The whole world was shocked, horrified and disgusted not just at the senseless murder of George Floyd on Monday in Minneapolis while he was in police custody but the fact it took four days for just one of the officers involved to be arrested and charged.
Knowing that could be me, my brothers, my nephews, my uncles and my cousins makes this very personal for me. I don’t fear cops and have no reason to obviously. Floyd actually worked security alongside the officer who was announced has been arrested and will be charged today believe it or not. So, he knew one of his murderers.
The Blue Wall of Silence is REAL. For those who don’t know, it’s basically “snitches get stiches” to put it simply. Those who break the code are ignored at best, resign in frustration at worst and if you really piss off the wrong person, set up for a fall. In short, corruption. It certainly doesn’t help they are being egged on by the current president to violate civil and human rights but more on this later.
I have not seen the original 15-minute footage of George Floyd’s final moments alive–it was recorded live–and I hope I never will. A second video was released today of the same incident but from another angle revealing not one but four officers were involved. Floyd can clearly be heard saying “I can’t breathe” several times while being held down in handcuffs.
Police Chiefs from across the country–Black, White, Young, Old and otherwise–wasted no time voicing their outrage and disgust, saying what happened was neither appropriate, sanctioned or part of officer training. For those who don’t know or undersrand, it’s actually harder to breathe in while laying on your stomach. It takes more effort to breathe in. That’s just without someone with their knee pressed into your neck. Floyd had a number of prexisting health conditions–and the defense will likely go that route–but they alone were not what killed him. The wife of the officer involved announced late Friday night she stands with the victim’s family and is filing for a divorce.
The prosecutor heading this case announced this afternoon the former officer at the center of this incident–he was immediately fired along with the other three officers involved–will be charged with Third Degree Murder as well as Second Degree Murder. Third Degree Murder is defined in the state of Minnesota as basically causing the death of someone with no regard for human life. Additional charges are expected and the other three officers are also expected to be charged very soon.
…This happened late last night. Rioters looted and set businesses on fire in Minneapolis. This Precinct was also set on fire and has presumably burned to the ground by this point. According to some reports the gas lines for the precinct were breached but thankfully, there was no explosion.
Local Activists did not condone what happened in a press conference the following morning. They shared the position of the Minneapolis and St. Paul Mayors as well as the Minnesota governor that most of the rioters and looters are not from the area. This seems to have been prettymuch confirmed when Rioters and Looters returned to the area Friday night after a curfew was put in place.
What I found very interesting but not surprising is the activists are telling the media the rioters and looters who descended upon Minneapolis last night were White. The only way they can possibly know that is if they saw and heard them up close. Now, the precinct that was burned had been evacuated hours before dark and the police were nowhere to be seen until morning. Put it together and you have a setup.
I’ll put it like this: None of the locals would trash local small businsses in ANY U.S. City and more so if they know the owners. Full stop. The only possible explaination is people with their own agenda came in–during a pandemic that is still killing thousands in just the U.S. daily–just to do that.
According to chatter in Secret Facebook Groups for White Nationalists and White Nationalist Militia, they have people on the ground everywhere embedding themselves with the peaceful protesters to kick the hornet’s nest with law enforcement. Their plan is to cause chaos and destruction to make the peaceful protesters look bad. They’re basically setting the table to incite a strong law enforcement and/or legislative response.
Martin Luther King once said “Riots are the language of the unheard.” I do not condone what happened in Minneapolis last night or the protests that turned violence in other U.S. cities. MLK also said “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only Light can do that.” The anger is real and it’s what led to what happened last night not just in Minneapolis but other U.S. Cities.
This is Omar Jimenez, who is Black. He is a CNN Reporter and was arrested by state troopers for and while doing his job live on the air. The last thing Minneapolis needed this week was this. The state governor wasted no time getting personally involved and personally apologized to both the reporter and the President of CNN.
Arresting Officers claim they needed to verify his credentials despite the fact he identified himself several times as he was being arrested. You can see his press badge in plain view above as well. They knew he was a reporter all along of course. People see the press being arrested and immediately think “They must be getting ready to do something they don’t want us to know about.” He was released 30 minutes later and the governor of Minnesota personally apologized to both the reporter and the network over what happened.
You need to also look at this in the context of Trump’s regular attacks against the Media and more specifically, CNN. It would be more than fair to presume at least some of the officers and state troopers–and this is true of all 50 states, mind you–are Trump supporters. That reminds me. A reverse image search revealed the former officer arrested today was at a Trump Rally last year.
This is in addition to the officer–and I’m not naming him on purpose because his name should not be remembered–having 18 complaints against him during his career. As a reminder, the cop who choked Eric Garner to death in New York City was not only never charged but still has his job. Many people have noted the similarities in both cases actually. Garner’s final words were also “I can’t breathe”.
Yes, Trump said these things last night. As a reminder, he called former NFL Quarterbark Colin Kaepernick a “Son of a Bitch” for kneeling during the national anthem a few years ago. he called African nations “Shithole countries”. He called the White Supremicists who protested in Charlottesville “Very fine people”. He announced he considers himself a Nationalist. He has also said multiple times he would like Law Enforcement to be physically “tough” when they subdue and arrest people, inferring promotion of police brutality and blatant violation of someone’s civil and human rights.
Trump announced in a press conference early in the afternoon he is ending U.S. relations with the World Health Organization. The REAL reason? His failed Trade War with China.
On a related note, he announced he will be working to revoke the special statuses and provisions Hong Kong has had as an autonomous state. This is in resonse to China breaking promises on allowing Hong Kong to keep most of its autonomy. What this means is Hong Kong will legally be viewed as a part of China as far as the U.S. concerned. I wouldn’t have had a problem a problem with this if the people of Hong Kong Kong weren’t protesting these moves by China for years now. If Trump wanted to make a strong statement, he would have increased special statuses and provisions for Hong Kong to show they have his support. This does the exact opposite and basically tell them “You’re on your own.” Exactly what China wanted.
Oh and by the way he didn’t say a word about Minneapolis or his Tweets during that press conference. He didn’t take any questions either. No surprise there. After speaking for about 12 minutes, he went back inside. This is what a Bait and Switch looks like. He knows what he’s doing. He knew damn well EVERYONE was expecting him to comment on the Tweets or Minneapolis.
A few hours later, Trump finally commented on his tweets and not only denied knowing the racist history of the phrase “When the Looting starts, the “Shooting starts.” but said he “Used it for many years”. This is a quote from 1968 uttered by a Miami Police Chief who also said at the time he doesn’t mind being accused of police brutality in a mostly black neighborhood back then. This quote Trump used is specifically known only from that time and there is absolutely no way Trump could not have known about it in that context. Period. Like the media said, Trump has become an expert at gaslighting prettymuch.
It’s worth also remembering the COVID-19 Pandemic is also still ongoing. As of this week, the U.S. Leads the world in confirmed cases and deaths. The reason why is politics in short.
More and more people–especially minority communities–are beginning to believe the conspiracy theory the government is letting it spread for the purposes of population control. The deaths and infections in most of world are much, much lower in comparison despite not being as advanced in resources as the U.S. Politics are the reason for the disparity.
A police officer in New Orleans was fired after he posted on his Facebook account he “wished COVID-19 would kill more black people”. He said what a lot of racists were thinking and more so after news broke two months ago that Black and Brown people are dying in larger numbers than any other ethnicity in the U.S.
This Pandemic has been a giant mirror for the world and even more so for the U.S. Most of the world still can’t wrap their heads around WHY the deaths and infections in the U.S. just continue to climb. As a reminder, Trump wants to reopen the economy because of the election in November. Not because it’s gotten safer. He doesn’t care and is done pretending to care anymore.
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