Is It Different This Time?
I didn’t have time to watch the memorial service for George Floyd today. I caught glimpses of it as I could. And in doing so, I noticed something about myself. I don’t feel any of the sickness that I felt when I heard news of the acquittal of the killer of Trayvon Martin. This feels really different, so I searched myself for why. I wondered if it was because I have become accustomed to this tragic aspect of our society. No, it isn’t that. I’m not becoming jaded. This murder of George Floyd is quite disillusioning. But, it is definitely different.
I remember when the news hit about the acquittal. People consuming the news took different sides. It was quite political to believe that Martin was a victim. A disturbing number thought of George Zimmerman as both a victim and a celebrity. Stand Your Ground laws were spreading around the country at the time, and it was part of the discussion for the killing in this case, although I don’t remember if it was the ultimate justification. Case after case gained publicity about how black shooters were judged differently from white ones. It was frightening and sickening. As sad as the Floyd murder is, it feels so very different. I can tell exactly how in the following way.
When the acquittal was announced, simultaneously, friends of my wife were driving across the country in a large RV. I love that stuff, and I am generally fascinated. They were driving through Columbus, and asked to see us when they came through. I recall at that time that I did not want to go outside to see anyone. I opted out. I never would have done that under normal circumstances, but I had deep questions about people as that event was being publicized. How could people feel the way that so many did, I wondered. Do you recall that George Zimmerman’s handgun sold at auction for hundreds of thousands of dollars? The sale did not go through for some reason, but the circus surrounding that tragedy was macabre.
The trial of the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd has not begun. It may be quite some time before that happens, but it seems different this time. Although there was damning audio of George Zimmerman disobeying a dispatcher’s orders, there was no video. Maybe it is the presence of the video of the sadistic killing of George Floyd that has made the difference. That would be ironic in some ways, because I find it quite difficult to watch. I watched it maybe twice, and I think I am done with that. I don’t want to combine what I now know about that crime with what can plainly be seen. That is entirely too much dark, evil to just absorb…ever. And there is video of what happened with Ahmad Arbery, and three men did get arrested, although it took several months and a second agency to come in and essentially make an investigation where the first wouldn’t. Things seem a little different. I read today that one of the McMichaels who killed Ahmad Arbery called him a “fucking nigger” as he lay dying.
That seemed pretty much like it used to. It was happenstance that got a second/actual investigation of this crime, and the assailant seemed more concerned with Arbery’s race than this story about being a burglar. Still no trial yet, obviously.
Breyonna Taylor was shot in her bed by officers who burst in on a no-knock warrant. Her boyfriend tried to shoot the intruders (police), but they shot and killed Breyonna. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! And then she was dead. That seemed familiar in some ways, and not all that hopeful. Shot eight times in her bed, when it comes to being wrong, that sounds about right. There is no video of that incident though.
When the video of the murder of George Floyd was released, I did not see any defense of Derek Chauvin the way I saw George Zimmerman defended. Was it because it happened in Minnesota and not Florida? Is it because the murder did not involve a gun, and defending Zimmerman had the added benefit of defending guns for the gun lobby, but there is no knee lobby, as far I know. If Derek Chauvin had removed his holstered weapon and shot George Floyd in broad daylight, while cuffed, would this have played out the way it has so far? Would the gun lobby have rushed in to defend Chauvin?
I was working as an officer the night Rodney King was beaten by members of my own department, although a different division. I observed at the time that the King incident would have been different had it played out with guns as opposed to the PR-24 side-handle baton. If all the other factors were the same, except for the division, and King were so fronted in my division, he would have been shot. I am absolutely certain of that. No one in Hollywood division bothered to take a baton out of where it is stored in the door when they got out of the vehicle. It was not generally a useful tool in the dense, active decision that Hollywood was. Foothill, where King was arrested was rural. It was much slower. Understand that I am not advocating for this, just observing that, not only would King have been shot, it would not have received as much notice because suspects being shot in exactly that type of circumstance was relatively ordinary. It was the drawn out, brutal beating of King that made people notice…and the video, of course.
So, why is it different now? Is it the people protesting? Maybe, maybe not.
We will be tested very soon. Will America be different next time? I’m afraid that unless there is a change in some laws, things will be more like they used to be. I thought for sure that Sandy Hook would lead to changes. It didn’t. No, there were no cops involved, but I think the reason things did not change after that horror was that guns WERE involved. Evil cops will figure that out soon. They will just say, next time, just shoot ‘em. It frightens me that it may not be different this time at all.
06/04/2020 @ 8:58 pm
The first reason it feels different is that no one has been acquitted. Indictments are coming down, slowly but surely, and the first indictment didn’t take all that long. In many ways the horrible issue with all these police homicides of unarmed Black men is that there weren’t serious consequences to the cops. We won’t be able to prevent all murders but not being able to prevent them and tolerating them after the fact are very different. Too many police shootings are being tolerated by departments and prosecutors, like happened in Ferguson and Staten Island, both cases involving prosecutors going before grand juries to Defend the accused.
Remember that there wasn’t a shooting in Staten Island. It was a very similar case, with an offender not accused of a violent crime, with a chokehold instead of a knee, with a man on the ground in cuffs saying he couldn’t breathe, with police bystanders doing nothing, with a cop with a history of violence and racism, with a viral video. Except if anything the prosecutor in Staten Island behaved worse.
The Martin/Zimmerman case has often made me wonder, specifically if the fact that Zimmerman’s father was a judge in the area resulted in a less than competent prosecutor or perhaps a deliberately less than competent prosecution. There’s one factor that I’ve never seen addressed and I believe wasn’t addressed at trial:
Travon Martin probably died thinking he was fighting a racist mugger.
Not only does Neighborhood Watch forbid firearms, they also insist on being marked. The watch organization Zimmerman worked for wasn’t part of the real Neighborhood Watch organization and didn’t follow those standards. I’ve never heard that Zimmerman identified himself. We know Trayvon is walking back alone at night in the rain and this black unmarked pickup with a burly White driver starts tailing him. Trayvon is on the phone to a female friend and makes a remark about a “cracker.” Wouldn’t a competent prosecutor have pointed out that Zimmerman failed at identifying himself, setting himself up to be attacked which led to the homicide?
I can’t say why the Floyd case has had so much more impact than the Garner case. Maybe it’s that that one happened with a Justice Dept. that actually cared about Justice.
06/04/2020 @ 9:22 pm
Excellent point about the Garner case in Staten Island. It is really the best comparison. If we can draw a trend line from just two data points, that is a hopeful trend. In writing this, without consulting any references, I just wrote about what popped into my head in the moment. That was really the point because I notice that I feel differently. And in all of that, the Garner case didn’t pop. That’s a sad fact. I attribute that you the fact that there are so damned many. Honestly, Kosh, I do think that is a hopeful trend. Thanks!
06/04/2020 @ 8:59 pm
“You can do whatever you want. We have attorneys lining up for this one.”
Chauvin heard that, somewhere, at one of “those” meetings. Maybe it was Zoom. Maybe cretins in robes wishing to have a horse to ride. But he heard and wasn’t afraid. So tired and inexperienced were placed around him. Known followers who would help as ordered to do.
The fix was in.
That’s what I think is different.
06/09/2020 @ 10:49 pm
“.. We have attorneys lining up for this one…”
And, then you have lawyers who are more interested in civil settlements than they are interested in civil rights..
06/05/2020 @ 8:52 am
It does ‘feel different’ from the other instances because of the courageousness of a 17 year old girl who stood her ground and stared into the face of pure hatred for fully 10 minutes, 8 minutes and 46 seconds of which are the videographed murder of George Floyd by a cop.
This wasn’t a 10 second snippet or a hurried clip. This was the full length recording of the unambiguous and. incontrovertible fact and truth of a racially motivated atrocity, the barbarity of which has been replicated countless times throughout the entire history of the inhumanity with which black people have been treated.
Thanks to her, we now have a full and complete recording of the inhumane barbarism of the police brutality that has been the subject and focal point of the seemingly endless complaints and grievances of black people….
This recording is the full length feature version of the real 400 hundred year history of the relationship between white people and black people in America.
It’s different because the deniers must remain silent and the doubters have had all reasons, excuses, justifications, and rationalizations unceremoniously ripped away by the brave action of a young girl who has given the world the ‘proof’ that has been demanded by the purveyors of the racism and the injustice that comes from the 400 year old lie that has evolved in the minds of white people for nearly 1000 years.
06/06/2020 @ 8:31 am
We had the proof. The George Floyd case is almost identical to the Eric Garner case. Really, almost identical. Non-violent minor offense if it happened, suspect cuffed and taken down, suspect’s air cut off, suspect saying he couldn’t breathe, other cops ignoring pleas, suspect dies, all of it on video. In fact, the Staten Island prosecutor’s office behaved far worse than the Minneapolis prosecutor’s office. Officer Daniel Pantaleo wasn’t indicted.
What the Floyd case appears to have done to the rest of the country, the Garner case did for me, but in that case almost less for the killing than for the prosecutor convening a Grand Jury to defend Officer Pantaleo. The murderous act was one thing, but the lack of judicial consequences was worse because it said the system considered the cop above the law.
06/06/2020 @ 11:53 am
It is different. Way different. If anything, this reminds me of the Confederate Flag abruptly being acknowledged nationwide as the racist symbol it is in the space of a few days.
I expected this to go in a very different direction. I figured the riots would breathe new life into the Trump campaign as moderates decided they needed law and order. But he overplayed his hand. He overplayed it by trying to turn to the military in this. But key military people like former Defense Secretary (and Marine General) Mattis came out strongly against him. And that Lafayette Park/St. John’s Episcopal Church stunt was so bad that Pat Robertson condemned that act on television. And DC has issued a magnificent Fuck You to the President in naming the stretch of 16th St. leading up to Lafayette Park Black Lives Matter Plaza and painting the street BLACK LIVES MATTER in bright yellow letters going from curb to curb, visible from the air and visible from the White House.
But why is it different? Why did the Floyd killing accomplish what the Garner killing didn’t? This is conjecture on my part, because I’m just not sure. Part of it is the cumulative effect of more killings.
Some of it may be due to the Breyonna Taylor case, which had two aspects. The first is that there is just no theoretical way to justify this – this woman’s capital crime was sleeping in her own bed. In every other case someone can come up with some sort of ridiculously scant justification, some theoretical reason for a cop to be frightened, something that would make it appear reasonable to some idiot somewhere, but this case is completely devoid of any possibility of justification. The second, probably mostly to the political center, is the role of the boyfriend, shooting at home invaders who turn out to be unmarked cops. When you move Right in the spectrum, you get to Your Home Is Your Castle, and this principle was horrifically violated for racial reasons.
But I’m not sure it’s that either, at least not by itself. The biggest difference between the Garner case and the Floyd case is that the Garner case happened during the Obama administration and the Floyd case happened during the Trump administration. People horrified by the Garner case understood that they had an ally in the White House while people horrified by the Floyd case understood that the White House was part of the problem. Maybe COVID made for a more frustrated population. In any case, for whatever reason, it was the Floyd case where a whole lot of people had finally had enough.
But here it gets, from an historical standpoint, more unusual. Protests break out everywhere, many accompanied by violence and many accompanied by looting. When this started I figured Damn, Trump plays the law and order card and a frightened center lines up behind him, killing Biden’s lead. But that’s not how it played out. Trump told the Governors they were being too soft, and the Governors mainly thought he was being a nut case. Trump starts talking about mobilizing the military and horrifies the top brass of the military. And then the corporate world starts to speak, and they back……..the protesters. Up to now the story could have been violations of law and order or been racial injustice, and racial injustice won. Holy shit. What just happened?
This email came to me yesterday from Target:
“We stand with Black families, communities and our team members and are committed to ongoing resources that advance social justice and support rebuilding and recovery efforts.
“Here’s what we’re doing next to help heal and create lasting change.
“We’re investing $10 million to support long‑standing partners like the National Urban League and the African American Leadership Forum, plus new partners in our hometown and across the country.
“We’re providing 10,000 hours of pro‑bono consulting services for Black- and people of color‑owned small businesses, helping with rebuilding efforts.
“We’re continuing to provide essentials like baby formula, diapers and medicine to communities most in need.
“We’ll offer our guests, through Target Circle, our loyalty program, the option to direct Target funds to local nonprofits and include organizations supporting social justice.
“We’ll continue to work with our team, communities and partners to address longstanding systemic issues, to promote equity that enables shared prosperity and opportunity for all.
“And that’s just the start.
“In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll continue to listen and learn from our communities and nonprofit partners to better understand how Target can support their longer‑term needs.
Learn more ›”
By the way, where is Target based?
Minneapolis
And the NFL commissioner makes a video apologizing to Colin Kapernik and vowing that the NFL is changing course.
The protests appear to be working. The center isn’t moving to the Right to back the police, they appear to be moving toward acknowledging that racism is still functionally a very big deal.
I didn’t see this coming.
This doesn’t mean the end of racism. There’s a lot it doesn’t mean. What it means is that a whole lot of Americans, including Americans with influence, are suddenly taking the consequences of racism much more seriously. This isn’t PC bullshit any more to them, it’s serious American injustice. Their heads have been yanked out of the sand. We’re getting past the normal mass denial of the problem.
How this plays out will be more than interesting. We may be looking at something really historical. Really fast, like the Confederate Flag thing, but way, way more consequential.
What will be left will still make us sick, but what will be gone may surprise us.
06/06/2020 @ 12:16 pm
COVID-19 definitely contributes to the difference, in a big way. My wife has a cousin who lives in Minneapolis. He, his wife and daughter live about 1.5 miles from the 38th and (something) intersection where this tragedy took place. I remember when the protests started and we were both watching it on television. I asked him not to go down to the protests. I looked at the weather and a storm was headed that way. I told him, this is good, not many things could slow down a “riot” like a thunderstorm. Then it started raining, and it reduced the crowd…a little. When it didn’t clear out, I knew there was a different energy about this incident.
Part of that, I believe is the fact that so many are out of work. Also, many are out of school. Frustration, as you said, and availability. I begin to think it is different.
Then, I think about Reconstruction. I forget how many amendments were passed to guarantee voting rights to black men, and essentially civil rights protecting our membership in American society. That was right after the Civil War, as you recall. Then, Lincoln was assassinated, and Andrew Johnson took over, and Jim Crow began. It became legal to discriminate against black people in this so called free country until after I was born, almost a century later. Ulysses Grant was a progressive, followed by almost 100 years of violent stalling. So, when I think about this being different now, I certainly hope so. Yeah, the Rebel flag has been lowered in the last few years…and George Floyd was murdered by cops in broad daylight less that two weeks ago. I am hopeful, but I remain unconvinced.
06/09/2020 @ 11:24 pm
“But why is it different? Why did the Floyd killing accomplish what the Garner killing didn’t?”
It’s different because of the sheer length of the video that depicts the absolute horror of the murder of an unarmed black man by a white cop and 3 uniformed accomplices.
Most people can’t or won’t stand in one place for more than three minutes.
This is 8 minutes and 46 seconds of a real live murder committed by someone who is sworn to protect and serve.
Due to the pandemic the video was seen by a captive homebound audience who would ordinarily have escaped exposure to the stark obscenity of a brutal police street execution.
There are people who still can’t or won’t believe what the video requires them to witness.
They’ll be in the jury pool needing to be weeded out by the pretrial process of ‘voir dire’.
White folks are accustomed to ignoring reports of such incidents or denying the validity and veracity of the complaints and grievances that arise from such occurrences.
But it’s black people who are aggrieved and doing the complaining….
Not this time…
Black people aren’t alone in seeking redress…
White Americans have been forced to see themselves and their hypocrisy in a way that no other video recording has been able to manage.
Many, for the first time, have been required to see themselves as black people see them….
White people are not comfortable with being confronted with the truth of their systemic racism and societal hypocrisy….
It seems that finally, in this moment of being forced to see and face the truth about themselves, white people are coming to the realization that it is they who must put an end to this shit….