George Floyd: One Year Later

George Floyd was killed a year ago today, and I can't believe there is still no police reform bill ready for President Biden to sign into law.

The Senate's two black members, Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey and Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina, are working on a compromise bill that would address policing issues, but while there is optimism that an agreement can be reached, there is not guarantee that it can pass..  As a black man, Scott knows the importance of doing something about the racist policing practices against black citizens; his Republican Senate colleagues not so much.

Meanwhile, President Biden is meeting with George Floyd's family today, Maybe that will give the bill a boost.  But don't be surprised if the bill doesn't pass.  I would be shocked if anything - like the January  commission bill Republicans plan to block in Senate for specious reasons - does pass the Senate.  Who do Republicans think they're fooling with their rabid partisanship?  Apparently, given the voting restrictions and gerrymandering being set up for the 2022 midterms, only as many people as they need to.

April 8, 2021: An Apology

I titled my April 3 post about the trial of Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd "The George Floyd Trial."  I then suddenly realized that murder trials are usually named for the defendants, not the victims.  It was never my intention to suggest that Derek Chauvin was not responsible for Floyd's murder or that Floyd is a defendant in any way.  In fact, by referring to the trial as the George Floyd trial - and by including Floyd's picture in my post - I wanted to drive the point home that the victim should be remembered and placed first and foremost in our minds.  Floyd is the avatar of justice in this trial, justice being defined as the intent of the prosecution to deliver a verdict of guilty against Derek Chauvin.

It's to late for me too change the title of the April 3 post, because I'd have to change the URL and repost the links on social media because the old links wouldn't work any more.  But I would like to apologize for my terminology, and I want to make clear again that I never meant to suggest that George Floyd himself is on trial, only that his murder is the reason there is one. 

The George Floyd Trial

While I would rather not watch wall-to-wall coverage of the George Floyd trial in Minneapolis on cable news - especially when there are still so many other things to worry about, like COVID, COVID variants, COVID vaccines, and the likelihood of COVID ending civilization as we know it - it is important to keep up with the trial, and quite frankly, the highlights are all you need to focus on.  The evidence is clear to me: Derek Chauvin is guilty.

How could this cop not be guilty?  He violated standard police procedures, he used unnecessary force (as many a trial witness and policing expert have attested), he seemed to be enjoying having Floyd's neck under his boot heel, he attracted a whole bunch of witnesses who all saw the same thing - no Rashomon situation here! - and the defense has put up a poor cross-examination before presenting its case. Its case, basically, is that Floyd was a drug user, and that was a major factor in his death, along with his various health problems..  Then Floyd's girlfriend - his white girlfriend - testified about his and her opioid addictions and how they were both striving to get clean.  So you have all of these witnesses speaking out on how they wished they could have helped Floyd, a white girlfriend telling tales of a biracial couple trying to help themselves and each other, a real sense of humanity in describing the ordeal of a man who didn't know the $20 bill that got him arrested in the first place was a fake, and the defense is saying Floyd's death is his own fault?

If comedy is tragedy plus time, then the defense case that is presented after the prosecution rests should prove that maxim, because the defense case promises to be comedy in the English absurdist sense.  Unlike the Goons or Monty Python, though, Chauvin's lawyers will be unintentionally funny - and they'll accomplish that in trying to prove that their client is innocent.  And that would be funny, if the crime and the implications of this trial's outcome weren't so damn serious. 😟 

Clueless

I was flabbergasted when I learned that the unemployment rate actually dropped from near 15 percent to 13 percent in May, which sent the stock market going closer to its record high from earlier this year, as if COVID-19 had never happened.   Needless to say, I knew that Trump was going to try to spin all of this supposedly good news to his advantage.  After all, many if not most of the 2.5 million jobs added in May were in fact furloughed jobs that their former occupants were returning to.  Many people don't profit from the stock market.  And while the overall unemployment rate was down the rate of black unemployment was up - a sobering fact in the wake of George Floyd's killing.  But I knew Trump would spin this news as a positive thing and make himself stronger among registered voters to get an edge over Joe Biden, who inspires less passion among voters than Trump and can't even motivate the Democratic base the way that Barack Obama could.

But then Trump made everyone realize why it was important to vote for Biden.  With the demonstrations protesting police brutality toward black citizens continuing unabated, Trump actually tried to tie Floyd's death to the supposedly improved economy. 

"Hopefully," Trump said this past Friday, "George is looking down right now and saying, 'This is a great thing that's happening for our country.'  It's a great day for him, it's a great day for everybody. It's a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day."

First of all, this past Friday was not a great day for anybody.  With demonstrations in the streets, people dying from COVID-19, and millions of people out of work, it was a horrible day.  It was certainly not a great day for George Floyd - because he's dead!  And he's dead because of the police brutality Trump himself has encouraged since he moved into his current digs in Washington.  And it's hardly a great day for black Americans who have at least had the good fortune of not being killed by overbearing police officers, because, as noted, the unemployment rate for them is up.  When PBS's Yamiche Alcindor and other White House reporters asked how that last point of fact could be considered a "victory," Trump replied, "You are something."

I don't know how he gets away with saying that without standing in front of a mirror.

I've seen people out of touch with reality before, but I don't think Trump is even in touch with this dimension.

Again, I can't say any more . . .

Days of Reckoning

It takes something pretty serious to push the COVID-19 story off the news for a week or more.

Protests against the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis, like the protest in New York City shown above, have turned violent in many cities, and they've been flaring up in the least likely places, such as the Mormon citadel of Salt Lake City, and protesters against police brutality have included Amish elders and . . . active police officers.

As soon as the violence subsides, COVID-19 should regain the public's attention, but more importantly, the legitimate demonstrations against the Floyd killing will keep the fact of racial injustice in the news as well.  And Donald Trump will have to deal with all of it. I'm sure some Republicans are secretly delighted with the violence and the rioting, as similar unrest got Nixon elected President in 1968, but if Trump thinks he can run on re-election on a platform of law and order, why hasn't he been able to provide either?

I think the picture above is indicative of those Americans who are determined to end racial injustice in the middle of a pandemic. The young woman in the picture above arrived at a demonstration protected by a mask in this social-distancing-unfriendly situation, but the fact that she doffed her mask long enough to make her voice heard and show her face means that she is all too happy to identify herself for the world as a person ready to change America for the better.  Expect young people like her to show up at the polls - or, if they have the opportunity, mail-in ballots - five months from now.

Rock Bottom

So many black men have died at the hands of the police that I can't comment on it anymore than to say it's wrong and it shouldn't happen, because I can't find anything more eloquent and verbose to offer than that.  But the Minneapolis case of George Floyd - which sparked a riot that led to fires in Minneapolis - requires me to comment here.  When are the police going to get it?  You dehumanize black men, you dehumanize Americans . . . and America.   

And this is all happening in the backdrop of the United States having passed the number of 100,000 COVID-19 deaths.  We've sunk to a new all-time low. 

And what is the guy in the White House Donald J. Trump, doing?  Stoking the embers of resentment, calling the demonstrators "thugs" (the arsonists were outsiders having little to do with the protests) and demanding that they be shot, hoping to tilt Minnesota into the Republican column this fall with his divisive "law and order" rhetoric,", which Nixon used in 1968, a year after the Newark riot.  (New Jersey would go Republican in a presidential election six consecutive times beginning in 1968.)

And something else happened in Minneapolis that must have warmed Trump's heart - a CNN reporter was arrested while covering the riot.  (He has since been released.)

Joe Biden is expected to address the Minnesota Democratic convention tomorrow. This could be a, if not the, defining moment of hi presidential campaign  He will have the opportunity to call for calm, reach out to black voters in a meaningful way, and show more empathy and maturity than Trump all at once - if he balances his comments right - more vividly than in his most recent TV interviews.

However, he can forget about choosing Amy Klobuchar as his running mate.  It turns out that Officer Derick Chauvin, the fired policeman in the center of the Floyd killing, had had numerous complaints against him in the early 2000s, when Klobuchar was Hennepin County attorney (Hennepin County includes Minneapolis).  Klobuchar failed to prosecute Chauvin in another incident where he shot a suspect to death.  Her vice presidential hopes just burned to the ground with those buildings.