The tragic unnecessary death of George Floyd is the latest in a long line of police brutality injustices against African Americans.
Warning: The below video in the link may contain footage inappropriate for younger viewers.
There is no justification for the police officer, who had three fellow law enforcement policemen beside him to back him up in case Mr. Floyd was violent (the video segments show he was not,) to press his knee on Mr. Floyd, suffocating him to death as the prisoner could be heard begging him to let go because he could not breathe.
Firing these four from the police force is not enough.
The officer who suffocated Mr. Floyd needs to be charged with either (depending on the local criminal code) manslaughter or murder. So do the other three policemen who stood by and did nothing.
The F.B.I. and the Justice Department should press federal civil rights violation charges and any other criminal citation this horrific event provides for.
The Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has called for charges to be filed.
Democratic Presumptive Nominee Joe Biden, during a virtual meeting with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, condemned what the police officers did, saying:
“…it is a tragic reminder that this was not an isolated incident, but part of an ingrained systemic cycle of injustice that still exits in this country. It cuts at the very heart of our sacred belief that all Americans are equal in rights and dignity…”
Biden has also called for more action to be taken against these four men, including a federal Justice Department investigation:
“…to ensure that the Floyd Family receives the justice they’re entitled to and as a nation, you know as well as I-you know better than I-we have to work relentlessly to eradicate these systematic failures that inflict so much damage on not just one family, one community, but on the people of color all across this nation. And I don’t think we can move forward unless we take aggressive action to rip out the insidious race-based inequalities that corrupt every part of our society.”
Even Donald Trump, in a rare bout of Presidential sanity, tweeted a virtual echo of what Biden said hours earlier (perhaps because he was told what the former Vice President stated,) calling for a federal investigation and justice for the Floyd family.
This is 2020. This is not the deep South of the pre Civil Rights Era. These acts of racist violence should not still be happening and festering in our country.
The family of George Floyd deserves justice as do all the families across the nation who watched loved ones die just because of the color of their skin.
That justice can not be served by violent rioting and destruction of the property of innocent business owners who had nothing to do with Mr. Floyd’s death.
We, as a people that believe in equality and justice for all, should send a united message to the scum that commits these horrific acts that their days are numbered, their criminal acts will be punished, and they will spend the rest of their miserable lives rotting in prison.
We should also continually promote an inclusive, color blind, and equitable society where no one is afraid to walk along a street or cringe when a police car drives close to them or worry about whether or not they belong.
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