Justice For George Floyd

George Floyd
1960-2020

 

"This shouldn't be 'normal' in 2020 America. It can't be 'normal'. If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must do better."

 

Barack Obama

 

Cold-Blooded Murder

In the wake of the pandemic that has thus far killed in excess of one-hundred thousand Americans and the most devastating economic collapse in ninety-one years, the United States is now forced to contend with the most calamitous example of racial unrest since the night Martin Luther King was murdered fifty-two years ago. It all started on Monday when George Floyd, a citizen of Minneapolis, Minnesota stopped into a store to purchase some goods. When Mr. Floyd paid for his items with an allegedly counterfeit twenty dollar bill, the proprietor of the joint phoned the police. As he told the press later, he didn't believe that George intentionally passed along a fake bill - most people who come into possession of them are innocent. He merely wanted them to investigate the matter. When they arrived, George was still in the vicinity of the establishment. The owner says that Floyd wasn't violent or belligerent, and yet, within a minute-or-so, the poor man was face-first on the ground, an officer's knee pressed against his neck, cutting off blood flow and oxygen.

 

George Floyd pleaded for his life, he said, "I can't breathe". As his consciousness ebbed away he cried for his dead mother - all to no avail. Bystanders begged the idiot cop to show a smidgeon of mercy but he wouldn't budge. He continued to torture George to death, kneeling on his neck with his hands nonchalantly jammed into his pockets. When private citizens tried to intervene, they were threatened by three other officers with pepper spray. This fucking monster continued to dig his knee into George Floyd for nearly ten minutes - even after he had obviously died. Fortunately, more-than-one person had the foresight to capture the entire ugly incident on their cellphone cameras. It was the most atrocious case of police brutality that few of us are able to remember.

 

Bad Cop

Disgraced police officer Derek Chauvin, the reprehensible thug responsible for the death of George Floyd, has been taken into custody and charged with....

 

WAIT FOR IT!

 

....third degree murder - manslaughter. This is not a positive development. What I witnessed on that video - what ALL OF US witnessed on that video - was an act of premeditated, cold-blooded murder. The city (and many areas of the country) have erupted in justifiable outrage. If the prosecutors of Minneapolis believe that Chauvin's arrest on such a watered-down charge will simmer the situation down, they're a tad "misguided". We'll just leave it at that.

FUN FACT: It took four long days before the authorities in Minneapolis had the wit to even charge this homicidal imbecile with any crime whatsoever.

 

As we've come to expect when something this horrible occurs on the American landscape, there are those among us (mostly white) who claim that what happened in Minneapolis five days ago is merely a fluke occurrence, and that we're blowing the problem out of proportion. Here's a story I'd like to share with you:

 

Justice

A number of years ago when I lived in New York City, there was a bar on Eighth Avenue (between 34th and 35th Streets) that I used to stop by every day for a beer on my way home from work. One of the patrons that I struck up an acquaintance with was a member of the NYPD who would also stop for a libation after he got off duty. Late one afternoon we were discussing his line of work when he said something that completely floored me. To this day, I've not been able to erase it from my memory:

 

"I'm not gonna consider my career complete until I've killed at least one nigger."

 

This conversation did not take place in Shit-For-Brains, Mississippi; it took place in Manhattan, one of the most sophisticated spots on the planet.

 

The problem exists, and, unless we're not vigilant, will persist.

 

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED READING:

I Love Loosies: The Eric Garner Story
from The Rant, 12/11/14



https://tomdegan.blogspot.com/2014/12/i-love-loosies-eric-garner-story.html?m=0&fbclid=IwAR2a8iRh4i5tNnmXzz9tuE7M1jHm8JHFBtoghDn3kjYroB_isWw5EYLDFqI

What happened to George Floyd this past Monday took me back to the year 2014. I do hope that it takes you back as well.

AFTERTHOUGHT, 12:28 PM:

Kellie Chauvin, former "Mrs. Minnesota" and the wife of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin, has said through her attorney that her "utmost sympathy" lies with the family of George Floyd and that she is divorcing her husband of ten years. She is a non-white native of Thailand. I don't doubt for a minute that something about her husband's reckless sadism struck a chord with her. Do you think?