Posted on 06/06/2020 5:09:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
George Floyd’s tragic death under the knee of ex-cop Derek Chauvin may yet prove to be a rare unifying moment for America, when an injustice leads to real, positive change. That’s why false narratives and radical agendas must be rejected.
On Thursday, a memorial service for Floyd was held in Minneapolis, the same city where 10 days earlier he died after suffering for nine minutes under the unrelenting weight of Chauvin, who now faces murder charges. Floyd was just 46 years old.
Leading the service was activist Al Sharpton, who declared “a different time and a different season” had arrived after Floyd’s death. He cited protests worldwide and the diverse racial makeup of the protesters, but he did not wait long to unleash his habitual racial invective.
“George Floyd's story has been the story of black folks because the reason we could never be what we wanted is because you kept your knee on our neck,” Sharpton said of America, repeating the “your knee on our neck” line three more times for effect.
That isn’t George Floyd’s story though.
Floyd was loved by friends and family who said beautiful things about him at the memorial Thursday. May he rest in peace. May his family win the justice he and they all deserve.
But was Floyd held down in life by the knee of America? No, he wasn’t. Was his extensive criminal record a result of his skin color? No, it wasn’t.
What’s at stake for Sharpton that he would twist things like that? What does it have to do with pursuing justice for Floyd? All it does actually is invite more scrutiny of Floyd’s life, exposed most coldly and openly in criminal conviction records.
No one deserves to die the way Floyd did, and pending a trial, it certainly appears Chauvin is guilty of murder or at least manslaughter. The trial may or may not reveal any racist motivation of Chauvin and his fellow officers who are also facing charges. So far, there is no evidence of racism at play in Floyd’s death, unless someone’s race is in and of itself evidence of racism.
If there’s unity in America today, it’s that no police officer should ever be allowed to get away with what happened to Floyd. However, there is an idolization of Floyd that’s happening in tandem with a racially charged movement.
One example of this exaltation is captured in an Associated Press story comparing Floyd to Crispus Attucks, who is widely believed to be the first man killed in the 1770 Boston Massacre that kicked off the American Revolution.
The AP interviewed Boston playwright Miranda Adekoje, who’s writing a new play about Attucks, who was half-black, half-Native American.
“The revolution that began with Crispus Attucks’ murder had no real regard for the lives of African and indigenous people,” she said. “The revolution that has begun as a result of George Floyd’s murder is for the sole purpose of making America inhabitable for all people.”
There are legitimate protests, and real reforms are being pushed, such as Congress ending legal immunity for police. But some would rather risk losing reforms in pursuit of a revolution based around a man like Floyd?
At a rally in Minneapolis, Floyd’s friend, ex-NBA player Stephen Jackson, spoke about Floyd’s life “turning in the right direction” before his death. Understandably, he didn’t get into Floyd’s rap sheet, but considering Floyd was high on fentanyl and methamphetamine at the time of his death, some public voices have questioned how much of a turnaround was really happening.
Conservative commentator Candace Owens was trending on Twitter early Thursday after she listed Floyd’s crime history in a video. There was the theft with a firearm in 1998, three cocaine convictions from 2002 to 2005 and finally a 5-year prison sentence in 2009 for an armed robbery where he pointed a gun at a pregnant woman’s stomach.
Owens continued, expressing frustration with African-Americans downplaying criminality in their communities, even elevating criminals to high status. She also condemned the leap to racism and blaming white people for problems black Americans face.
Jackson, Floyd’s old friend, had also asked rally-goers to “imagine if he was white,” referring to Floyd.
It doesn’t take much of an imagination, because a white man was killed by Tampa Bay police in 2016 in a very similar fashion to what happened to Floyd. Obviously, Jackson had never heard of the case of Tony Timpa.
“The whole concept of racialized police brutality is a myth,” Owens said in her viral video Thursday. “All you have to do is sit down and do basic mathematics to discover that the entire narrative that we have been sold is a lie.”
She cited statistics that whites who commit violent crimes are 25 percent more likely to be killed by police than blacks who commit violent crimes, even though blacks, despite making up just 13 percent of the population, commit over 40 percent of the murders and roughly half of all violent crime.
Last year, 10 unarmed black people were killed by police, compared to 19 unarmed white people. For more on the 10 cases of police killing unarmed blacks, Tucker Carlson did a fantastic job summarizing those cases on his Fox News show this week.
The point is that Floyd’s life and death both mattered, and they mattered much more than any false narrative or political agenda. No matter how well-intentioned, attempts to hide or embellish parts of the truth in order to achieve a preconceived outcome is not justice, but injustice.
Just like people and property must take up extra protection during the ongoing riots, we must also guard the truth. Without it, there will never be justice for George Floyd or the American people.
The media just dusts off their messages from 2014 and prior riots. Everytime they think this is the one that will change the world. I actually thought the young kids marching for gun control was going to make an impact. Thankfully it didn’t. This will fizzle out soon as well. I’d love the media to ask Biden what he did for 42 years. And especially ask him why he did nothing in 2009 when they had president, house and filibuster proof senate. Why can’t the media ask that????
He’s just the latest outrage. In two to three years, he’ll likely be not mentioned very much. Do you hear anything about Sandra Fluke or David Hogg anymore?
If it were a black cop we wouldn’t be here today. Black on black murder in Chicago is not accepted here. White cop symbolizes Americas hatred this is all you need to know
They are not turning him into a revolutionary they have canonized him. I fully expect Pope Francis to announce beautification procedures for him in a few days (Only half kidding). Mother Theresa and PJP II didn’t get this type of reverence when they died.
If there’s unity in America today, it’s that no police officer should ever be allowed to get away with what happened to Floyd.
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It’s mob pressure unity until all the facts are in and the other side has been heard.
It should not be ignored how susceptible and vapid many people are to become emotionally entangled identifying with this drug impaired criminal. These people lack the intellectual skills to completely analyze the social and political questions. They are easily influenced by people who wish to destroy the American nation. Sadly if you have such people in your family, you must treat them as you would a deranged relative.
Timpa not in Tampa...
Exactly.
One thing that nobody ever mentions about Floyd was that, while it seems that he actually had been getting his life together, he had been left unemployed by the shutdown (he was a bouncer in a bar until they shut down the bars). So he, like everybody else, had had three months to go back to drugs and Illegal behavior and lose contact with community things (Recreation, etc.) that might have kept him pulled together . So it might be more realistic to regard him as a COVID shutdown casualty.
And yes, the shutdown had a much worse effect on poor and generally minority communities than on the upper middle class, state-employee class, who could work at home, do their zoom happy hours, had enough room to comfortably home-school their children and often even had backyards for them to play in. Even the death rate in NYC, outside of nursing homes, was highest in the projects, where mostly minority people - unless they had some low-level essential but risky job, such as cleaning - were trapped in these crowded, filthy buildings. Even the playgrounds were closed so their kids couldn’t go out. And the shutdown was brought to you by the very same people who are now behind these riots: yes, that’s right, Democrats. Antifa is just their military wing.
George Floyd was a genuine POS, a six time felon, who one time pointed a loaded gun at the belly of a pregnant woman. This does not make him a hero. Neither does it make the @$$hole cop who killed him.
... while it seems that he actually had been getting his life together, he had been left unemployed by the shutdown ...
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Enough of the excuses. Thugs who are trying to turn their lives around are not serious about it if life’s problems can readily send them back into crime. They have to really WANT to change.
he had been left unemployed by the shutdown ...”
Early on I read that he’d had a sketchy past but for the last 5 years had been working...until the fake pandemic shutdown was put up on us all.
Why were the Tampa cops in Dallas?
I was really struck by watching the evening news and hearing them talk about “honoring” George Floyd. Now “mourning” I can understand. But honoring someone requires that they have actually done something honorable. Don’t see how Floyd’s actions meet that standard.
Excellent point.
I reject this premise.
It has taken me a long time but I think I finally understand the racial divide in our nation. I am not a racist until “they” can convince me that I am a “white” over being an individual. Here is what happens:
A minority individual observes his poor economic condition and attempts to formulate a reason for the situation. He notices that his peers are in a similar economic condition. Using his observations of the group, he formulates the idea that that he cannot be personally responsible for his condition as the entire group is in the same condition. This is an easier thing to do than a self assessment. He now no longer identifies as an individual but now as member of “the group”. He then assumes that if he is a member of a group, everyone in society must also be a member of some group, even if those to whom he has assigned to a group, do not so identify.
Once this diverse group mentality is established, any offense against an individual in the minority group, even by a single individual from the outside, is interpreted to be an offense by the entire outside group (even if it does not really exist). The response to the offense, individual on individual, is for the entire minority group to react to the entire outside group. Occasionally verbally, often violently.
Once the individuals on the outside sense the attack, in defense, they begin to band together as a group. As a group, they now resist the attack of the minority group. It is at this point, they believe it is safer to be a member of the group, than to be an individual. Now, it is group against group and now the newly formed group gets the label of racist which is now thrown back and forth between the groups with no resolution.
The only solution is for minorities to stop identifying with their minority group and compete as best they can as individuals. Teach their children to be the best they can be, as individuals. But we all must be willing to settle and accept our limitations and be content with what we are able to achieve, as individuals. And turning to God to make this happen is not a bad idea either.
Where does it say there were in Dallas? I don’t even see Dallas mentioned
Must just be one of those weird coincidences... Some guy named Timpa was also killed in Dallas back a few years ago...
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