So many things happened this week, most of them bad, most of them racially-charged, that I don't even know where to begin. Actually, I do, because one them is much bigger than the rest: the killing of George Floyd by a policeman and the subsequent riots.
Let's start with the riots. I don't like them; I wish they would stop; I think they ultimately hurt the communities they are putatively meant to serve; but I understand them. There is only so much people can take before they retaliate -- and retaliation isn't always rational. It's fight or flight, and sometimes there's nowhere to run. Imagine if people in your community kept being killed by heavy-handed police officers over petty shit like using a fake $20 bill or selling bootlegged cigarettes. How would you respond? How many deaths could you sit by and watch before you lashed out?
One of the ironies of this is that hard-core Trump supporters, who are surely among those least sympathetic to the rioters,* should be the ones who understand them the best. They are constantly threatening violence for government overreach. I mean, they're freaking out over having to follow basic safety guidelines in a time of a global pandemic. Imagine if one of them got choked to death by a police officer for not wearing a mask. Imagine if the police officer was black. It reminds me of something Charles Barkley said in one of his books: Poor white people have much more in common with poor black people than they do with white people who aren't poor. If they ever accepted this, they would have so much more power in this country, but they don't. It's like they'd rather it be that they have a dollar and a black person a nickle than both people have ten dollars.
*Trump of course played to type by tweeting "when the looting starts the shooting starts," which is horrific even by his standards. Twitter responded by flagging it, which, in my opinion, is worse than doing nothing. Calling more attention to an inflammatory or false statement only amplifies it. If Twitter wants to do the right thing, they can delete it. That's the only way to handle it. Until they starting doing that they are complicit in the spread of Trump's lies and propaganda.
As for the actual killing of Floyd, I haven't watched the video and probably never will. But I've seen the photos and read the reports, and it sounds like murder to me (in fact he has been charged with third-degree murder*). So senseless and so unnecessary. Once Floyd said that he couldn't breath, all the officer had to do was ease up. That's it. Take his knee off his neck; get the man off his stomach; let his chest expand and get some oxygen. He was handcuffed and surrounded by four police officers. What's he going to do? Where's he going to go? And if that wasn't bad enough, the officer didn't even release him after he went motionless. He kept the pressure on for nearly three minutes! That's... that's... I can't even think of the right word -- despicable isn't harsh enough. And none of the officers tried to revive him after they realized he was unconscious. They did call an ambulance, but by then it was too late.
*And here you do have to wonder if this would have happened if not for the riots.
It will be interesting to see if the officer, Derek Chauvin, actually goes to trial and is convicted. The standard for this type of thing is almost impossibly high, and there are already people claiming that the technique used by Chauvin is not improper. (One of them, from near my hometown, has been fired for flippantly posting as much on a social media account.) Also, the coroner's report doesn't state asphyxiation as the cause of death and mentions that his preexisting medical conditions and possible intoxicants could have aided in his death. So, you can see the defense forming. Step 1: Dredge up Floyd's past offenses to make him sound like a violent criminal (even though his alleged offense was using a phony $20 bill). Step 2: Describe a scene in which Floyd was raucously resisting arrest before the cameras started rolling. Step 3: Confirm that a knee to the neck is a legitimate, non-life-threatening technique for controlling an insubordinate suspect (even though many police departments have abandoned it). Step 4: Argue that it was Floyd's preexisting heart condition that killed him, not the officer's knee on his neck.
Will it work?
I don't know, maybe. Even with that defense, it's pretty hard to get around the fact that a man who was alive and fine at time x was dead ten minutes later, and the only thing that changed was that an officer pinned him down and knelt on his neck while he complained about not being able to breath. I mean, even if he did have preexisting health issues -- does that make it okay? The officer willfully ignored all signs that his charge was struggling for life -- to the point that he brushed off other officers' suggestions to ease up, and to the point he was getting called out by bystanders.
Another passage from the article linked above that especially caught my eye:
And this gets back to racism, because the fucked up thing is that I think the vast majority of people in this country, of all political persuasions, would agree with me on the above paragraph, but for the fact that too many white people are terrified of black people. That's why this shit never changes. There are too many people that don't really mind seeing somebody like George Floyd die. I'm not saying they like it; they might even admit it's not right, but -- but -- deep down they think, Well, at least I'm safe. At least, this is keeping me safe. And they're not wrong. But there's another way.
Alright, I could easily continue on this subject for another 1,500 words, but I'm running out of time, so I'll just stop here.
Until next time...
Let's start with the riots. I don't like them; I wish they would stop; I think they ultimately hurt the communities they are putatively meant to serve; but I understand them. There is only so much people can take before they retaliate -- and retaliation isn't always rational. It's fight or flight, and sometimes there's nowhere to run. Imagine if people in your community kept being killed by heavy-handed police officers over petty shit like using a fake $20 bill or selling bootlegged cigarettes. How would you respond? How many deaths could you sit by and watch before you lashed out?
One of the ironies of this is that hard-core Trump supporters, who are surely among those least sympathetic to the rioters,* should be the ones who understand them the best. They are constantly threatening violence for government overreach. I mean, they're freaking out over having to follow basic safety guidelines in a time of a global pandemic. Imagine if one of them got choked to death by a police officer for not wearing a mask. Imagine if the police officer was black. It reminds me of something Charles Barkley said in one of his books: Poor white people have much more in common with poor black people than they do with white people who aren't poor. If they ever accepted this, they would have so much more power in this country, but they don't. It's like they'd rather it be that they have a dollar and a black person a nickle than both people have ten dollars.
*Trump of course played to type by tweeting "when the looting starts the shooting starts," which is horrific even by his standards. Twitter responded by flagging it, which, in my opinion, is worse than doing nothing. Calling more attention to an inflammatory or false statement only amplifies it. If Twitter wants to do the right thing, they can delete it. That's the only way to handle it. Until they starting doing that they are complicit in the spread of Trump's lies and propaganda.
As for the actual killing of Floyd, I haven't watched the video and probably never will. But I've seen the photos and read the reports, and it sounds like murder to me (in fact he has been charged with third-degree murder*). So senseless and so unnecessary. Once Floyd said that he couldn't breath, all the officer had to do was ease up. That's it. Take his knee off his neck; get the man off his stomach; let his chest expand and get some oxygen. He was handcuffed and surrounded by four police officers. What's he going to do? Where's he going to go? And if that wasn't bad enough, the officer didn't even release him after he went motionless. He kept the pressure on for nearly three minutes! That's... that's... I can't even think of the right word -- despicable isn't harsh enough. And none of the officers tried to revive him after they realized he was unconscious. They did call an ambulance, but by then it was too late.
*And here you do have to wonder if this would have happened if not for the riots.
It will be interesting to see if the officer, Derek Chauvin, actually goes to trial and is convicted. The standard for this type of thing is almost impossibly high, and there are already people claiming that the technique used by Chauvin is not improper. (One of them, from near my hometown, has been fired for flippantly posting as much on a social media account.) Also, the coroner's report doesn't state asphyxiation as the cause of death and mentions that his preexisting medical conditions and possible intoxicants could have aided in his death. So, you can see the defense forming. Step 1: Dredge up Floyd's past offenses to make him sound like a violent criminal (even though his alleged offense was using a phony $20 bill). Step 2: Describe a scene in which Floyd was raucously resisting arrest before the cameras started rolling. Step 3: Confirm that a knee to the neck is a legitimate, non-life-threatening technique for controlling an insubordinate suspect (even though many police departments have abandoned it). Step 4: Argue that it was Floyd's preexisting heart condition that killed him, not the officer's knee on his neck.
Will it work?
I don't know, maybe. Even with that defense, it's pretty hard to get around the fact that a man who was alive and fine at time x was dead ten minutes later, and the only thing that changed was that an officer pinned him down and knelt on his neck while he complained about not being able to breath. I mean, even if he did have preexisting health issues -- does that make it okay? The officer willfully ignored all signs that his charge was struggling for life -- to the point that he brushed off other officers' suggestions to ease up, and to the point he was getting called out by bystanders.
You don’t have to sit there with your knee on his neck,” exclaimed a bystander off-camera, addressing the officer in language salted with expletives. “He is enjoying that. You are. You are enjoying that. You could have put him in the car by now."That's the bottom line. It's plain as day how completely unnecessary and cruel it was to keep George Floyd pinned down in that manner, for that long, against his pleas for help.
Another passage from the article linked above that especially caught my eye:
The fact that Mr. Chauvin kept applying pressure when Mr. Floyd was no longer struggling made it appear to be a case of an officer trying to punish a suspect for doing something that the police did not like — which could include resisting arrest, spitting or insulting an officer, experts said.
If it was a form of “street justice,” that is considered a form of bullying that police academies also instruct against. “It is teaching someone a lesson — next time you will think twice about what you do,” said Philip M. Stinson, a former police officer turned criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University.This makes the most sense to me, and it exemplifies what I think is wrong with policing in our country. Too often we treat policing as if it's a war to be won against the criminals -- "war on crime" is literally the slogan -- when it should be treated, in my opinion, as a peacekeeping pursuit. Many officers in Minnesota, in particular, have embraced a warrior mentality in their work. But we don't need warrior police officers. (If you want to be a warrior, join the military and literally be a warrior.) People getting arrested aren't foreign invaders trying to take over our country. They're by and large members of our community who are doing the same shit as everybody else and happen to be the ones who get caught, or they are struggling in some way -- financially, emotionally, mentally. The objective of police work shouldn't be to win wars; it should be to avoid them.
And this gets back to racism, because the fucked up thing is that I think the vast majority of people in this country, of all political persuasions, would agree with me on the above paragraph, but for the fact that too many white people are terrified of black people. That's why this shit never changes. There are too many people that don't really mind seeing somebody like George Floyd die. I'm not saying they like it; they might even admit it's not right, but -- but -- deep down they think, Well, at least I'm safe. At least, this is keeping me safe. And they're not wrong. But there's another way.
Alright, I could easily continue on this subject for another 1,500 words, but I'm running out of time, so I'll just stop here.
Until next time...
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