The street lights were just coming on near my home on the hill. Tomorrow was going to be June first in the tattered and torn state of New York. I had just retired to my big comfy couch and turned on CNN to catch up on how they were reporting the news today. There is always breaking news on CNN with some obnoxious headline that is 100% of the time misleading in a way that is detrimental to the truth. Tonight the headline on the screen read: ‘Trump Hiding in White House Bunker as America Protests.” This is where we are at folks. The President of the United States was forced into a bunker by the Secret Service because protestors were setting fires within 100 yards of the people’s house in the middle of our nations’s capital. The last time a president of the United States was forced into the White House basement was 2001 when foreign terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
But on this Sunday night we were not threatened by anything, or anybody foreign. The rioting, burning, and looting was being done by American citizens on the streets of major cities all across this nation. A church, in close proximity to the White House was ablaze. The same church that every President since 1860 has attended services in. In New York City police cars were on fire upside down.
In Minnesota protesters were in packs crammed up against police at a time when our country is still on social distancing orders due to the Coronavirus. All of a sudden the topic on all news stations was no longer about a lethal pandemic but about police brutality, systemic racism in American, and why the frustrations of black people somehow justified the violence I was witnessing on my television screen.
Without thanks to a Minneapolis police officer the name of George Floyd will always be an important reference in history. Last week Mr. Floyd was murdered on video while handcuffed and the officer’s knee on his neck for nine minutes. His crime was that he had a fake twenty dollar bill that he was attempting to pawn off. Mr. Floyd happened to be an African American and the police person a white male.
In the middle of a national pandemic the nation all turned their eyes to something that has been a big problem in this country for almost two centuries; racism. What happened on May 25th 2020 in Minnesota has happened too many times in this country, white police overstepping their boundaries and a black man ending up dead. Far too often white cops have gotten away with this abhorrent behavior and been able to go back to wearing a uniform. But in this case a video taken by a bystander clearly shows a man with a police uniform on murdering a man as three of his colleagues in blue stood by idly.
Once again America was facing itself and the stain was ugly. Like the riots in the streets in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic convention, the Watts riots in 1964 ,the Rodney King incident, and the death of Eric Garner in 2014, George Floyd being killed in broad daylight on the streets of Minnesota became a tipping point. It was more than obvious that this was police brutality against black people at its darkest. It took three days for the officer to be charged with murder and another week for the other four policemen to be charged as accomplices. The last two weeks major cities have been under strict curfews, and protesters, mostly peaceful, have covered the street.
Slaves were brought to this country between 1776 and 1825. By the year 1830 the population of the United States was 13,000,000 and of that count 2,000,000 human beings were slaves. There is no way to make up for this atrocity, there is no way to pay back enough reparations for the pain that was inflicted on black people and their families. We can apologize, not be racists as individuals, we can give the blacks the right to vote, we can pass Civil Rights legislation that says all people must have equal access and opportunity, and we can shout “black lives matter.”
The hard truth is we can never redeem ourselves by the way black Americans have been treated throughout our history. The best each person can do is not be racist themselves, to look at their own parents and grandparents and say “whatever racism my ancestors exhibited, I will do better and my kids will do even better. Racism can not be made to disappear, it is a slow journey; generation to generation. After a horrific incident like the murder of George Floyd it is hard to feel like things are getting better, but from observation in my life they are. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 under President Lyndon Johnson was probably the biggest step on putting a tourniquet on racial tensions.
In 2008 we elected a black man as President of this country and then elected him a second time. That certainly was a “you’ve come a long way baby” moment for this country. Like all long journeys there has been and will continue to be big pot holes in the road. There will always be white extremists and racial injustices.
We have to strive to use the George Floyd incident to remind ourselves what we are up against. There is no magic switch to click on, only the lessens we learn as individuals generation to generation.
The debacle that happened in Minnesota was an example of racism, ill prepared police officers, and a non pro-active mentality. This is why I believe that not only should the direct killer cop be imprisoned but also the other four cops who stood there for nine minutes and did nothing. Let’s not confuse the two: there is racism, and there is white police abuse aimed at people of color. You could say it is a matter of semantics but I believe it is two different things.
Looking specifically at the George Floyd case, the officer who held him down with his knee for nine minutes was in the process of training two of the other three policemen who stood there and watched the murder take place. This is pathetic to think about, and makes you wonder how the murderer ever reached a high enough rank to be training anybody. The police are a necessary and essential part of a democracy.
Laws need to be followed and enforced. We can not expect for the police to make perfect decisions. They put their lives in harms way everyday and more than anyone, or anybody, keep us safe. That said, we have to be more diligent in the selection and continual training processes of our police forces through out this nation. It is literally a two way street where the lines on the pavement have to be about respect and forgiveness. George Floyd is now another symbol of an overzealous cop acting out what can’t be described any other way than the killing of a black man who had already been subdued.
This officer’s life was in no way in jeopardy. His suspect was handcuffed and pinned down on a street in Minneapolis while he pushed a knee into Floyds neck for nine minutes not allowing Floyd to breathe. It is time to let justice takes its turn.
It is a week and a half after the death of George Floyd and are city streets are still filled with both peaceful protests and not so peaceful looting. There have been ridiculous cries from the radical left to do away with police all together. Anybody with even a tiny brain realizes this is plain dumb. How could anyone think they have the right to tip over police vehicles or burn down the stores of hard working Americans of all colors? How can we ever justify that six police officers have been murdered during the rioting in the streets? How can we ever justify setting fire to a church next to the White House? How can we ever think it is alright to have mobs in the streets when law abiding citizens are home practicing social distancing?
Racism is the problem I want to discuss here but it is hard to without talking about the hypocrisy that I am witnessing in these last two weeks. There is only one thing to call what happened to George Floyd and that is murder. It is clear race issues should still be one of the top priorities in this country. But what do we say to the officers families who were killed by rioters in the middle of what were suppose to be peaceful protests? What do you say to store owners whose lifetime dreams were in their businesses that were burned to the ground by looters?
What does it look like to the rest of the world watching American citizens attempting to burn down our nations capital and threatening to destroy the White House? Is this the answer to combatting racism? Is having the biggest liar and race baiter of my lifetime, Al Sharpton, being the keynote speaker at George Floyds’s Memorial service an answer? I think not.
As the protesting and the rioting continues the latest cry from the left is to defund, even abolish the police. This kind of absurd rhetoritic is ludicrous and destructive. There were approximately one thousand Americans killed by police officers last year and 25% of them were black. Yes, we have problems but not any where near to the extent that CNN and MSNBC claim on a moment to moment basis. The idea that racism is systemic in our country is not backed up by facts. Tell me the law on the books anywhere that is racist? Tell me how the way our constitution is written currently demonstrates any words that promote racism?
The incident in Minneapolis was a rogue cop who had a long history of being a bad actor, but the police union in Minnesota had protected him on several occasions. The problem was that this man should have been removed from the police force a long time ago. Instead of being removed he was put in charge of training new officers. I believe there is opportunity is any situation. George Floyd’s death should lead to more vetting, more psychological testing, and more extensive training of police forces everywhere. It should not be a referendum that America is filled with racists cops and racists people. It should be an opportunity for all unions across this nation to stop defending incompetent and poor performers.
To make this about Donald Trump is just politically hijacking an issue, and dividing this country even further.
I am very tired of people asking me what side I am on, as if it is one or the other, you support the protest, or you support Trump? You can do both in this case. If you support police, you are labeled as a racist? It is total Bullshit and it needs to stop. I am on the side of equality in the law for all people. I am on the side of law and order. I am on the side that generation to generation displays of racial divide need to improve. I am on the side that America is still the most diverse and greatest country in the world. I am not on the side of looting and setting fire to the capital of our country. I am not on the side of people who paint a narrative to make our President and country look bad at every turn (CNN, MSNBC). Those are the people who are on the side of taking down this amazing republic that has survived, warts and all, for 250 years.
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