"Please, I can't breath. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. They're going to kill me"
- George Floyd
On the evening of Memorial Day on May 25th, 2020, America witnessed a public lynching. A reminiscent scene from 2014. A scene of an officers knee slowly and painfully crushing the throat of a black man after he begged for his life.
This article isn't directed towards people who are aware, and fight. Who feel the vomit inducing pain caused by seeing something so brutal and barbaric. Whose hearts cry at the sight of a life, emotions, thoughts, ideas and memories, stolen by a white man in an ice cold blue uniform.
If you are sick hearing and reading and watching PEOPLE being murdered by the police who kill instead of protecting, BUT STILL WATCH AND READ AND HEAR TO GIVE THE DEAD A VOICE, then this is not for you, and I bless you for being human.
If you ignore.
If you swipe away.
If you don't read this.
If you share a picture and do nothing else.
If you act like you care and don't fight constantly.
If you aren't hurt.
if you think it's a lie.
if you make excuses.
If you play the police advocate.
If you argue.
If you think he's wrong.
If you say "but"
If you lack any semblance of decent human emotions and compassion
White Minneapolis police officer choking George Floyd, 46, after he begs for his life on Memorial DayDaniella Frazier on Facebook
IF THIS DOESN'T MAKE YOU SICK, then this is for you.
You're a murderer. There is the blood of thousands on your hands. You have killed George Floyd. You have killed Michael Brown. Ahmaud Arbery. Ariane McCree. Miles Hall. Tamir Rice. Anthony. Kwame. William. Christian. Ezell. Maurice. Jaimee. And every victim of the terroristic actions of the police force.
You sit idly by in the comfort of your own head and deny, lie and make up excuses. You turn your back on HUMANS who have their own lives, relationships, conversations, memories, thoughts, ideas, passions and everything else that makes up YOU.
You IGNORE. You LIE. You DENY. You KILL.
You're responsible. You sit and say "not all cops," but yet 36% of unarmed people are BLACK and MURDERED by your precious little protect-white-people blue uniformed police force.
36% of murders of unarmed people are black when only 13% of the US population consists of African Americans.
Roughly 1/10 people in the US is black, and roughly 1/3 unarmed persons killed by police are black.
You fetishisize and proliferate the dismissal of systemic brutality and murder. You say "blue lives matter" yet attack them for enforcing social distancing laws. You say "all lives matter" yet disregard the woman who will die if she doesn't use birth control or get an abortion. You disregard the Chinese American who is getting harassed and punched due to xenophobia. You ignore the Muslim girl having her Hijab yanked and called a terrorist.
You use these posts and share it on your stories and act as if you as a human have done your job by sharing a picture. You go back to whatever and don't have the looming dread of a life stolen by a government that swears to protect you, if you're white that is.
The fact that a woman knowingly called the cops on a black man in assured hopes they would treat him poorly and kill him as she chokes her dog to death, shows that this is real and true. It is not a lie. It is not politicizing a tragedy. These are people. Living, breathing, aware people.
To see this, to feel a fraction of that pain, to realize this is continuing, to think of the pain he felt, his family and friends feel as a cop smirks and laughs at a dying man beneath his knee knowing nothing will happen.
To see four murderers walk away free after they planned and systemically lynched someone in public is painful. It causes me to vomit. It tears my stomach. It burns my tear duct. It hurts at a deep empathetic level.
Yet millions of Americans deny and lie. They say "not all cops" but it is a system and it is all cops. They say "they were scared" yet it was them who handcuffed them, stepped on them, beat them, held a gun to their face, shot them 12 times, and tortured them psychologically. You say "he should have listened" but HE DID.
You say "he shouldn't have resisted", but imagine you see your entire life your people being framed, beat and murdered by the monsters in the blue uniform. You see friends and family having their lives stolen by a system. You see judges sentence them longer and harsher. You see other people get less for more. You see others let off free. You see others shown compassion. You see death when you see the badge.
And then you're handcuffed. By the same person that has killed your friend or family. By someone who throws you around and shows you little care for your body or mind. By someone who has done this time and time again with a smirk and smile on their face.
Then you're choked, your face pressed into the hot concrete, pain flashing through your body. Your windpipe getting crushed.Your lungs burning.
Your body is isn't yours anymore. You're dying. Don't tell me you would sit still and kiss the boot. Don't tell me you wouldn't cry and beg for your life.
Do NOT fucking tell me he shouldn't have resisted.
Besides-
Seven minutes.
Seven minutes this cop had his knee on his throat with his full body weight smiling.
Even after George Floyd's body when completely limp, this beast continued to crush his throat.
It was only until a paramedic urged he get off to move him on a stretcher, and he yanked Mr. Floyd by his handcuffs across the concrete carelessly onto the stretcher. The cop had a goal: to publicly lynch a man. This is how millions of Americans live. In fear seeing this happen. I don't believe in hell, but if such a place existed the man whose knee was on his throat deserves it at every level.
Yet everyone will move on and forget about it. Another killing. His name will go into a box of thousands of black men whose lives were stolen by the state. A state who believes simply because a person wears a gold piece of plastic on their chest, they reserve the right to take anyone's life on the basis of "fear." The state and millions of people will defend them no matter what.
This culture of ignoring and justifying letting people in power do what they want, cover up and act innocent will continue. It will continue if you keep sitting and not doing. It will continue if you tap through and ignore. It will continue if you continue to deny and lie. It will continue if you make excuses and argue.
This is wrong at every level. It doesn't just happen here, but in the courtroom and in the schoolyard. It is everywhere yet people like you choose to ignore it and move on. You don't care. You just want the views. The likes.
In most scenarios these cops get away free, like in the situation with Christopher Mitchell, just in December 2018 who was murdered by two cops as he complied with officer orders. His murderers were never fired or arrested and they still continue to commit cruelty to this day.
In some scenarios the police are fired. Sometimes rehired. Sometimes given a raise.
God forbid someone doesn't have a phone recording, since they'd be shot dead too trying to save you.
God forbid they turned off their body cam footage. Your case wouldn't have made it even to a lawyer.
God forbid the government covers it up because it reveals a bigger problem.
God forbid the officer lies and says "I have a child I had to"
We can't just fire these people. We have to prosecute them. We have to trial them for murder and torture. For violating civil rights, HUMAN RIGHTS. It is all police, because this is systemic and happens everywhere and everyday.
If you think this is okay or justified, if you say "but.." or argue, then you also reserve the right to go to hell.