A horrifying video has emerged of a black man George Floyd who died in Minneapolis after a police officer pinned him to the ground with his knee on the man’s neck for five minutes, even though the man was saying that he could not breathe and bystanders who recorded the incident said that the man had started bleeding from his nose.
The man in this case was unarmed but we know from past experience that the next stage in this case is for defenders of the police to investigate his past and publicize any negative facts that are unearthed in order to deflect attention away from the way he was treated.
Then we have the example of a white woman Amy Cooper calling the police on a bird watching black man Chris Cooper in New York’s Central Park who had reminded her that her dog was supposed to be on a leash in that area. She told the police on the phone that the man was threatening her life. Fortunately he had recorded the incident and the police did not take any action.
On the surface, this seems like a trivial case compared to what happened in Minneapolis. But it could have gone so badly wrong and the bird watcher could easily have been roughly handled, tasered, or even killed by the police as happened to the Minneapolis man. They could claim that his bird watching binoculars looked like a gun and thus caused them to view him as armed and dangerous. The woman in this case was taking advantage of the fact that black men can be accused of anything by white people, and the presumption is that they are guilty and the burden is on them to prove that they are innocent, something that they are often not even given the time to do. The way she said “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life” shows that she knew she was lying but was well aware of the privilege that comes with being white, that her version of events would be believed over his.
Zeba Blay writes about the pressure that black people constantly feel in such situations that happen frequently.
I’ve had to be intentional about remaining calm, deescalating the situation, making the other person — the person policing me — feel safe and reassured, in spite of the fact that in these interactions they’ve been perfectly fine and I’ve been the one made to feel unsafe and insecure.
The woman has since apologized saying “I’m not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way.” Her employer, the finance company Franklin Templeton, has placed her on administrative leave and her dog has been returned to the rescue service she had got it from.
This is the daily experience of black people in the US.
UPDATE: The woman has been fired from her job.
#BlackTwitter is a force https://t.co/3ddkj1X7lw
— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) May 26, 2020
FURTHER UPDATE: I heard from a friend who is a bird watcher that Chris Cooper, the bird watcher who had the police called on him, appears in a documentary about bird watching in Central Park.
Terrible. Racism, impunity, absence of (what people may be wrongly assuming as almost universal or widespread) moral or ethical sense -- terrifying consequences on display -- reeducation on a wider scale on how to live in this world seems to be needed.
Was this over reaction too? The employer has fired the woman in New York Central Park, who called the police because a black man who was bird watching asked her to leash her dog.., “Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately. We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton,” the company said in a statement posted to Twitter.
I wonder if they’ll even be bothered placing the murdering cop on administrative leave. Also, I would not be surprised if Trump involves himself in it, probably to exert pressure on the police force to let the cop get away with it.
The Baltimore cops broke Freddie Gray’s neck that way, then came up with a coverup claiming he did it to himself in the back of the van.
Since it is not being used to restrain, it’s torture, which is a violation of US and international law. Conspiracy to torture that results in the victim’s death is a capital crime. Oh, but sure, fire the cops.
Aaaaand the cops involved are now fired. Better than I expected, but the ordeal can only really be said to be put to rest if they are also charged with murder.
That’s 2nd degree murder. I fully expect them to be prosecuted. Who am I kidding, they’ll get off with a misdemeanor. At least the family will have a strong wrongful death lawsuit.
@3: According to Dutch News Broadcasting all four are now ex-police officers and will be prosecuted.