Pulitzers honor Darnella Frazier for cellphone video of George Floyd
murder
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[June 12, 2021]
By Jonathan Allen
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A teenager who
recorded the murder of George Floyd in a clear and unrelenting single
shot with her cellphone was recognized on Friday by the arbiters of the
highest honors in U.S. journalism.
The Pulitzer Board awarded Darnella Frazier a special citation for a
video she said has haunted her ever since, showing Floyd's death beneath
the knee of Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis policeman. Chauvin was
convicted of murdering Floyd in a trial during which Frazier's video was
played repeatedly.
The citation at the 2021 Pulitzer Prize ceremony is a rare instance of
the board recognizing the journalistic achievement of someone with no
professional experience in the field, a striking distinction in the
genre sometimes known as citizen journalism.
Frazier, 18, was recognized for recording a "transformative video that
jolted viewers and spurred protests against police brutality around the
world," Mindy Marques, co-chair of the Pulitzer Board, said at Friday's
online announcement ceremony.
Frazier's video shows Chauvin kneeling on the neck of Floyd, a
46-year-old Black man in handcuffs, for about 9 minutes while arresting
him on suspicion of using a fake $20 bill on May 25, 2020. Floyd begs
for his life before dying on the Minneapolis road.
Frazier has rarely discussed the video she made, but she testified for
the prosecution at Chauvin's murder trial this year, where members of
Floyd's family were sometimes seen averting their gaze each time her
video was replayed.
She told jurors that she was taking her nine-year-old cousin to buy
snacks when she saw "a man terrified, scared, begging for his life," and
so pulled out her cellphone and hit record. She uploaded the video to
Facebook later that night, where it would be watched by millions of
people around the world.
Chauvin is due to be sentenced on June 25.
Frazier could not be reached for comment on Friday, and a lawyer who
represented her during the Chauvin trial did not respond to an email
seeking comment.
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Darnella Frazier (3rd R) uses her mobile phone to record the arrest
of George Floyd, in a still image taken from Minneapolis Police body
camera video in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. May 25, 2020.
Minneapolis Police Department/Handout via REUTERS
Her video is widely credited with bringing attention
to a police killing that might otherwise not even have made the
local news. It has been compared to the similarly galvanizing videos
made by George Holliday in 1991 of Los Angeles police beating Rodney
King, a Black motorist, and by Ramsey Orta in 2014 of a New York
City policeman killing Eric Garner, a Black man, with a banned
chokehold.
The Pulitzer Board called Frazier an example of "the crucial role of
citizens in journalists' quest for truth and justice."
Michael Deas, a professor at Northwestern University's Medill School
of Journalism, said Frazier's video "fulfilled a public service."
"She is fittingly worthy, placing her in the company of past
recipients, like Ida B. Wells," he said, referring to the pioneering
Black journalist.
Even before Friday's awards ceremony there was speculation that
Frazier's video might be recognized. In December, it earned Frazier
the 2020 Benenson Courage Award from PEN America, presented to her
by the filmmaker Spike Lee.
On the first anniversary of Floyd's murder, Frazier wrote about the
lingering trauma in a message on Facebook.
"A lot of people call me a hero even though I don't see myself as
one. I was just in the right place at the right time," she wrote.
"Behind this smile, behind these awards, behind the publicity, I'm a
girl trying to heal from something I am reminded of every day."
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by
Gabriella Borter in Washington; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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