Americans, from their much-touted oldest democracy, were busy filming on their phones as the former fired cop of the Minneapolis Police Department pressed on the neck of an unarmed and felled George Floyd, 46. As the cop pressed with his knee harder and harder, the man gasping for breath pleaded for a little air. The former policeman, Derek Chauvin did not budge, frozen in a killer grip of his victim’s neck with his knee. For 8 minutes and 46 seconds, he pressed, hard enough to take the breath out of his victim. Floyd died from the vice-like devilish grip.
The footage of the gruesome killing of Floyd, a black, shook the conscience of the nation, trying it’s best to shake off the slavery stigma. The world too watched in disbelief. Trump says footage of Floyd’s death is “a very shocking sight,’ returning to his self-aggrandizement over his Covid fight and China blaming.
It was not long before that another youth Freddie Gray, 25, was killed by the Maryland police, resulting in massive protests. It ended with a $6.4 m settlement and no indictments to three of the officers. Another black boy, Anton Black, died in custody and the case has not moved towards an end.
The US president could have done the unthinkable. He could have picked up the phone and conveyed his deepest condolences to the Floyd family. He did nothing like that as protests erupted all over the country over the killing. Trump immediately tweeted that the protestors were thugs, infuriating the American black community further, as demonstrations spread all over the nation. Now the national security guards are being called in to quell loots and rioters, which has spilt out of control.
America was built with the indentured labour from Africa, the scar of the wounds still hurting deep into the psyche of many well-meaning White Americans. The feeling is no different as to many Germans, who are still ashamed as to how their entire nation supported Hitler’s elimination of the Jewish race.
There seems a deep distrust between the white police officers, who are a law unto themselves and the black Americans. There are seldom harsh sentences against the police force in such killings apparently to avoid a backlash of the police force. Such an attitude only encourages the police, who in my guess, suspect blacks as the prominent group engaged in criminal activities and take on them.
The American society itself has no long history and is a mishmash of many communities, Caucasians, Hispanics, Orientals, Asians and of course blacks. It may be the blacks who are singled out and often suffer at the hands of an insensitive police force. It is time to counsel the entire US police force as well to hasten the confidence-building processes with its citizens.
My heart bleeds for those who die violent deaths, merely for being coloured.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
