We Cannot Remain Silent About George Floyd

Examining the historic protests in America over police brutality and racially charged violence.

Featured Image of "We Cannot Remain Silent About George Floyd" post

@LGNWVRPHTO / Instagram – The death of George Floyd, a son, a brother, a father, and a friend, has galvanized a global activist movement against racial injustice and police brutality.

“Please, I can’t breathe.”

Those final, fateful words of George Floyd have echoed across the schisms of a divided America for the past two weeks.

On May 25, Minneapolis Police officers arrested George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, after a store clerk dialed 911, accusing him of buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. In seventeen minutes after the first squad car arrived at the scene, Mr. Floyd was unconscious beneath three police officers, with no discernable pulse.

For 8 minutes and 46 seconds, a white police officer named Derek Chauvin dug his knee on Floyd’s neck until the life drained from his body. Implausibly, Chauvin persisted to kneel on George Floyd’s neck for a full minute after paramedics arrived, despite Floyd remaining unresponsive.

Even after mercifully calling out to his late mother and repeating, “I can’t breathe,” George Floyd lost his life. His story an unfinished canvas destined to never be fully realized with elaborative strokes of color and definition.

Of Their Own Accord

@AYY.BEE / Instagram – A portrait of George Floyd from Adrian Brandon’s #StolenSeries. For every year of life lived, a minute of graphite and ink is applied to the portrait (i.e., 46 years lived = 46 minutes of color).

As you may know, this appalling turn of events compelled the nation into a state of caustic self-reckoning; however, let this be clear:

We are not only stunned by the brutal and tragic murder of George Floyd…

We are not only shocked by the undeniable evidence of systematic racism and excessive use of force that were virtually documented before our very eyes…

We are incensed because we heard those familiar, haunting words before.

And yet here we are, caught in an ever-perpetuating cycle of racially charged violence and police brutality.

Another Black person dying at the hands of the police, pleading, “I can’t breathe.”

Therefore, with the looming specter of systemic racial injustice taking center stage once again, let it be known:

We cannot stay silent on George Floyd.

Language of the Unheard

In a campaign for racial justice both years and decades in the making, the man murdered by Minneapolis Police immediately became a national symbol of the need for police accountability.

In other words, the heinous murder of George Floyd has galvanized millions of people to give voice to the grief and anger wrought by corrupted systems of racial injustice and white supremacy onto countless generations of Black Americans.

Demonstrations and protests unprecedented in scale have erupted throughout all fifty US states and even internationally, thereby establishing one of the largest multicultural activist movements in world history.

Video / Twitter – Thousands turn out for peaceful demonstrations in support of #BlackLivesMatter across Los Angeles.

Notably, the George Floyd protests have unfolded into a historical multicultural movement that has mobilized a significant population of non-blacks who have not spoken out before.

People from all races and all walks of life are educating themselves online, signing petitions, and attending protests where they get to listen to first-hand stories of the oppressed who experience racism on a daily basis.

Young and old, black and white, family and friends, Batman and Joker; an entire legion of Americans are beginning to realize that after so many promises to reform the system have come and gone, enough is enough.

Video / Twitter – The George Floyd protests have mobilized the masses to call for law enforcement reform, even drawing the ire of the Dark Knight himself.

From Bad to Worse

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Image / Joseph Ngabo – Tensions are discernibly high as the relatively peaceful Los Angeles protestors confront the abrupt escalation manufactured in part by law enforcement.

American society is unfortunately founded on an unforgiving racial hierarchy; in accordance, police departments are called upon to enforce a system of laws that are designed to reinforce and preserve economic and racial inequality.

Therefore, despite efforts to reassure the sanctity and safety of peaceful assembly, to oppose the status quo inevitably means incurring the wrath of those who are asked to protect it.

In the midst of the mass protests that began in Minneapolis and have swelled to dozens of American cities, there have been hundreds of arrests, curfews declared, and National Guard troops summoned.

Ironically, the very same public demonstrations aimed at protesting unrelenting police violence have faced daunting bouts of police brutality themselves, making an already heartbreaking situation even worse.

A fever of social media regrettably documents officers beating unarmed protestors, ramming squad cars into demonstrators, indiscriminately using pepper spray on bystanders, and causing life-threatening injuries with “less lethal” bean-bag rounds.

City officials attempted to justify the abrupt escalation perpetuated by law enforcement by asserting that the officers were merely responding to suspected cases of looting which has become prevalent amidst some rioting. However, even law enforcement leadership understood that the use of excessive force is “never acceptable,” and police departments have made sure to discipline officers for any misconduct.

Nonetheless, we still have a President who is not shy in invoking a loaded, racist threat by tweeting, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

In the face of coping with a President whose very existence is composed of rhetoric that is deliberately divisive, as well as grappling with the wrenching uncertainty of the prevalent COVID-19 pandemic, a long road ahead is certainly assured for the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Rose that Grew From Concrete

In the haze of civil unrest, the political and social ramifications of the George Floyd protests are beginning to emerge from allegorical obscurity.

A myriad of countries and states such as New York, Florida, and California are passing legislation restricting police use of force (e.g., banning the usage of neck restraints). In addition, many city officials are embracing proposed budget cuts to their respective police departments.

Remarkably, Minneapolis city council officials pledged to defund and dismantle the city’s police department. As a result, a new model of public safety will soon be implemented to keep communities safe following the wake of the police killing of George Floyd.

Although it remains to be seen how such a novel approach to public safety and emergency response would function, there appears to be a consensus that the role of police would ultimately be diminished. For instance, these plans may permit social workers, mental health providers, and other community members to potentially handle many of the nonviolent situations that police currently deal with.

Back on Capitol Hill, Democrats have unveiled a sweeping police reform bill targeting police misconduct and racial bias, a measure that figures to be the most expansive intervention into policing in recent memory. Senate Republicans are now also working on legislation to address police reform, a reconciliation that would have been unheard of merely a few weeks ago.

Even ‘Cops,’ a TV show that has remained on the air for a whopping 33 seasons, has been canceled for its glorification of police officers.

As for the George Floyd case itself, the public outcry has caused all four officers to be charged to the fullest extent of the law, setting forth a powerful precedent for police accountability.

Black Lives Matter, a campaign that has long endeavored to establish a world free of anti-Blackness by highlighting the depth of injustice and unaccountability that American society harbors toward people of color, is absolutely generating an indispensable statement.

Make no mistake, Black Lives Matter has fundamentally transformed from a hashtag-powered rallying cry to a national mantra that cannot nor will not be ignored in every facet of modern American life.

For all the pain and loss incurred, the wake of George Floyd’s death has cultivated a powerful catalyst that can pave the way for meaningful, expansive change.

Tip of the Spear

Graphic / Campaign Zero – A visual presentation of a list of policy solutions that aims to reduce the frequency and severity of police violence in our communities.

For the aforementioned ‘meaningful, expansive change’ to materialize, the George Floyd protests have concentrated their efforts into bringing about systemic transformation. A transformation that will hold law enforcement accountable for the violence they inflict, a transformation that will eradicate a racist system that breeds corruption, and a call for radical, sustainable solutions that affirm the prosperity of Black lives.

It is time to rethink qualified immunity. The legal doctrine of qualified immunity protects police officers from civil lawsuits (i.e., provides immunity from having to go through the costs of trial) by shielding officers from liability for all actions taken on the job except for those that violate ‘clearly established’ law.

Permitting police to freely perform their duties without fear of being held accountable has enabled a culture of violence and abuse responsible for the deaths of victims like George Floyd.

To illustrate, a database from Mapping Police Violence detailed a whopping 99% of police killings from 2013-2019 have not resulted in officers being charged with a crime, grossly showcasing the existing disparity in police accountability.

Thusly, an antiquated get-out-of-jail-free card for murdering people of color makes a mockery of the criminal justice system and it will NOT stand.

On the other hand, a plethora of research has indicated how police practices and training also have to be re-evaluated to foster significant police reform.

For example, the Police Use of Force Project found that those police departments with policies that place clear restrictions on when and how officers use force had significantly fewer killings than those that did not have these restrictions in place. Furthermore, the study also found that officers in police departments with more restrictive policies in place are actually less likely to be assaulted, conveying how even law enforcement itself can benefit from police reform.

As Black Lives Matter activists call for the defunding of police, there is a common misconception surrounding what the concept actually entails. The concept to defund the police exists on a spectrum and does not necessarily mean to strip police funding and dissolve departments (although some activists are certainly calling for it).

Rather, defunding the police means to divest from the violent policing infrastructure (potentially resulting in fewer cops) and reinvesting those funds into strengthening Black and Brown communities.

In cities like Charlottesville and Los Angeles, police department funding accounts for an astronomical proportion of the city budget, which dwarves those for education, housing, and other vital services.

By cutting police spending, those reallocated funds will be put back into social services such as mental health, domestic violence, and homelessness as well as aid the funding of hospital equipment and youth initiatives. Ideally, such an initiative to invest in resource-deficient communities will effectively reduce crime on its own.

Do Not Go Gentle

What is truly astounding about the George Floyd protests is that there is no distinct leader powering the movement; there is just the implicit belief that everyone’s voice matters.

Yet, it does not mean that Black Lives Matter is a rudderless movement. On the contrary, with the power of social media as a digital playbook, the collective majority now possess the means to stand against systemic oppression in ways prior generations could not before.

In the age of social media, everyone has a platform where they can actively amplify their voices and let themselves be heard in the fight for justice and equality. Therefore, to remain silent is to deprive your social spheres of the opportunity to hold meaningful reflection and foster discussion about what police reform and Black Lives Matter means to them.

And we shouldn’t stay silent.

Not when we currently live in a country where Black lives are systematically targeted for demise.

Not when the color of your skin can get you killed just for jogging, buying groceries, being homeless, wearing a hoodie at night, enjoying ice cream in your own living room, and even sleeping in your own bed.

Not when thousands upon thousands of protestors are risking their lives and bodies for a chance at being heard in the middle of a deadly pandemic.

We must remember that the soul of America has always been in political revolution. To remain resilient in the face of deadly oppression is the reason why we call the United States our home.

Be that as it may, this country has its share of troubling failures. For that reason, we must also confront the still-present legacy of slavery in America: systemic racism.

To fight against such engrained systemic racism in American society will certainly involve more than just posting black squares on your Instagrams. Our collective voices must maintain a consistent story, a story that advocates for racial justice at every conceivable opportunity.

Some have chosen to donate time and money to Black organizations and businesses; some have decided to offer free healthcare to the protestors on the front lines; others have pledged to work pro-bono to represent those arrested.

Whatever you choose to do, just remember that there is no magic solution. Only education and action will enable a more fair and just America that we have never known in our lifetimes.

Just remember that we can never remain silent about George Floyd.

Progress can be a painful and unforgiving process. Still, a reckoning is long overdue.

To learn more about how you can support Black Lives Matter, visit: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co

National Bail Fund Network: https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/

Know Your Rights Camp: https://knowyourrightscamp.com/

Campaign Zero: https://www.joincampaignzero.org/

Police Brutality Spreadsheet

(Warning: Some videos and images contain scenes of graphic violence)

Say Their Names:

Ahmaud Arbery Sean Bell Rumain Brisbon Philando Castille William Chapman Keith Childress Jr. Stephon Clark John Crawford III Johnathan Ferrell George Floyd Ezell Ford Eric Garner Brendon Glenn Oscar Grant Freddie Gray Kimani Gray Akai Gurley Botham Jean Atatiana Jefferson Bettie Jones Trayvon Martin Kendrec Mcdade Natasha Mckenna Eric Reason Tamir Rice Tony Robinson Jr. Jonathan Sanders Walter Scott Alton Sterling Breonna Taylor

Author: Joshua P

Hey, I'm Josh! A UCLA grad in Psychobiology and Cognitive Science, I write about a myriad of personal interests (e.g. mental health, lifestyle, travel, pop culture).

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