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Remembering George Floyd
And all the others
When I watched the video of Derick Chauvin lynching George Floyd, I kept getting flashbacks to Rodney King lying in the street with cops surrounding him, beating him, trying to kill him. Given last summer we were in the middle of a pandemic, I didn’t expect the reaction of the country and the world, the massive (mostly) peaceful protests. I expected things to burn.
Naturally, the cops in the Rodney King incident were ruled “innocent.” What we saw with our own eyes was not a problem. Business as usual. Nothing to see here. It was a standard practice that had worked for 150 years.
150 years ago, the custom of beating black men to death on the slightest pretext was passed from slave owners to police and there the custom has been carried on to the present day. The problem is, they didn’t have video 150 years ago. All that carnage was tucked away out of sight.
The country burned in 1992. It burned in the 1960s for the same reason and the 1940s and the 1920s.
It’s a nice way to distract your attention from the fact that Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, murdered a man in cold blood in front of a dozen rolling cameras and made himself a YouTube sensation.
This time the murderer was convicted. This time we were allowed to believe our own eyes.
And this time, like the times in 1992 and the 1960s and the 1940s and the 1920s. Everyone from the media to the taco truck driver was claiming the protesters were rioters, thugs, and vandals. Trump & Co. treated it like a slave rebellion which is the standard reaction.
I have a question
The country has been on fire many times over police misconduct. But why isn’t it on fire every night?
I like to think it’s because civilized people don’t like to break the law. They understand why laws exist. But for several minutes, as a nation, we watched a man slowly die pleading for his life while everyone stood around like this is just normal — which it is.
Even I was thinking “Burn it all down!”
And I’m a Buddhist.
