By Chudi Okoye
Presumptive Democratic Party nominee for the 2020 US presidential election, Joe Biden, delivered a speech on June 2, 2020, addressing the brutal murder of an African-American man, Mr George Floyd, by the police in the Powderhorn community of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020. Mr Biden delivered his speech as riots and protests raged across the United States of America following the incident.
Mr Floyd was murdered by the police whilst handcuffed and lying down on a city street. His killer, Derek Chauvin, a white American Minneapolis police officer, kept his knee on the right side of Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Part of that morbid duration – 2 minutes and 53 seconds – occurred after Floyd had become unresponsive. The other officers with Chauvin – Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas K. Lane – participated in Floyd’s arrest, with Kueng holding Floyd’s back, Lane holding his legs, and Thao looking on and preventing intervention by onlookers. Some bystander videos even showed three officers at some point all kneeling on the handcuffed Floyd.
Mr Floyd had been arrested over allegation that he used a counterfeit $20 bill at a market, although it is not clear if that was the case, or if he did that knowingly. Police claimed that Floyd physically resisted arrest, but several US media organizations later challenged that claim, pointing out that a security camera from a nearby business did not show Floyd resisting arrest.
Based on police body camera footage, Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe while pinned down by the police. Several bystanders also recorded the event on their smartphones, with one video showing Floyd repeatedly saying “Please”, “I can’t breathe”, calling for his “Mama”, and pleading with the officers “Don’t kill me”, all to no avail.
A criminal complaint has been filed against the murderer, Derek Chauvin.
So far, only Chauvin has been charged while the other three officers that participated in the incident have not been charged.
Protest continues across America.
Mr Biden’s speech came in the wake of an abysmal response by the current US president, Donald Trump, who preferred to blame those protesting the persistence of racial injustice and police brutality in America which led to the murder of Mr George Floyd.
♦ With Wikipedia reporting
While I sympathise with the black Americans. I also believe that the African Americans need to do more in terms of leveraging themselves with other races. Blacks need to go to school. Blacks kill more blacks daily. When you look at all black countries it’s injustice personified. State killings. Ritual killings. Dehumanizing treatment of citizens. And other behaviours that dehumanises the black man. You can’t expect others to respect you when you don’t respect yourself. They give us loans . Or grants or aids for purposes of development . The money finds its way back into their country. We have no regards for the lives of our people. The black American is one of the most discriminatory group of people when it comes to fellow black from Africa.
The Irish. the Jews also suffered discrimination. Even worse than the Africans. They embraced education and used it effectively to gain respect. Their stint at the White House at various times was used to elevate their ethnic groups. What did African Americans do with their opportunity? Obama used it to deepen their dependency mentality. Look at how migrant blacks are using the system to better themselves and gain some degree of respect from the other races.
What this demonstration is going to do to the system is that it will increase criminality amongst the blacks. Invariably black communities and the police will be reluctant to intervene for fear of being tagged. America is a democracy. And rule of law works. Nothing wrong with demonstration. But destruction of properties? Most of which are black businesses. We therefore have more victims from the same grieving community than Floyd. And these victims are black.
The earlier the demonstration is called off the better for the community. Right now the demonstration is producing negative result and taking away the sympathy people had for the victim. The law should be allowed to take its course. We need to stop the emotional reasoning. The black man too should open the space for race discussion. Right now they have pushed everyone to silence. You can not discuss race without being called a racist. They attack white congressmen . But once you attack a black congressman he immediately runs behind the cover of race and call you a racist. That conversation has to happen before clear understanding can be achieved.