Conviction! The George Floyd murder trial has concluded with a conviction on all counts. The police officer who murdered Floyd while on video will go to prison. People are happy. People are overjoyed. But, should we be surprised?
A murder conviction of a murderer shouldn’t be a reason to celebrate, it should be normal. But, apparently it’s not. So far, the public has responded with gratitude, but we still have a long way to go.
There could have been riots. There could be speeches of ingratitude—complaining about the glass being half-empty, so to speak. But, thankfully, that’s not happening. Gratitude is good. But, we need to restore trust in law enforcement to a point where there is no need for a murder trial for police because police shouldn’t be killing people.
Meanwhile, the Court sits in charge and rules in favor of itself as always. It is attracting the spotlight. With noises of 2024, so is Trump.
So much for competency. An infrastructure bill is good, but look at the border. A president changes. Presidential policy changes. Then, chaos erupts at the border. Some people can’t figure out the cause.
In the George Floyd murder case, doctors can’t agree on the cause of death—the State can’t even agree on the cause of death. Outrage! But, no one should question the cause of death for COVID deaths. Perhaps if George Floyd had COVID at the time, doctors would have declared it a COVID death, then no one would be able to question it.
In the Trayvon Martin case, prosecution sabotaged their own case by pursuing premeditated murder rather than thoroughly building a case for manslaughter. Since manslaughter was only mentioned as an afterthought in the final moments of the trial, the jury of six ladies couldn’t convict. Who knows what kind of other nonsense will surface in the George Floyd murder trial.
So, we can’t agree on the cause of chaos at the border. We can’t agree on the cause of death with George Floyd. We can’t even figure out that a Florida toxic waste reservoir is in disrepair. Apparently we want things to get worse before we make things better.
As if shutting down for a virus weren’t enough, the police just had to keep up old, bad, dirty habits. Few people question the reasoning behind vandalizing buildings when needed change hasn’t happened. Floyd was killed in a Democratic district. Los Angeles and New York are Democratic districts. Republican and Democratic voters are equally irked; both believe not changing their vote this November is the way to make the needed change, except that Minneapolis seems bound to get a different mayor, which doesn’t leave many party options. Through the partisan divide, other shady things have happened.
Reports of vandals being from out of town smell like rent-a-mob mischief. A construction site just happened to have an unattended pile of bricks, which just happened to be used to destroy the building across the street? Protests must be heard, just as fake protests must be investigated to find out whatever truth tells. At the end of it all, we are likely to find mischief both real and fake.
Dirty cops should be blamed for buildings destroyed. Dirty cops should be blamed for giving rent-a-mobs an excuse. And, dirty cops must be shut down, people are fed up and have been for a long time.
The country will carry on. Peaceful and fair people who look after their neighbors will shine during these times. Those who harbor blame and rage won’t be able to contain it, they won’t even be able to function. The election will most likely continue on schedule. Rioting will only make it harder for Democratic districts to vote and injustice will only make it harder for Democrats to win re-election. We all face a choice.
It’s amazing what can happen in a week. It’s amazing what a week can reveal about what quietly happened over the course of decades. America has somehow attracted and cultivated a police force with an attitude other than one “to serve and protect”.
Minnesota and Minneapolis are run by Democrats. So are New York and New York. Neighborhoods with violent rioting over the abominable murder of George Floyd see violent responses from more abominable police. What we see from police against all demographics of protesters makes Hong Kong look gentle. It’s atrocious how provocative police are seen in footage coming from the protests.
As Will Smith said, “Racism is not getting worse, it’s getting filmed.” So is police disregard for the public.
America has a systemic racism problem compounded with a supremacist police problem. These days, people don’t consciously disdain others for skin color—not much. Instead, we accept certain events as part of the narrative. If a White pastor mugs someone, that’s headline news. If a Black man gets killed by a cop, oh well tragedies happen all the time. Thanks to what little freedom is left in social media, we got to see just how unabashed murderous cops have become. When they killed George Floyd, it seemed routine.
With politicians the saying goes, “Not all are bad; it’s just the 99% that give a bad rap for the rest of them.”
Yeah, the bad apples give the bushel a bad name. Many police out there really do want to make a positive change, to repair what we have come to accept and expect. But, there are a lot more bad apples than the public narrative gave credit to. It seems that good apples gave too good a rap to a half-rotten bushel. At least now we know.
