Justice for George Floyd
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed by the Minneapolis Police. Officer Derek Chauvin, a white police officer with over a dozen complaints for brutality during the course of his career, kneeled on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds even though he was lying face down on the ground and hand-cuffed from behind. Officer Thomas K. Lane held Floyd’s legs down and Officer J. Alexander Keung held his back. The other arresting officer, Tou Thao, stood by and watched.
Floyd protested that he could not breathe. Under the circumstances, it is clear that Floyd posed no threat to anyone. Officer Chauvin continued kneeling on Floyd’s neck for 2 minutes and 53 seconds after Floyd had become unresponsive. When bystanders pleaded on Floyd’s behalf, they were threatened with being pepper-sprayed.
George Floyd was tortured to death. This was a lynching of a Black man, pure and simple.
And, for what? He was accused of trying to pass a counterfeit bill at a deli. While one cannot justify passing counterfeit currency, if that is exactly what Floyd did, since when does that warrant a death sentence? And, since when do the police have the right to be judge, jury and executioner of the accused?
The Black and Brown victims of police brutality are too numerous to name all of them, but here are a few: Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Christian Cooper, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Yvonne Smallwood, Philando Castille and Tamir Rice. Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman, who was not an actual police officer, but got off anyway.
One of the most infamous of these cases was that of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant who was shot 41 times by police officers of the New York City street crimes unit in 2000. What was his “crime?” When asked to show his identification he reached into his back pocket to retrieve his wallet.
These cases are all disheartening and enraging at the same time. They are the reason for the demand that Black Lives Matter which means that “Black Lives Also Matter,” not that Only Black Lives Matter.
If there is anything positive to take away from this it is that people of all races are speaking up about this. The Movement for Black Lives is multi-racial.
After the killing of Amadou Diallo, Bruce Springsteen wrote a song protesting this called “American Skin (41 Shots).” The New York City PBA criticized Springsteen severely for this, but he did not back down. The organization 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement appreciated the song and supported Springsteen. (While this is not about me, I bought my first computer about 2 months after this and decided to include the word “boss” in my email address because I appreciated seeing Springsteen [nickname: “the Boss”], a white man, protesting this killing of a Black man who had done nothing wrong.)
As a white man, I have a duty to recognize that I benefit from white privilege whether I seek it or not in ways that are obvious and in others that are not so obvious. White people have a duty to educate other white people about white privilege and the importance of speaking out and standing with our Black and Brown sisters and brothers to demand justice for George Floyd and every other person of color who is wrongfully killed by the police. We must all demand equal justice under the law in every aspect.
We must demand that all applicants for the position of police officer be vetted ahead of time to make sure that they have no current or past ties to hate groups such as the KKK or Nazis or to rightwing extremist groups such as the John Birch Society, the Patrick Henry Society or even the National Rifle Association (NRA). While the NRA is more multi-racial than the other organizations, it is not beyond appealing to racist fears in order to recruit members.
We must demand that all four officers be charged in the murder of George Floyd and that the charges against all four include Murder One. They should all spend the rest of their lives behind bars. We must demand Justice for George Floyd and all victims of racist police brutality. Black Lives Matter!