For many black men, the horrific image of a Minnesota police officer with his knee pressed into the neck of a prone, handcuffed George Floyd is symbolic of the treatment of America’s black men in general.
Floyd’s killing in Minnesota comes on the heels of the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, chased down by white vigilantes in Georgia. Arbery had been jogging through a suburban neighborhood when he was targeted and killed — Trayvon Martin-style.
On Friday, it was announced that the recently fired officer identified as Derek Chauvin, who suffocated Floyd and who had a laundry list of prior complaints against him, had been taken into custody by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He has rightly been charged with murder. This should have happened on Day One — when the mayor called for his arrest. If it had, it may have prevented the riots and burning of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. No justice, no peace.
Now comes the “complete” investigation into the George Floyd murder that authorities beg the public to wait for. Brace yourself. As we’ve seen in other high-profile public killings of black men, many of these “investigations” seem designed to assassinate the character of the victim. Floyd was allegedly intoxicated and passed a bad check. Last time I checked, neither of those accusations carried a death sentence.
Trayvon Martin’s killer, wannabe-cop and neighborhood vigilante George Zimmerman, tried to cash in on his infamy by attempting to sell the gun he used to shoot the 17-year-old boy to death on eBay, as if it were a trophy. Michael Brown, killed in Ferguson, was another victim of the “he’s black so he must be have a criminal background” mentality. He allegedly stole a beer from a convenience store. Floyd and the other victims unfortunately didn’t live long enough to defend themselves.
Philando Castile’s killing was livestreamed on Facebook. The Minnesota cop who shot him had the gall to say that one of the reasons Castile made him nervous was that when he stopped Castile’s car, he smelled marijuana. The officer made the judgment that any man who could smoke weed in front of his daughter was a clear and present danger. Yet he ended up shooting Castile in front of his daughter.
There’s a pattern here. And black people, and now it seems the rest of the country, are sick and tired of it.
Adding insult to injury, too often the officers involved in these killings escape prosecution by claiming they “feared for their lives.” It doesn’t take much for these well-armed, well-trained officers of the law to be frightened — just the sight of a black man, especially a large black man. Like Eric Garner in New York, whose death sentence was meted out for simply selling cigarettes on a street corner. The eerie parallel between his death and that of George Floyd is that both pleaded for their lives with police, gasping “I can’t breathe!” as their lives were choked out of them.
Boston’s first black police commissioner, William Gross, noted that this latest incident in Minnesota set police relations back. True. But the fact is there continue to be too many setbacks. So what are good police officers — the majority — planning to do to stop it? As it stands, the black community can’t take any chances on which officer might be good, and which might be another Derek Chauvin. It’s been like that for too long. It needs to change. Now.
Unfortunately, racism and unequal treatment continue to have a stranglehold on America.
It may be hard to change attitudes that stereotype, defame and defile black men as inherently criminal and dangerous. But it is not too late to put procedures and practices in place that ensure that these monstrous, intolerable and inhumane killings stop. This cannot and must not become the new normal.
Joyce Ferriabough Bolling is a media and political strategist and communications specialist.