Note
It’s been difficult to write about the events that began with Mr. George Floyd’s murder. I haven’t been able to keep up with the rapid flow of the events and their significance. So much to witness and comprehend. I’ve been writing the entire time, using it to get in touch with my feelings and make sense from the seeming chaos. Below are portions of what I’ve written over the last 12 days. I’ve compiled them into a narrative. Rest In Peace, George Floyd.
George Floyd and His Legacy
Three days, ago a man was murdered by a Minneapolis Policeman while three others look on. Mr. George Floyd was arrested on the suspicion of trying to buy groceries with a counterfeit $20.00 bill. He did not resist. He was detained and handcuffed for this nonviolent crime. Twenty minutes later, Mr. Floyd lay dead on the street, smothered by a policeman’s knee pressing into his neck.
What is the crime and who is the criminal?
A Casual Murder
In the video, taken by a courageous 17 year old woman, a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, nonchalantly grinds his knee into Mr. Floyd’s neck. The cop has one hand resting on his thigh, as if it’s just another day at the office. Perhaps it was.
In another video, from a different angle, shows Chauvin kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck with two other officers holding him down with their knees. A fourth cop stands between the bystanders and George Floyd with his tormentors. He looks on with a disengaged expression and only shows life when it is necessary to push back the pleading onlookers. They implore the officer to get off the helpless man who is begging to be allowed to breathe. One of those witnesses repeatedly asks the police to check Floyd’s pulse and his condition. The officers ignore the growing alarm of the bystanders.
It is a scene of casual police brutality and it is occurs frequently across the United States.
George Floyd is heard saying, “I can’t breath. I can’t breath.” For him there is nothing casual as the breath of life whispers from his collapsing lungs. The policeman’s knee continues to crush down and after 9 minutes, Floyd lies motionless with his eyes staring at the pavement.
George Floyd, in his last minutes, calls out for his mother who had died 18 months earlier. He knew he was dying and when he said “Mama, Mama” it was the only prayer he had left.
A Righteous Storm
Reaction to Mr. Floyd’s death raced quickly like a thunderstorm across the prairie. The African American community immediately began to mobilize. Joining them were people young and old, of all ethnicity and faith. A peaceful vigil quickly formed where Floyd had died. A memorial began to grow. Many of the these people were family, friends and acquaintances of George Floyd. Grief was, and remains, a living presence. Today, that memorial has blossomed into a tribute given by thousands. It is a commitment, to act and not to forget. The nation remembers George Floyd and the others murdered by systemic racism.
Minneapolis Police Chief, Medaria Arradondo, and the Mayor, Jacob Frey, responded quickly. The officers were fired and Mayor Frey demanded that the County Attorney, Mike Freeman, immediately charge ex-officer Chauvin for George Floyd’s death. After several days of delay and questions about the impartiality of the CA, Minnesota Attorney General, Keith Ellison, took over the case to ensure that it would be handled fairly and quickly.
The Attorney General reminded Minnesotans that Minnesota’s investigative office the, Bureau of Criminal Apprehensions, has not always been timely, as in the testing of rape kits. He also stressed that this would not be a quick investigation and trial. There has been much work to clean up the BCA but, Ellison said, it would be necessary to closely follow their progress. Chief Arradondo and Mayor Frey requested the FBI to investigate the human rights issues concerning Floyd’s death and asked the Justice Department to investigate the Minneapolis PD’s culture of violence.
Over the last terrible 12 days, the actions of the police chief and mayor have become a template that is being used across the nation. From the start, they emphasized free speech and the right to assemble, going out of their way to allow peaceful demonstrations to continue. The Governor, Tim Walz, stressed the same values as he called in the State Police and units of Minnesota’s National Guard to supplement the police. This created a bit of a buffer between the demonstrators and the police. In some cases, demonstrators and state police were able talk with each other and less confrontational mood developed, which as spread to many others. The demonstrators still are ardently and loudly demanding justice for George Floyd, but some of the invective toward police has decreased.
Peaceful protests have occurred every day keep growing and now are occurring in all 50 states and territories. People remain angry and peaceful, except for a small number of incidents. The protesters demands are for justice for a beloved father, brother, and companion, and reforming the systemic racist law community nation-wide. As several people said, Floyd’s presence brought laughter and warmth and, on occasion defused angry situations. He was genuinely loved by the people who knew and his community. Floyd’s death has not been in vain. Called the “Gentle Giant”, his spirit has influenced the character of the demonstrators and the demonstrations.
Fire and Fury
Initially, there were some frightening days and nights, as the rioters burned and looted. Some used violence to express their frustration and anger. George Floyd is the most recent name added to the endless list of victims from 400 years of racist terrorism. How can a people endure that kind of suffering and uncertainty?
Looting made perfect sense. After weeks of stay-at-home orders and the loss of 40,000,000 jobs, many people are desperate. A chance to get something, anything, was an improvement over their growing hardships around food, shelter, and health.
Others rioters were/are malicious, using peaceful demonstrations as camouflage. Their violence is intended to discredit the peaceful demonstrators and their demands, and to kindle hatred towards black Americans and people of color. One group are White Supremacists whose goal is to start a race war. Their aim is to intimidate and demoralize by destroying neighborhood schools and libraries, grocery stores, black owned businesses and businesses that employ people of color. They want to decimate the black economy and force a fight.
The day belongs to peace and the night to violence. However, peace has steadily gained ground until demonstrators can now march at night.
Before Trump’s election, I had allowed myself to believe that the sickness of bigotry and racism had been slowly eroding away. I believed that we were making progress. The last 12 years, opened my eyes to the reality. The stonewalling of President Obama’s efforts by Republican Congress people and the growing hate-violence convinced me that our nation is sinking below the waves of bigotry and racism.
On the day of George Floyd’s death, I put out my Black Lives Matter sign once again.
This will not end until we whites, partner with our diverse fellow Americans and actively fight and defeat this sickness that threatens us all. As one woman said, “It’s not enough to twitter about it.” It takes persistence, strength, endurance, and hard work. We must take these crimes personally, feel them, and act. There must be sweeping permanent change.
Smothering Our Democracy
The killing of George Floyd set the stage for the further crushing of our freedoms and ability to govern ourselves.
We are in the final stages of a Coup d’detat, the unlawful seizure of our government, by the Republican party that believes in elites, winners and losers, victory at all cost while representing perhaps 30% of Americans. They have used the machinery of our democracy, its processes and rules, to install a revolutionary cadre, hostile to the Rule of Law and the right of the people to govern themselves. Trump and these fascists have used our beliefs of fairness and that disagreements can be solved peacefully, to return us to a time before the American Revolution, when liberty and property were conditioned on the loyalty to a ruling elite.
As we can see in how the demonstrations are handled by many cities, this coup is far advanced. Our governments, federal and state are riddled with authoritarian racists who are imposing absolute control over us at this moment. They have occupied the Justice Department and Judiciary and can now legitimize laws and policies that a few years ago were considered immoral, unethical and criminal.
The death of George Floyd shows us what they are willing to do. Trump’s calling in the 82nd Airborne to occupy DC and disrupt a peaceful, lawful protest in Lafayette Park by the White House matches his days of threats to mobilize our military to “dominate the battle space” of America’s cities. Along with Park Police and Secret Service, members of the 82nd violently pushed the protesters out of the park. A little while later, Trump and his entourage proudly marched through the park to an historic Episcopal church, known as the Church Of The Presidents. There he stood, held up a bible, upside-down, and used George Floyd’s murder as an excuse to threaten the American people with violence and military intervention.
The American people roared back. Retired generals and admirals have ignited a firestorm with their public comments and editorials. This is something that retired military leaders seldom do. They and legal scholars point out that this a direct attack against The Constitution, which Trump and his Congressional cronies have sworn to defend in their Oaths of Office.
I am amazed and gratified. At this point, the last lines of defense are the American People’s anger and our military’s following a key element of our democracy and emphasized in the Constitution; the military is apolitical and can not be used by for any political party’s advantage. They are here to protect our nation and all Americans. It is their sacred duty.
COVID-19
Now after almost 2 weeks of demonstrations, that have spread to over 430 cities and towns in the US and to Europe and Asia, Trump is shutting down the COVID-19 response committee. Initially invoked to coordinate the response to the pandemic and provide accurate information to the public, Trump has refused to allow them to speak frankly. In the last three weeks they have been dormant. Now their members are resigning in disgust.
This comes at a time when new cases of the virus are starting to rise across the nation. Especially, in states that never fully accepted the virus was dangerous and that business as usual is preferable. Now with demonstrations everywhere, Trump walks away from the health of the American people.
Why would he do that? His actions are a calculated attempt at murdering his opponents with disease. Rather than a knee on George Floyd’s neck, he is grinding his COVID-19 knee into the neck of the American people. This is murder as assuredly as that of Mr. Floyd.
George Floyd’s Legacy: Death and Renewal
George Floyd’s legacy will be written by us, the American people, in the coming hours, days, weeks, months, and on. His death has set in motion events that will determine the soul of our United States. Our universal solidarity unites all communities of ethnicity, faith, age, gender and sexual orientation, income. Democrats, Republicans and Independents have come out strongly against police brutality and Trump’s actions to involve the US military in domestic politics for his advantage.
Many cities and towns still use their police to violently try to suppress the legal rights of the people to gather and express their grievances, as protected in the Constitution.
However, there are a growing number that have embraced the demonstrators. In these places, Floyd’s spirit has encouraged demonstrators and police to join in meaningful dialog. In Minneapolis, where this all started, both the Police Chief and Mayor stressed the right to gather and protest from the start. They addressed the demonstrator’s demands quickly by firing the officers involved and, when the County Attorney was slow to bring charges against ex-officer Chauvin, the state Attorney General took over the case and increased the charge against Chauvin and charged the other three officers for abetting.
After several days of rioting and looting, the streets have calmed. The violence and destruction were caused by a small number of demonstrators and the attacks by outside groups, some racist. Demonstrations continue daily and into the night. Large numbers of diverse crowd gathered where there was damaged and cleared away the broken glass and debris. Solidarity in action.
Recently there was a big rally at the Minnesota State Capital. Again the crowd was a rich mix of all colors, young and old, various beliefs and genders. It was a cross section of our state and nation. Solidarity.
In other parts of the country where the number of black Americans is small, large demonstrations by white Americans have come out to support justice for George Floyd and reform of our system of justice.
We will write George Floyd’s legacy if we stay united and focused on racism and the abuse of power that has become emblematic of our nation.
Rest In Piece, George Floyd. We will remember.