When We Say ‘Black Lives Matter’ We Mean Cops Shouldn’t Crush Our Necks With Their Knee. Was That Unclear?
Literally nothing justified George Floyd’s death.
Four Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officers were fired Tuesday for executing a black man on a city street. That was fast! But let's not pop open the champagne because justice was almost served. George Floyd is still dead. He was arrested Monday night for forgery, but he wasn't trying to sell a fake Rembrandt. He reportedly “matched the description" of someone of using forged documents at a deli. Paul Manafort was charged with tax evasion, bank fraud, and money laundering, but he somehow managed to remain alive in time for his trial, as promised in most copies of the Constitution.
Floyd “resisted arrest," the officers claimed, and that's why Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd's neck foreight minutes.Unfortunately, Floyd had a fairly common medical condition known as “needing to breathe," so he died painfully in front of disinterested cops and horrified bystanders.
Darnella Frazier recorded the last torturous minutes of Floyd's life, which she later posted on Facebook. Floyd was handcuffed and on the ground. Further “resisting" of arrest seemed impossible. He wasn't Houdini. Floyd is seen in the video groaning in agony and crying, "Please, please, please I can't breathe." These were alsoEric Garner's last words. If you're a black person repeating those words, begging for mercy from a police officer, you must realize you're already dead, but you gotta give it a shot. Maybe he's one of those good ones we hear so much about. There was no such luck this time. One of the officers suggested Floyd just “relax" while Chauvin's knee rested on his windpipe, which is as perfect a description for the relationship of white and black people in America as you could find. Floyd cried out for his mother. He begged for his life some more: "My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts ... I can't breathe." The human bystanders expressed their concern for the murder in progress and one of the officers insisted, "He's talking, so he's breathing." That is both medically illiterate and sociopathic. These officers were completely indifferent to Floyd's suffering. People called animal control on Amy Cooper for yanking her dog's chain too tightly, but the police still commit war crimes on black people like it's another day at the office.
"Being black in America should not be a death sentence": Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey delivered an emotional respon… https://t.co/QhyjadJWU5
— CBS News (@CBS News) 1590523226.0
Floyd became motionless, his life escaping him, but Chauvin didn't remove his knee until paramedics arrived and loaded Floyd's body into a gurney.
“Don't do drugs, guys," one of the officers advised the traumatized crowd at one point, as if he was giving a PSA at the end of a "G.I. Joe" episode. George Floyd is dead.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey condemned the officer's actions as “horrible, completely and utterly messed up." Frey claimed Floyd's killing "does not reflect the values that Chief [Medaria] Arradondo has worked tirelessly to instill. It does not represent the training we've invested in or the measures we've taken to ensure accountability."
The lack of humanity in this disturbing video is sickening. We will get answers and seek justice. https: //t.co/OtDlapBlAK
— Governor Tim Walz (@Governor Tim Walz) 1590505010.0
Sure, these cold-blooded killers have lost their jobs. So have 38 million other Americans in the past few months and most of them haven't murdered anyone. They also don't have the full support of a protection racket like the police union. All four officers should serve hard time, and that's why people took to the streets Tuesday night. Frey cautioned protesters to "remain mindful of COVID-19 while demonstrating," which is ironic because none of the officers wore masks when confronting Floyd. During the pandemic, police are also not generally pursuing small-time offenses like attempted forgery at delis.
Unlike those catered “no haircuts, no peace" rallies against COVID-19 shutdowns, people protesting the murder of a black man were met with tear gas and police in riot gear. Assholes with assault rifles stormed Michigan's Capitol and forced the governor to relocate, but no smoke got in their eyes. Somehow, every protest against police violence turns into Ferguson.
When armed extremists in Michigan forced their way inside the Capitol earlier this month, Michigan State Police tri… https: //t.co/3pd21neyEl
— Shannon Watts (@Shannon Watts) 1590555788.0
Crowds walked from the site of Floyd's death to a city police precinct. Some unmasked idiots damaged windows and squad cars, and defaced part of the building with graffiti. Property matters almost as much to white people as dogs, so this wasn't going to go unanswered. There were stun grenades and rubber bullets.
Most of the protesters were peaceful, and I suppose it is important that we respond to horrific state-sanctioned violence with Minnesota niceness. Public skepticism over whether the officers will face criminal charges isn't unreasonable. We don't want George Floyd to join Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, and a long line of black people the police and their friends in the DA's office tell us caused their own deaths. We also have reason to fear they'll sue for their jobs back or go terrorize black people in another state.
Floyd was loved by his friends, family, and fiancee. He didn't deserve what happened to him. It's a familiar, tragic story, and every new one, every life senselessly cut short, makes it harder for black people as a whole to breathe.
Richard Pryor on the Police Chokehold www.youtube.com
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Good Christ, that poor man.
Hey, Wonkette, hi, haven't commented here in a while but I had to post something about this. This is my neighborhood. I visit the store Floyd was murdered in front of at least once a week. I've been listening to the demonstrations all day, right from where I'm sitting typing this now.
I paid a visit of course. Shit was nuts. The whole sidewalk is one big memorial, the street's blocked off, people were everywhere - some to pay respects, some apparently just to act out in public. Saw a fight break out, and was almost caught in a stampede when somebody thought they saw somebody else pull a gun. People are grieving, pissed, scared, worried... I'd say it's a powder keg but it's already gone off. The explosion's happening now, we're all watching it happen (those of us who aren't already in the middle of it), but nobody knows when or how it's gonna end, how many more people are going to get caught in the blast.
And now of course there's reports that militia assholes have been making plans to gather and.. who knows what. Just push us all that much closer to the civil war they're dreaming of, I guess.
This cop belongs in jail. There is no defense for his actions. You don't put your knee on someone's neck unless you intend to kill them. There's no way he didn't know what he was doing.
Honestly, I believe it's worse than that. Not only do I think Derek Chauvin knew what he was doing, that he knew George Floyd might die... I think he knew what the fallout would likely be, and he welcomed it. I think he wanted a war, too.
I hear he's barricaded in his house now, hiding out from protesters, and that does cheer me up a little.
This entire precinct, if not the whole department, needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up. None of us are safe if any asshole with a badge thinks he can pull this shit with impunity... murder a man in cold blood and let the city - not his city, he's just some prick from the suburbs - suffer the consequences.