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George Floyd and the Language of the Unheard
We all saw the video. A police officer had his knee on the neck of George Floyd. It was a carotid restraint, and the officers claimed he was resisting arrest. Without a video, we would not have more than the words of the officers. Without the video from a restaurant, we would not know the lie to the story. Floyd was not resisting.
The big picture is that young black men continue to be executed by police officers. Whether it is Eric Garner or Floyd, “I can’t breath.” Two men died. The New York Police Officer association fought the firing of the officer. In this case, the four officers were fired. Yet, it looks like the local DA, and even the Feds, are slow-walking this. They have yet to be arrested.
Why am I leaving the names out? It could be any of a hundred cases over the years. It could be Rodney King, the first of these names that entered my consciousness. That riot came from the same well of anger at what looked like white officers almost never seeing justice. A black man’s life is not as valuable as that of a white person. It’s clear in our society. Why white officers rarely face the music. They are the tip of the spear for a system of social control going back centuries.
They know it. The rest of us know it.