down."
In a live discussion on WPTV's Facebook page Tuesday, WPTV anchor Jay Cashmere spoke with Franklin, the Rev. Dr. J.R. Thicklin, president of the Palm Beach County Clergy Alliance, WPTV's legal expert, defense attorney Michelle Suskauer, and Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
Watch the complete conversation in the video player below.