I am not a sculptor, nor do I play one on YouTube. But I have a recommendation for a statue — actually two of them — at George Floyd Square.

Along with all the imagery and signage about George himself, what that corner needs are statues of Darnella Frazier holding up her cellphone and the little girl next to her in her “Love” t-shirt. Why them? Because those two images encapsulate for me the brute motivation for the murder and how we evolve out of this violent, racist “enforcement” syndrome.

Let me explain: Reasonable minds may disagree, but the turning point of the incident, the precise, in-the-moment influence that turned just another episode of over-aggressive policing into murder was the crowd admonishing and taunting Chauvin to stop what he was doing. As Frazier’s video shows, his response was to, in effect, double down the pressure on a dying man.

Regarded as an alpha male by his rookie cohorts and by himself, (I’m guessing), Chauvin’s reaction in that moment was raw king (or at least prince) of the jungle. “I am The Man here.” “I am in charge.” “I do as I please.” “No one challenges my supremacy.” And so, rather than lift off Floyd’s neck as the crowd was pleading, he sustained force for long minutes … after Floyd was already dead.

“Anyone else want a piece of this?”

Throughout his trial, Chauvin’s defense attempted to create a picture of a tense, threatening situation — for Chauvin. It was yet another run at the classic, invariable and inevitable defense for every violent/freaked-out cop. “He/she feared for his life.”

Except that there there was no physically intimidating, much less threatening mob. There was Darnella and the little girl standing there in her “Love” t-shirt. Those two — and an older guy cussing him out — were what Chauvin the alpha dog was afraid of? No jury in the world, (with the exception maybe of some in Alabama or South Dakota), was going to believe that, and Chauvin’s didn’t.

The little girl in the “Love” shirt then represents unthreatening, life-affirming innocence affronted by the spectacle of hypocrisy — an authorized authority figure abusing his authority — committing a public murder. (When Judge Cahill assess the “aggravating circumstances” in Chauvin’s guilt, the fact that he — a cop, slowly, methodically and remorselessly murdered a man in plain view of children, should qualify Chauvin for another five to ten years.)

But superseding all other influences in Chauvin’s conviction is young Darnella’s camera.

You and I both know the situation this morning would be a lot different if Chauvin’s slow-mo murder hadn’t been recorded from start to finish. A statue of Darnella then represents the first and most powerful solution to reflexive cop racism and violence. Namely, an alert citizen with a camera and a potential audience of millions.

Not being particularly optimistic about political solutions to cop criminality, I expect little to nothing of significance from the usual clash of metropolitan liberals and their terrified, conservative, race-baiting rural colleagues.

But the public at large can’t help but have taken away from the conviction of an otherwise ordinary brute cop the searing power of video. The number of cameras (including cop body cams) recording the Floyd encounter was startling. And that level of “coverage” as they say in Hollywood is only going to increase as millions more citizen on-lookers hit “record” whenever they see cops (six of them in this case, in rabid response to that possibly counterfeit $20) go all pack-wolves on anyone, particularly another Black person.

It’s as though sinister, all-present, all-seeing Big Brother has molted into a sea of shocked and horrified teenagers and grade schoolers, all equipped with the ability to provide damning testimony against The Man.

If cities aren’t chastened by the $47 million Minneapolis has paid out in the Mohammed Noor and Derek Chauvin crimes, cops themselves have to be chilled by the sight of the brass and suits above them reacting to indefensible video evidence and cutting loose one of their own a veteran alpha. How they behave off public streets, or on lonesome stretches of road, is another matter. But even the average, fresh out of cop school rookie has to be smart enough to understand that each new Floyd v. Three Cars and Six Cops incident on a city thoroughfare is going to draw video coverage like the last quarter of the Super Bowl.

So yeah, two statues. Darnella and her camera: Alert citizen witnesses and their power of “testimony”. Alongside pint-sized “Love”: emblematic of the sick myth of mortal fear (of citizens!) among armed authority, plus a reminder of the scarring effect of police thuggery on innocents.

I’ll throw in $100 to Kickstart whatever real sculptor wants to take a run at that.