Over the weekend, there were demonstrations across the country over another wrongful death of an African American at the hands of law enforcement. For the most part, the demonstrations across the country were peaceful, but were hijacked by those that were out only to be disruptive and destructive. The bigger question that we are all possibly wondering is who, what, where, when and why has this moment which has brought the country to the feverous pitch that it has?
Who has brought the country to the feverous pitch?
Police officer Derek Michael Chauvin of the Minneapolis, MN Police Department (MPD), who last week, on Memorial Day killed George Floyd when after arresting him in Powderhorn, a neighborhood just south of downtown Minneapolis by taking his knee and putting it on the right side of Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, with two minutes and 46 seconds of that time the 46-year-old Floyd was unresponsive.
Mr. Floyd became the latest victim of color to lose their life at the hands of people that took an oath to protect us.
Floyd joins Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor who through no fault of their own were killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time confronted by officers who assumed the role of judge, jury, and executioner.
In the case of Floyd, he was arrested a little after 8 a.m. on Memorial Day last Monday as the MPD responded to a call from the co-owner of Cup Foods of a “forgery in progress.” Mr. Floyd was arrested on the grounds of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a local market.
Floyd according to the MPD was in a nearby car and was believed to be “under the influence.” An MPD spokesperson said the that officer Chauvin and officers Tou Thao, Thomas K. Lane and J. Alexander Kueng ordered Mr. Floyd to remove himself from the vehicle, which was said he resisted.
Days later following the arrest, the statements made by the officers appeared to be contradicted as the release of a bystander’s video of the arrest, though one portion of that video showed Officer Chauvin struggling to get Mr. Floyd out of the car.
A criminal complaint filed in court by the Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman four days following the arrest stated that Mr. Floyd did not get out of the car on his own and he fell down intentionally saying that he was not going to the car and refused to stand still.
Surveillance footage from a nearby restaurant had Mr. Floyd falling twice while being escorted by the four officers.
What Brought the Country to The Feverous Pitch?
A recording by the aforementioned bystander, which was streamed on Facebook Live, which also went viral of Officer Chauvin applying pressure to Floyd’s neck with his knee with his hands in his pocket.
Mr. Floyd repeatedly is telling Officer Chauvin as he was moaning and sobbing “Please” and “I can’t breathe.”
If those words sound familiar, it is the same words that came from the mouth of Staten Island native Eric Garner, who died at the hands of police for the illegal selling of cigarettes back on July 17, 2014 after New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo placed his arms around Mr. Garner’s neck, and wrestled him to the ground.
Officer Chauvin was described to have his knee “pressed” into the neck of Mr. Floyd as he is begged for air.
An ambulance eventually arrived after Mr. Floyd went silent and his body was motionless, but Officer Chauvin did not lift his knee from Floyd’s neck as the bystander taking the video protested Floyd was non-responsive asking the police to check his pulse.
The next day, MPD Chief Medaria Arradondo announced that Officers Chauvin, Thao, Lane and Kueng were placed on administrative leave but were fired later in the day.
Last Friday, Officer Chauvin was arrested and charged by Attorney Freeman with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, becoming the first Caucasian officer in the history of Minnesota to be charged with the death of an African American.
While Officers Thao, 34; Lane, 37; and Kueng, 26 have yet to be charged, Attorney Freeman said at a press conference last week that he does anticipate they will be charged.
Thao’s attorney Robert Paule confirmed last Friday that his client is no longer in the “Twin Cities” but is “safely elsewhere.” Kueng is thought to be with his family in Minneapolis, while a relative of Lane said he left the area and is at an unknown location.
When was the Country Brought to This Feverous Pitch?
Last Friday when the aforementioned Officer Chauvin was arrested and charged for the death of Mr. Floyd.
It began with the site of Mr. Floyd’s passing on Chicago Ave. being turned into a makeshift memorial last Tuesday where many placards that paid tribute to the latest unarmed African American being killed by local law enforcement with the reference to the “Black Lives Matter Movement.”
That led to hundreds of people marching on the Third Precinct of the MPD, where they used posters and slogans like the previously mentioned “Black Lives Matter,” “Justice for George,” and “I Can’t Breathe.”
While protest were peaceful that first day, which has been the case in many protests across the country, things beginning in Minneapolis went from bad to ugly.
It began last Tuesday night when a smaller group of protestors vandalized the Third Precinct, where a window was broken and police cars were vandalized.
That led to police officers in riot gear using tear gas and flash grenades on the protestors, who countered by throwing rocks and other objects at police.
This also led to the decimation of many business across Minneapolis, where an estimated total of 270 businesses have been vandalized or completely destroyed.
On Sunday, a peaceful protest in the Twin Cities was turned on its head when a tanker semi-truck barreled toward a crowd on I-35W NB at Washington Ave. Bridge. It was reported that protestors threw bicycles under the wheels to slow the truck down.
What took place in the “Twin Cities” of Minnesota exploded across the nation where for example where the main front entrance of the headquarters of CNN in Atlanta, GA where protestors vandalized company logos outside its offices. They also broke the glass entrance to the building as they chanted antimedia rhetoric right in front of an Atlanta Police Department (APD) unit that was on the inside of the main entrance.
At around 7:40 p.m. protestors were seen eradicating vehicles belonging to APD, which were parked in front of CNN.
That was followed by the devastation of the CNN center’s interior as the protestors entered the premises, with a man breaking glass inside the building with his skateboard.
“You have defaced the CNN building,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said during a news conference Friday night directly to the protestors. “Ted Turner started CNN in Atlanta, 40 years ago because he believed in who we are as a city.”
From New York City, to Los Angeles, CA, Dallas, TX, Washington, DC to nearly every place in this nation there were protests that were peaceful where protestors and law enforcement found common ground. That said there were moments where those looted and damaged law enforcement vehicles; got into confrontations with police and turned those peaceful protests violent. This led to many people being arrested and many members of law enforcement injured.
To put into context the events of this weekend in New York alone, there were a total of over 770 arrest, which included the 25-year-old daughter of New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio (D-NY) Chiara for unlawful assembly at 12th Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan, according to a New York Post source. She was given a desk appearance ticket.
The anger and frustrations of citizens over the death of George Floyd was right on the area of the White House in Washington, D.C. where demonstrators gathered near Lafayette Park, where video of a man with a bandana around his neck spray painted “[expletive] Trump” right on Freedman’s Bank Building that lies adjacent to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Where and Why has the Country Risen to This Feverous Pitch?
The nation, especially people of color has simply gotten tired of being seen, treated and look upon as second class citizens that simply are not respected or accepted by their country.
For so long, whenever someone like George Floyd, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin and the late Rodney King are taken from this world by law enforcement or hateful Caucasians who think they are better then everyone else.
Even when there is video clearly showing that people of color are being blatantly abused and even killed by those that are supposed to be the very people that protect them.
It took four days and the outcry of the citizens of Minneapolis before Officer Chauvin was even arrested, which is unthinkable but reality.
Three days after the death of Mr. Garner, Officer Pantaleo was not fired or even charged but put on desk duty and striped of his badge and handgun.
It took until September 29, 2014 before a hearing to examine the evidence of the Garner case began and even after the case went on for two months, the grand jury decided on Dec. 3, 2014 not to indict Pantaleo.
It took until Aug. 19, 2019 before former NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill terminated Pantaleo.
Then there is the 2012 death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was killed by George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community of The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, FL.
The then 28-year-old Zimmerman shot an unarmed Martin, who was trying to visit his relatives.
While Zimmerman was charged for Martin’s death, he was acquitted when the case went to trail claiming self-defense and after a review for any civil rights violations by the U.S. Department of Justice, no additional charges came due to insufficient evidence.
That was followed by a lawsuit being filed by Mr. Zimmerman in Dec. 2019 against the Martin family, their attorneys, the prosecutors in the trail as well as others for over $100 million in damages.
It is the results of cases like this why protestors have organized and marched by the thousands because they want justice not just for Mr. Floyd but they want a system to be dramatically changed that has not only torn families a part but created a distrust in the justice and political system. That has eroded the harmony and communication between people of color and law enforcement. Driven a wedge between communities of color and Caucasians.
What this divide has done more than anything is penetrated the walls of our politics in this country where the gap was widen significantly between the haves and the have nots, which has really shown itself during this Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic.
How Do We Calm This Feverous Pitch Being Demonstrated in Our Nation?
We have to recognize that there is a divide in our nation.
That is why you seen the high numbers of people exercising their frustrations by protesting peacefully.
It is important for us to recognize those individuals and groups while also condemning those that only wish to make noise about what is happening by vandalizing and destroying stores, law enforcement vehicles and prominent places of business like the CNN center.
What also has to happen is we have to vote in droves first in primary elections for those hope to be on the ballot for local and state elections and then in November for the Presidential and Congressional elections and for those that will be on the ballot locally in your city or town.
That is why so many advertisements on television and social have asked all residents in homes across the nation to fill out the 2020 U.S. Census.
This is how the number of seats each state will have in the House of Representatives and how congressional and state legislative districts will be drawn.
It also will provide the necessary data for lawmakers, business owners, teachers and many other to provide daily services, products and support for things like law enforcement and education and health care, which have shown to be very important, especially in the midst of this pandemic.
Perhaps the biggest thing we all need to do to bridge this divide is talk to each other and not at each other.
For a long time, we have taken the easy way out by blaming one another when a difficult situation arises like blaming the police for their racist ways and Caucasian America blaming communities of color for their inability to be motivated to work hard to pull themselves out of their doldrums.
The reality is that we all have played a role in the predicament we find ourselves in now not being able to do the smallest things like hug our loved ones and friends. Not being able to sit down at a coffee shop or restaurant. High School or college seniors not being able to experience those rights of passage like the prom, signing their yearbooks or even having a traditional graduation.
For so long, we have allowed our differences to divide, deteriorate and define our circumstances and it has gotten us to the point where were trying to individually fight our way out of pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives across the globe.
It is safe to say we are at a crossroads in not just our country, but our world. We have seen that when we are divided, we all pay for it one way or another. We have paid for it in the loss of life; the loss of jobs and the loss of the ability to see each other from a close distance.
The only way we will get back to any semblance of normal is to put our differences to the side, find a way to come to together and be better.
If we do not, all the protesting and raising our voices will be for nothing. We faced moments like this before in the history of our world, specifically here in the United States. If we plan on having any kind of a prosperous future, we will have to do so again.
Information and quotations are courtesy of 5/31/2020 11 p.m. edition of WABC 7 “Eyewitness News at 11” with Joe Torres, Sandra Bookman, Jeff Smith with weather and Sam Ryan with Sports, with report from ABC News’ Alex Perez; https://2020census.gov/en/what-is-2020-census.html; 5/29/2020 www.cnn.com story, “CNN Center In Atlanta Damaged During Protests,” by Fernando Alfonso III; 5/29/2020 https://thehill.com story “White House Goes On Brief Lockdown After Protest Erupts Nearby,” by Brooke Seipel; 5/31/2020 www.nypost.com story, “Mayor Bill De Blasio’s Daughter, Chiara, Arrested at Manhattan Protest,” by Larry Celona and Tamar Lapin; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Eric_Garner; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_George_Floyd.
No comments:
Post a Comment