It's been more than a week since a Minneapolis police officer was recorded kneeing the life out of George Lloyd, an African American man who was charged with trying to pass a fake $20 bill to pay for groceries, as three of his fellow officers stood by.
What has happened since--the nationwide uprisings of peaceful demonstrations, the agitators who clashed with police and burned down neighborhoods, and the curfews that have resulted from them--have been the reaction to Lloyd's death and to police brutality in general.. Even places where you wouldn't expect this sort of thing: Fargo, North Dakota and Salt Lake City, Utah are among those that have had disturbances of their own.
There have been two different autopsies of Floyd's death that have been made public, both of which have ruled the matter a homicide. Hennepin County's medical examiner reported "cardiopulmonary arrest" as one account of what happened to Floyd, while his family"s independent autopsy said he was asphyxiated.
Minnesota's attorney general Keith Ellison has taken over prosecution of the case, in which he has immediately made headlines. The arresting officer who was seen in the video, Derek Chauvin, had his charges upgraded from third to second degree murder. The three who were with him were all charged with aiding and abetting. The Minneapolis Police Department has fired them all. Usually, charges like these are not made so quickly.
As peaceful demonstrations under the banner of Black Lives Matter descended into clashes with police and National Guard troops and looting in major cities, people started wondering where was President Donald Trump and what kind of leadership (if any) he was going to provide. The answer was yes and no. On the night of June 7, as demonstrators stood at the doorstep of the White House, the President went into a secure location and the lights were turned off. The next evening, fifteen minutes before a citywide curfew in Washington went into effect, Trump announced that as the "law and order" President he would sic the military on the protestors and other radical groups (whom he called "thugs") if the states didn't do it themselves.
Then, as demonstrators and others were being cleared by force, Trump made his way to a nearby church to pose for a photo with a Bible in his hand. Authoritarian as his actions were, it shouldn't surprise anyone who have always believed religion equals politics.
Journalists have also become targets of those police who actually believe that they're the "enemy of the people". Those who are trying their damndest to cover the protests at great personal risk have been arrested and/or accosted by authorities who took their cues from Tiananmen Square. The Chinese couldn't be prouder.
How this turns out will depend on whether Chauvin and his fellow officers are convicted or not by a jury. If past history serves, there's a good chance they might be let go on a technicality. If that's true, then all hell will break loose. There will also be efforts to weed out the bad cops by dismantling the system in which they now work. While it's true not every police officer or soldier is a "bad actor", they are also not your friends. We do not thank them for their service at this time.
Whether we are affected by the actions of authorities of authorities, we seem to be caught in the middle about how to react. On the one hand, we are told to speak up because "silence is acceptance". But if we do speak up, we risk being branded as anti-American traitors or worse. So what do you want from us? Whatever happened to just listening? We want to understand why, after 400-odd years of American history, it's still hard out there for an African American. And we want to know what we can do about it.
We can't assume that George Floyd, Philandro Castile, Breonna Taylor and others whose lives once and continue to matter would have wanted any of this happening in their name. We do know that we need to change so that history doesn't keep repeating itself.
