Tag Archives: George Floyd

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Pandemic response gives way to police brutality response

Donald Trump’s response to the global pandemic has been chronicled thoroughly as a disaster, pure and simple.

Trump fluffed the initial response by dawdling and dismissing the COVID-19 threat. Now look at the toll just in the U.S. of A. More than 100,000 dead; more than 1 million sickened. Trump keeps yapping that he’s done better than anyone else on Earth.

It’s crap, man!

Now comes the response to George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Minn. A police officer choked Floyd to death by pushing his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck. Three other officers stood by. They said nothing. They watched as Floyd cried out, calling for his mother, begging for his life. All four were fired immediately by the police department. The now-former cop who killed Floyd is charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

What has been Donald Trump’s response to the latest crisis to dominate media coverage? Has he called for a national conversation on the way police treat African-Americans? Has he said anything more than a perfunctory expression of sadness at the death of a man at the hands of rogue cops? No.

He has called for police to get tough. He said he is considering bringing the full weight of the military to bear in quelling the riots that have erupted in cities throughout the land. Think of that for just a moment … good grief!

Trump has castigated governors for being “weak” in their response to this crisis.

The nation needs someone who can speak with calm. With firm kindness. With an understanding of the cause of the crisis along with how to respond to it.

Donald Trump’s one-dimensional reaction to the national turmoil that has erupted provides just another example of how unsuited he is for the job he inherited.

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Tough talk from … a coward

I am not inclined to use Donald Trump’s refusal to fight for his country during the Vietnam War against him. Yes, this blog has mentioned it on occasion, referring to the hypocrisy of the present-day tough talk juxtaposed with the “bone spurs” diagnosis he received to help defer him from being drafted into the military.

Trump’s excoriating of governors for not being tough enough against the rioters who have brought severe damage and destruction in reaction to George Floyd’s death just is too inviting a target to ignore.

Donald Trump needs a slap across the face for saying what he did about the governors. He called them “weak.” He implored them to “get tough” with those who take protest to the next, destructive level.

I remember, too, how his nincompoop — while campaigning for the presidency — lampooned cops for being too “nice” to criminal suspects. He implored them to rough up the suspects. It’s fair to suggest, then, that the four Minneapolis officers who are complicit in George Floyd’s death took the candidate’s advice quite literally.

So now the man who reportedly said he wasn’t so “stupid” that he would make himself available to serve his country in time of war implores elected governors to get tough on those who are angry at the conduct of rogue cops.

Reprehensible.

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Fearing that police will be scarred needlessly

I feel the need to defend law enforcement officers.

It’s not that they need me to defend them. I do fear that the fallout from the George Floyd story well might scar police officers wrongly as protests keep turning into riots.

George Floyd’s death at the hands of a rogue cop has stunned the nation and the world. I got an email from a friend in Australia who expressed concern about the culture that produced the conduct that led to Floyd’s hideous death in Minneapolis. My friend is a learned man and I will accept his analysis as legitimate.

My concern rests with the universal police community that comprises men and women who do their jobs with diligence and honor every hour each day they go to work.

My career as a journalist put me in touch with many fine law enforcement officers over the course of nearly four decades. I respected all of them; I “liked” most of them, but not all. As a reporter and an editor, the cops and I occasionally would butt heads, which is more or less the nature of police/media relationships.

However, they were almost to a person individuals with the greatest integrity. I haven’t spoken to any of them since the Floyd story exploded, but I know what they would say. They would say they are horrified at what that Minneapolis did, that they cannot fathom “restraining” someone the way the cop did to Floyd, snuffing the life out of him over the span of nine minutes.

Legitimate protests are warranted if they are aimed exclusively at the police agency in question; in this case it’s the Minneapolis Police Department. Indeed, all law enforcement agencies are being handed an opportunity to examine closely their own policies regarding the detention of suspects.

What happened in Minneapolis is horrifying in the extreme. It doesn’t get easier to watch the video of George Floyd being confronted by the police and then plead for his life as it is slipping away under the cop’s knee pressed against the back of his neck.

I will not accept that what occurred nearly a week ago is standard operating procedure among all law enforcement agencies and among all the men and women who suit up every day to “protect and serve” the public.

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They are ‘rioters,’ not ‘protesters’

For as long as we continue to discuss openly the reaction of those who damage others’ property and inflict more misery and mayhem in the name of justice, I am hereby making a pledge.

I no longer will refer to them as “protesters.” They are “rioters.” I might even toss in another epithet or two to describe the imbeciles who take to the streets in the manner we have witnessed in the wake of the George Floyd murder by the Minneapolis, Minn., cop.

A protester is one who exercises his or her rights of “peaceable” assembly.” It’s laid out in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A protester is one who follows the example set by the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who preached non-violent civil disobedience and urged those who followed him to do the same.

George Floyd died when a police office suffocated him. He pleaded with the officer to “please, please” remove the knee from back of his neck because, he said, “I can’t breathe.” He begged for his “mama” before losing consciousness … and then dying.

The officer who killed Floyd has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. There should be other charges leveled against the three other officers involved in this hideous incident.

As for the rioters, they do not do a single thing to advance the cause for which they ostensibly seek to bring to our national attention.

I believe the rest of us who are horrified at the sight of George Floyd’s life being snuffed out need to reserve large amounts of anger at the rioters who have usurped the attention from actual protesters whose voices need to be heard.

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We need a president who cares

President Ronald Reagan consoled a nation shattered by the explosion of a space ship and the deaths of seven astronauts by telling us how they “had touched the face of God.”

President Barack Obama led a church congregation in a rendition of “Amazing Grace” after a gunman killed nine of their congregants in a senseless, hate-filled massacre.

President George W. Bush reminded us we would not go to “war with Islam,” but vowed to bring certain justice to the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11.

Sen. Robert Kennedy, while running for president in 1968, stood on a flatbed truck and told an Indianapolis crowd that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot dead by an assassin … and then he quoted Aeschylus.

Donald Trump? His reaction to the global pandemic that has killed more than100,000 Americans has been to boast that it could have been greater had he not closed entry from China. He has chided Democratic governors. He has blasted the media for reporting “fake news.” And then he has told us in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of rogue cops that “when there’s looting there will be shooting.”

Oh, my.

We need a president who can rise to the level set forth in the role of consoler in chief. Donald Trump cannot — or will not — rise to that level. He is unable or unwilling to shed the politics of the moment and speak to the entire nation in the moment of grief.

I keep saying — and will continue saying it — that he is unfit for the office he is now seeking to retain. He shouldn’t have been elected in the first place. But he was. Many of us knew all along that if and when the moment presented itself — and it has with the pandemic and now the George Floyd matter — that Donald Trump would be unsuited for the task before him.

We wanted to be wrong. Sadly, this individual has proven us right.

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Misery is spreading

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Dallas erupted overnight in a spasm of violence related to the death nearly a week ago of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man suffocated by a rogue cop who snuffed the life out of him by placing his knee on the back of his neck for 8 or 9 minutes.

Businesses were damaged. People were injured. More victims emerged from the aftermath of the hideous incident in which the cop was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

It is everyone’s sincere hope that the violence will end. That we’ll start now to assess seriously the ongoing problem of police relations with communities of color. That police departments might take a long and sober look at whether their officers enforce the law differently when principals involved are ethnic or racial minorities.

The cops used tear gas on the Dallas protesters. Police Chief U. Renee Hall has justified the use of the gas. That’s her call and I won’t get into whether the PD was right or wrong.

Dallas was just one of many cities that erupted. Will there be more of it today, tonight and into the future?

Please! No!

I am officially mourning my country at this moment. We are battling that pandemic with shabby and shameful lack of leadership from the top of government chain of command. Now this! The top of that command chain, namely Donald Trump, has again acted with little demonstrable anger over what he surely has witnessed along with the rest of us … which is the sight of that cop killing George Floyd. Instead he has directed his anger at the angry mobs. I get that he’s angry about the damage being done; it angers me, too.

However, I want the president to look at the cause of that anger and to redirect his anger at the brutality that created this firestorm.

So it goes. My goodness. This madness must end.

science news

Finally, something to cheer!

Amid all the gloom and grief, and all the mayhem and misery associated with a global pandemic and the death of a man at the hands of brutal cops in Minneapolis, Minn., I found time today to cheer an event for which I have been waiting.

At around 2:30 p.m., Central Daylight Time, a rocket launched from Pad 39A at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It carried two American astronauts into orbit. It was the first launch of Americans from a U.S. launching pad in nearly a decade.

Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are orbiting Earth and will dock sometime tomorrow with the International Space Station.

I could not believe the flutter in my heart this afternoon as they counted down the final seconds before the launch. Then the Space X rocket lit up and burst off the pad toward Earth orbit.

NASA and Space X have teamed up for a historic event and this one was worth cheering … loudly, in fact. I was thrilled in a way I hadn’t been thrilled since I was a whole lot younger watching the early launches of the American space program with my mother.

Indeed, I thought of Mom today as I watched Space X roar into space, wondering how she would have reacted to the sight of Americans zooming into the heavens aboard an American-made rocket, from a U.S. launch pad. Mom would be proud, too.

Space X is the product of a company owned by Elon Musk, the zillionaire owner of Tesla. His company has designed a fantastic space vehicle. I noticed how they first-stage rocket was able to soft-land on a drone ship at sea in good enough shape to be used again on a subsequent space flight.

This is really cool stuff, man. It’s cool for those of us old enough to remember the excitement and romance that used to be associated with space travel.

I am no Pollyanna. I know this is expensive, even with a privately ownership taking the lead on this kind of exploration. However, I have long believed — and always will believe — that humanity was put on this good Earth to venture as far as possible to explore.

I am just glad to see American technology being brought back into the picture once again to take that next “giant leap for mankind.”

Given the troubling context of the times, it was a welcome sight to this old man’s eyes.

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Leadership is MIA

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Donald Trump strode to the microphone today at the White House.

The nation is reeling from the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis resident who died after being restrained brutally by a cop. City streets have erupted in flames. Many of us are grieving over Floyd’s death. The entire world is watching.

Oh, and we also have that pandemic that is far from being brought “under control.”

So, what does Donald Trump do? He speaks about China. He talks about China’s theft of intellectual property. He speaks about how he has gotten tough on China after his immediate predecessor let China get away with taking advantage of the United States.

Did the president take a moment to speak while standing in front of his bully pulpit to call for calm? Did he offer a word of comfort to George Floyd’s family and friends? Did he vow to call any of Floyd’s loved ones, to offer a word of empathy, compassion?

Oh, no! He didn’t say a single, solitary word about the tragedy.

This is a continuation of the failure of leadership that Donald Trump exhibits. He doesn’t have an empathetic bone in that overfed body of his.

And so the nation grieves without any semblance of leadership from its head of state. Donald Trump instead concerns himself with personal political matters … even as the nation continues to struggle against the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 of its citizens.

No one said the job of president is a walk in the park. It requires much of the individual who occupies the office. The current occupant lacks at every level imaginable the skill it takes to lead a nation in distress.

He needs to be removed from office.

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Is this the tipping point? Finally?

I am numbed by what the nation keeps witnessing.

Another African-American man has died at the hands — or more to the point, at the knee — of a police officer. For what reason? Well, he was being arrested for a non-violent crime. George Floyd did what the cops asked him to do. Yet he was put on the ground and a Minneapolis, Minn., police officer kept the pressure on Floyd’s neck until he passed out.

Then this man died.

The outrage has been horrific. Then again, the incident is horrific.

The police department fired the four officers who were involved in Floyd’s arrest and death. And today one of them, Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

This clearly isn’t the end of the story. We still have the three other officers apart from the one who pressed his knee in the back of George Floyd’s neck. The charges could be enhanced to something more severe. The other three (now former) cops are facing criminal prosecution.

What happens now? My goodness. I am trying to fathom the gravity of what we have witnessed yet again in this nation. George Floyd now joins a long and distressing list of victims of police brutality.

The nation has acted with outrage before. People have rioted. They have destroyed property. Then the outward anger subsides. We return to the lives we knew. The cops also return to doing what they have done all along.

Then the cycle repeats itself with another incident such as the one that has gripped the nation.

I am mourning my country. I grieve for the good police officers who do their jobs diligently and with honor. I am pained by the rioting and the damage that has been done to business owners who have played no role in any of this madness. My heart breaks for African-American men and women who have been victimized and those fellow citizens of ours who live in fear that they might be next.

I also am angry at Donald Trump who decided to call Jacob Frey a “very weak radical left mayor.” Disgusting.

I am tired of feeling numb at the spasm of violence that has brought us once again to this flash point. When will this ever end?

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Riots inflict terrible collateral damage

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There can be no way on Earth to gloss over any aspect of the reaction to the death of an African-American man at the hands of rogue cops in Minneapolis, Minn.

George Floyd’s death is a hideous example of how dangerous it is to be black in America. He was arrested by the cops, cooperated with their demands, then thrown to the ground, restrained with a knee in the back of his neck until he passed out … and then died. 

The reaction of the rioting crowds, though, is what also is quite troubling. It’s the vandalism that I find so repugnant … accompanied by the theft of items taken from retail outlets that have been looted by the angry mob.

What we have here is a situation that creates untold collateral damage to individuals who do not deserve to be damaged by the rioters.

Think of this for just a moment. There might be a business owner who is aghast and horrified at what the nation has witnessed with the conduct of the police and the death of George Floyd. That business owner then becomes a victim of the mob that rampaged down his or her street, broke into the business, smashed windows, stole items, destroyed the interior, perhaps even set it afire.

How in the name of human decency does one justify such reprehensible conduct?

Do not misunderstand me on this point: I share the anger of those who are demanding justice for George Floyd’s death. The video of the cop — who was fired along with his three colleagues involved in the incident — is repugnant on its face. I hope prosecutors can find grounds to prosecute these officers, particularly the goon who killed Floyd.

However, the damage inflicted on innocent individuals, business owners who well might be sympathetic with the rioters, is beyond anything reasonable, rational or humane.