George Floyd

Eric Gardner was killed in a similar way about six years ago. And three years ago Angie Thomas created the book The Hate U Give. This has shown us that things haven’t really changed much. And to think that this all started because of a 20 dollar bill. My heart goes out to his family and African Americans.

I think that police brutality needs to end and we need to have better evaluations of our police officers. The man that killed him should’ve been taken out of the police force before this even happened. George told this man several times that he couldn’t breathe. With the man even asking him to get up as he pinned him to the ground.

To me this is something that could’ve been talked out. From the videos I watched the business owner asked for the cigarettes back. From what I’ve seen no one has reported that he asked for money to pay for it. The officers could’ve asked him to either give them back or have him pay for it. I would hope that if this man refused to do either he would’ve gotten no more than a few days in jail unless he resisted even more. Which he didn’t seem to do anything more than try to stay in his car. It doesn’t look like he ever tried to do anything to hurt the police or anyone else. I’ve found that George had been to jail for armed robbery, but even so, that would give the officers a right to be weary, but that also depends on how long ago it was. People change over the years, and this man already served his time. If the charge made the police tense they should’ve just handcuffed him and let him stay with his back again the wall like he was before they pinned him down. If he still refused to get in the car they should’ve just carried him in instead of pinning to the ground. There was plenty of them to be able to do that.

The police didn’t get off of him even as bystanders were begging him to get off. It took the ambulance to show up to get him off the man. George had been laid off from his job due to covid and was most likely struggling like many people were.

There have been protests and riots. Many people have lost their jobs. While I don’t think that it’s right that people destroy these businesses, I do think that people do this for a reason. Why not homes? Why not parks? I think this is a reason the businesses are targeted specifically. I think many people will watch the video of George Floyd’s death and believe that America cares more about businesses than they do the lives of its people. I think after a video like this along with a large loss of jobs, a reaction like this is in a way predictable. We are a country that values money above all else, even Trumps priorities  lie in the economy. However, money isn’t everything. Studies have shown that once people are able to keep their bills away, their happiness levels remains relatively the same. We don’t need a country where a handful of people have buttloads of money, we need a country that is able to care for everyones needs so this violence doesn’t continue.

Some of the rioters might not have even had jobs before this even started. They might have already lost everything. We have given people stimulus checks, food stamps and many of them have gone on unemployment. But has this been enough to help people through this recession? If it was I don’t think many people would’ve have reacted this way.

I think that our country has been split in more ways than one. By race as well as wealth.

 

We are separated in more ways than one. With the poor in America mostly being minority groups. I think we need to acknowledge capitalism as well as racism. Covid has shown us that we need the working class more than any other class, without them many wealthy CEOs and business owners wouldn’t exist. Yet, despite the working class putting in the most work, many of us are the least financially secure. And with many of us living paycheck to paycheck, we could lose everything in only a few weeks. Most African Americans were brought here as slaves and even when they received freedom they came here with nothing. With some of their ancestors even going back to plantations since they couldn’t find work elsewhere. I’m not here to say that all African Americans are poor. Some have moved recently to America from wealthy places in Africa and elsewhere. And others were able to go college and get much better jobs. However, recovering from oppression and starting out with nothing will most likely take a long time. Even when blacks were able to vote it still took a long time to make others accept these new laws. Just because the laws were in place doesn’t mean everyone wanted to follow them. And with white suprematists groups coming to the protests to provoke people. I’m not surprised that many African Americans still don’t feel safe in this country.

#blacklivesmatter