Until today, I believed that George Floyd was killed by a racist cop. I saw a video out of context and, like everyone else, bought the narrative that a racist cop killed him. Shame on me.
Today, I watched the body cam videos that paint an entirely different story. The videos clearly show that this was not a racially-motivated act.
I did not see one single piece of evidence that indicates that his death was racially-motivated. When you watch the videos, what you’ll see are officers who never did or said anything that could remotely be considered racist. There isn’t anything that could even be misinterpreted to be racist. After you’ve watched the videos, I challenge you to present an argument that race was involved.
Using both videos, you can see the entire situation unfold. You have eyes on Mr. Floyd from the time they first approached him, all the way to his death. You can see that the officers never struck Mr. Floyd, never tased him and used the appropriate amount of force in their attempt to maneuver an increasingly-uncooperative man into the back of a police cruiser. You can see officers who temporarily used potentially-lethal force only when Mr. Floyd would not comply with their demands to show them both of his hands.
But was it murder?
Even when I was accusing him of being a racist, there was one thing I never quite understood. Why would Officer Derek Chauvin keep his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck in full view of multiple people with cameras pointed right at him if he believed there was a chance he’d harm him? That never made sense to me. It’s hard for me to imagine that anyone would purposely do something they believed would be fatal in full view of a camera.
I believe the likely answer is that Officer Chauvin didn’t think what he was doing would be fatal. There was no reason for him to. He didn’t know that Mr. Floyd had preexisting medical conditions. Mr. Floyd was talking while he was subdued. He was talking a lot. And, one of the requirements for talking is to be able to breathe. In fact, you’ll hear one of the officers remark “you’re talking fine” when Mr. Floyd complained about not being able to breathe.
Another thing to consider is that Mr. Floyd complained about not being able to breathe prior anyone doing anything that could restrict his breathing. “I can’t breathe” has become a rallying cry for the BLM movement. It would be not be unreasonable to think that Mr. Floyd was simply using it for that purpose. He most certainly could breathe when he was successfully able to resist being put in the back of the cruiser.
If we agree that no one is stupid enough to purposely use lethal force for nearly nine minutes in front of eyewitnesses with cameras, then we should also be able to agree that Officer Chauvin, or any of the other officers, did not think that Mr. Floyd would be harmed while being subdued.
The officers were not driven by adrenaline, at least not from what I can see in the videos. They appeared perfectly calm. In fact, one of them casually reached up and picked a stone out of the tire treads while keeping Mr. Floyd subdued. It doesn’t appear as if any of them thought there was a danger to Mr. Floyd’s life.
There came a point where Mr. Floyd became unresponsive. I think that’s the point where they made their only mistake. In hindsight, they should have checked to make sure he was OK once he stopped moving. But, it would also be easy to see how they could attribute his previous erratic behavior to intoxication and believe that he had simply passed out.
Was this murder? No. Was it excessive use of force? Maybe, but not if his death was the result of underlying medical conditions. Because if that’s true, then the force used would have been considered reasonable when used on almost anyone else.
My guess (and I freely admit it is an uneducated one) is that Mr. Floyd started to realize something was wrong with his body. Perhaps he started having circulatory issues that made it appear to him like he couldn’t breathe. So, while the symptom he was giving the officers was “I can’t breathe”, he actually could. Only to him it perhaps felt like he couldn’t. This started happening prior to him being placed in the cruiser (which he immediately jumped out of).
The death of George Floyd was an accident. Not at the hands of racist police but at the hands of police officers trying to subdue an uncooperative suspect. Had he not had a preexisting heart condition, it’s possible he’d still be alive today. The same would be true if he had simply complied with the officers’ orders.
The Black Lives Matter narrative depends on the death of George Floyd being a racially-motivated act. If racism can’t be found, then the death of George Floyd is, essentially, useless to them. If there was no malice behind the motives of the officers, then they can’t justify the destructive protests we’ve seen over the past few months. They can’t admit that Mr. Floyd is at least partially responsible for his own death by repeatedly refusing to comply with the officers’ instructions. Because, that won’t support their narrative.
George Floyd was not hunted and killed by racist cops, even though that’s what has been claimed for months. We’ve been told that Mr. Floyd complied with the officers’ instructions and did not resist in any way. We were led to believe that there was no reason for the police to subdue him. These things are simply not true. And it’s these lies that led directly to the burning of our cities.
If Black Lives Matter doesn’t immediately admit that the death of George Floyd was NOT racially motivated, that Mr. Floyd was at least partially responsible for his own death, that the destruction of our cities is unwarranted, then I don’t understand how anyone can continue to support them.
