George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ending Institutional Injustice

There has been a lot of chaos of late. Maybe some of it was justified in my opinion. For instance, there was no reason for Breonna Taylor to be shot eight times in her bed on the night of March 13th; the result of a "no knock" warrant and botched police raid, non-working body cameras, or trying to cover it up with a nearly blank incident report. The three officers, all white, were veterans on the force, with service ranging from 14 years to 19 years, are currently on administrative leave while their boss tried to skip out.

Chief of Police Steve Conrad tried to duck out by taking early retirement. Shame Breonna, an EMT, didn't get to retire early. Fischer, Louisville's worthless mayor, was right (for once) to finally fire him. The FOP and Metro Council had been demanding his removal since 2016; longer than that by the public. As the saying goes, "a fish rots from the head down". Fischer needs to follow Conrad out the door.

There was no reason for Officer Derek Chauvin to kneel on George Floyd's neck, resulting in his death. Worse was the three other officers standing around watching. However, to claim this was a "white on black" crime is to ignore the facts. Yes, officers Chauvin and Thomas Lane are white, but Officer J. Alexander Kueng is black and Officer Tao Thao is Asian.

Some claim that Floyd was resisting arrest and was a felon with a long record. Based on existing footage, there's no indication that Floyd was resisting arrest. In the footage, he appears to have been mouthing off to Chauvin, but so what? I think most people get a bit mouthy when they feel they're being harassed or bullied. But even if he was, is that justification to take the situation to the point where someone dies?

As for being a felon, Floyd had a long rap sheet, which is something not being widely reported by the media (it doesn't fit their narrative). In 2009, Floyd did five years in prison for assault and armed robbery in 2007. Previously, he had done time for everything ranging from selling drugs to thief.

Just prior to being stopped by Officer Chauvin, Floyd had been attempting to pass off counterfeit $20 dollar bills in the area. He had just tried to buy a pack of cigarettes with one at the Cups Food convenience store at the corner of East 38th and Chicago streets when he was stopped. Odds are pretty good that George Floyd was already well known to the cops who worked that particular part of Minneapolis when the four officers approach Mr. Floyd on May 25th.

It was reported to officers that the suspect (Floyd) appeared to be "drunk", however, indications are that he wasn't drunk, and as the autopsy later bore out, had drugs in his system---fentanyl and methamphetamine-- which might explain some of his behavior (he didn't want to get into the police car, claiming that he was "claustrophobic"). As an aside, Floyd was suffered from acute heart disease, although the police officers wouldn't have known that.

It's worth noting that while officers Chauvin, Lane, and Kueng were attempting to force Floyd into the back seat, he reportedly suddenly stiffen and started complaining about trouble breathing (this was prior being thrown to the ground and Chauvin placed his knee on his neck) according to witnesses.

Another fact is that Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, both rookies, were wearing body cameras which were reportedly active at the time. These recordings haven't been released yet, but they should prove very interesting. Throughout, Floyd stated 16 times that he couldn't breathe, and even at one point stated that he felt like he was dying. Meanwhile, Chauvin kept his knee (and full body weight) on Floyd's neck as Lane held down his legs, Kueng held his back, while Thao tried to keep the crowd at bay.

Throughout all this, Officer Lane was apparently uncomfortable with the situation and repeatedly questioned how Floyd's treatment. Each time, Chauvin assured him that everything was fine. It wasn't until blood started coming from Floyd's mouth that the lead officer, Chauvin, called for medical backup. Kueng checked for a pulse and failed to find one. Meanwhile, none of the officers changed their positions. Lane continued to hold Floyd's legs; Kueng remained applying pressure to his back, and Chauvin's knee and full weight remained on Floyd's neck.

None of the officers released their holds until EMS arrived and Floyd was placed on the gurney; a full 12 minutes after Floyd began complaining about his breathing. Another five minutes would elapse before the EMTs arrived. Officer Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. According to bystanders, 2 minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Floyd had become totally unresponsive.

There's no question that something went horribly wrong here. Police officers are trained on how to deal with someone resisting arrest. Given Floyd's criminal past (not to mention his 6'4" 223 pound frame), they were obviously cautious. No doubt this is why they called for backup (not to mention that there was another male in the SUV with Floyd and a woman in the back seat). However, it was apparent that "something" was happening to Floyd before he was placed on the ground (he had been placed in handcuffs about ten minutes earlier)
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I don't see this as a case of white police brutality toward a black male. As I previously said, there was a black and Asian officer present as well as another white officer who was obviously very concerned with what was going on. It does appear, however, Officer Chauvin was unconcerned with Floyd's physical complaints. Perhaps he thought Floyd was lying or trying to gain some sort of advantage on the four officers (albeit handcuffed) or didn't know a heart attack when he saw one. At the very least, he could have released pressure on Floyd's neck or rolled him over on his back as suggested by Officer Lane.

One can, just maybe, excuse the two rookies. They were, after all, "just following orders". As trite as they may sound, it's what fresh rookies need to do to stay alive. Lane, age 37, had been on the force just four days. Kueng, 26 had been on the force for about a week; it was just his third shift. Chauvin was his training officer.

Tao Thao, 34, had been on the force for eight years. He had six complaints filed against with Internal Affairs for excessive use of force, false arrest, etc. All were closed without any disciplinary action. At the time of the incident, one case remained open for excessive use of force and false charges being filed.

As for Derek Chauvin,44, the lead officer on scene, he had been on the Minneapolis Police Department for 19 years. He had had 18 complaints filed against him; two included disciplinary charges. He had previously served in the Army as an MP. Chauvin had twice been recommended for the police department's medal of valor for action taken in two violent incidents involving officers.

Chauvin is being held on a one million bond and charged with second degree murder. The other three officers are being held on a $750,000 bond each. They are being charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder. All four men have been fired. Given the amount of press already devoted it will be interesting to how jury selection and trial goes.

For that matter, given the dozens of protests and riots not just in this country, but around the world, I suspect a "guilty" verdict is all but assured (the minimum sentence for second degree murder charge is 40 years). I shudder to think what would happen if they're acquainted! It should be remembered that Thao was doing crowd control and Lane, the four day rookie, was showing the most concern, was acting under the direction of his supervisor, Derek Chauvin.

There's no doubt the George Floyd's death was tragic. There's no excuse for what happened. Yes, the officers needed to be extra careful given Floyd's criminal past and reports of acting "drunk" (plus his physical size). That's just being smart. Many an officer has been injured or killed for less. However, given that he was in handcuffs and there were four armed officers on the scene, more attention should have been given to his health complaints. EMS needed to have been called much sooner.

I don't think this had anything to do with Floyd's race. Nothing in what we know indicates otherwise. What it does appear to show is a lack of compassion or empathy. As for the protests and riots, the country was primed and waiting for just an event since the deaths of Eric Garner and 12 year old Tamir Rice in 2014 and others along with the virulent hatred built for Donald Trump since his election by the media. It was bound to happen. It was only a matter of time. It was almost a custom made situation waiting to be exploited. Breonna Taylor let the fuse.

That's not to say there isn't some form of systematic racial discrimination among police departments throughout the country. There is. But a lot of steps have been taken to get rid of it too. On the other hand, there is also a cultural and racial distrust (rightly or wrongly) of authority figures, including the police. Some thinking they can ignore or run from the police. Not a bright idea. If you have a beef with the cops, that's fine. Do what you need to do to get through the situation, and then get a lawyer and do something about it the right way.

Speaking of racism, it needs to be mentioned that racism is not a "white only" issue. Racism is a two way street. Any person or group can be guilty of racism just as they can be of sexual, religious, ethnic, or even political discrimination. The idea that only whites are guilty of discrimination is ludicrous and naive at best. Unless you're willfully guilty, apologizing is just wrong. The same goes for kneeling.

Why are you on your knees begging for forgiveness (and washing or kissing feet---really?) for something you didn't or wouldn't do? Have you've been convinced that you "suffer" from some form of "white privilege"? Could it be that if such a thing existed, it was the creation of politicians and they are the ones responsible? If racism or any other form of systematic injustice exists, its root cause lays in Washington, our state capitols, and in City Hall.

There is no doubt that injustice exists. It's a fact of life. It's always existed and unfortunately, will always exist in some form or fashion. If you really want to do something about, get off your knees and start changing laws, and the best way to do that is start changing politicians. That means ending the corporate relationship with government. That means ending Citizens United. It means term limits. It means reforming the tax code to create a simpler and fairer tax. It means opening up elections to third parties and Independents (who are the political majority anyway). It means citizen referendums and ballot initiatives. It also means voters deciding on tax, rate, or fee increases. It means doing away with lifetime salaries and perks. It means that laws passed by Congress equally applies to Congress. You want to end injustice? That's where you need to start.



George Floyd had 'violent violent criminal history' :Minneapolis police union chief

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What we know about the four ex-police officers charged in George Floyd's death

Prosecutors of George Floyd Police Officers Will Struggle To Get Four Convections

Ferguson Missouri: A Tragedy in the American Heartland

I'm not going to pretend I understand what's going on in Ferguson Missouri or that I've got a handle on what took place like the corporate media's talking heads are doing. Even the local authorities don't seem to have all the facts in yet, or if they do, they're keeping them close to their Kevlar vests. Before August 8th, all I knew about Ferguson Missouri was that it was the hometown of aviation great and WWII hero, Jimmie Doolittle. What apparently happened on August 8th, and I emphasize the word apparently, is that Officer Darren Wilson saw two black males walking down the middle of the street, stopped and told them to get on the sidewalk. Either one or both of the males smarted off to the officer and the exchange quickly became heated, and ultimately lead to a scuffle with one of the young men, Michael Brown, and the officer. At some point during the tussle, an attempt to take the officer's service weapon was made; the officer, however, was able to retain control of the weapon and fired several shots. After that point, events become confusing.

Brown may have turned to run before being shot or he may have backed off, was shot, turned to run then stopped and dropped to his knees with his hands raised and was shot (perhaps again). Or it have been some combination. There were apparently two witnesses whose stories don't quite jive. What wasn't, however, known, at the time by Officer Darren Wilson, is that Michael Brown and perhaps the other individual had just robbed a convenient store (which appears to be supported by surveillance video), however, it seems that others in the neighborhood not only knew about the robbery and who was involved, but what was actually stolen! What Brown didn't know was that the police officer who stopped him was unaware at the time of the robbery. Therefore, that may explain his actions, at least in part (however, it would have been a whole lot smarter to have played it cool and been exceedingly polite to the officer just in case he didn't know, but evidently Brown though it was better to act aggressively). Now, that's enough of the back story as I'm going to get into at this point because what I'm most interested in is what happened next.

From the day of the shooting, irrespective of any justification or not, until now, there has been looting, theft, vandalizing, and arson. Most of the residents (numbers vary, but evidentially several hundred) organized to immediately protest the shooting, which they have every right to do. However, it was the looting, the brazen theft of property, and arson that came next that I want to comment on. How does throwing Molotov cocktails and bottles and rocks at police officers show respect for Brown? How does overturning cars and trucks and setting them on fire provide any kind of dignity to Brown, his family, or to the community? What does the owners of these businesses have to do with the actions of Brown, or the police officer? Why are they now being turned into victims of this tragedy?

As we now know, Michael Brown wasn't the angelic choirboy that he was initially portrayed as; the "kid next door" headed off to college in the hopes of a better life. However, the violence shows nothing but total disrespect. It makes the community look like a bunch of thugs. If there was any serious intent on putting a positive spin on this, the looters and arsonists totally blew it.
On the other side, we have police officers---150 of them---who totally overreacted with their "Judge Dred" paramilitary tactics. There is no need for a police department to pretend they're the Marines storming some beachhead. Did they seriously have to dress up their officers in battle gear? To me, that would seem to be nothing more than an attempt to intimidate the crowd. Personally, I would have seen it as an open challenge, which the crowd did as well. And what's with the flash bang grenades and rubber bullets? Was it really necessary to roll out the armored personnel carriers complete with manned machine gunners on top? Did they actually think they were going to mow down dozens or even hundreds of demonstrators? This isn't 1968 and Ferguson Missouri isn't the Democrat National Convention in Chicago. All it did was escalate the situation. Seriously, we need to have a national discussion about the militarization the local police departments.

As for what should have been done after the first night's rioting, was to impose martial law and mandatory curfews with stringently enforcement until cooler heads had a chance to prevail. Mayor James Knowles and community leaders, along with the heads of the fire and police departments, should have met in private to discuss ending the violence and a peaceful way forward, and then made a joint public announcement. Protests still could be permitted during daytime hours, but anyone who came out at night should be presumed to be up to no good and dealt with accordingly.

I think that Missouri Governor Jay Nixon was justified in removing the local police from the situation and replacing them with the State Troopers. Clearly the local police had no clue as to how to handle the situation and there appears to be some sort of underlining pre-existing mistrust of the Ferguson Police. Perhaps the governor was thinking that a "kinder and gentler" approach would work better, especially when the head of the Missouri State Patrol, Captain Ron Johnson, is black and, therefore, might be in a better position to develop some sort of rapport with the mostly black demonstrators. But quite obviously that didn't happened and it doesn't appear likely too at this point. Once credibility and trust are lost, there's hard to recapture again regardless of the color of one's skin.

As for providing the name of the police officer involved, that too was badly handled by the local police. By withholding the name, it gave the appearance that the Ferguson Police Department was closing ranks in order to perpetrate some sort of cover-up, and in these type of situations, appearances are perceived realities in the absence of facts. A prompt open admission of what transpired and the name of the officer involved (along with a brief bio) would have created the appearance of transparency, although it may not have prevented those whose sole intent was to use the event as a cover for committing crimes, it would have helped defuse some of the anger.

The tragedy in Ferguson Missouri, which has a total population of just over 21,000, with blacks comprising 67.4% compared to whites, who make up 29.3%, isn't just the shooting and death of an unarmed young black man in one Southern town, regardless of whether or not he had taken part in a "strong-arm" robbery minutes before. The facts at this time indicate that Officer Wilson was unaware of the robbery or the two suspects, although Michael Brown didn't know this as his subsequent actions may have indicated. Yet, the community, or at least a segment of the community, already knew what had taken place and was neither surprised or outraged by the robbery as they were about the shooting. That makes perfect sense in that one involved theft of property and a physical assault of a store owner, and the other involved the loss of life. But also, what does this say about the public acceptance or even acquiescence of a crime? What does this whole situation say about the public's trust, or simple common respect of the police or it's elected officials? According to the 2000 Census, approximately 17.6% of the residents in Ferguson were living below the poverty line; of this, 23.2% were 18 and younger and 13.6% were 65 and older. While living in poverty does create frustration, does it ever justify violence or even disrespect for authority, and what part, if any, does poverty play in this?

Was Michael Brown trying to surrender when he was fatally shot? Was Officer Darren Wilson justified in shooting Brown? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Only a court of law will ultimate decide. Expressions of outrage through peaceful protests are certainly justified. But what is not justifiable is the vandalizing of cars; the destruction and burning of private property; the looting of stores which is nothing more than simple boldface theft of the type which led to Michael Brown's confrontation with Officer Wilson, and ultimately to his death. Is that the remembrance Michael Brown that the community of Ferguson is trying to covey to the world? I hope not.