The brutal, barbaric and grotesque end of George Floyd’s life started with a fake $20 bill.
A New York Times report explicitly detailed the final moments before Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck, causing the latter’s death. “The fatal encounter began just before 8 p.m., when Mr. Floyd entered Cup Foods, a community store run by four brothers, and a store clerk claimed that he had paid for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. The police got a call from the store at 8:01 p.m.
“’Um, someone comes our store and give us fake bills and we realize it before he left the store, and we ran back outside, they were sitting on their car,’ the caller said, according to a transcript released by the authorities.
“The store clerk demanded the cigarettes back. ‘But he doesn’t want to do that, and he’s sitting on his car because he is awfully drunk and he’s not in control of himself,’ the clerk said, according to a transcript of the call to police. ‘He is not acting right.’”
At 8:19 PM, Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck, lasting eight minutes and forty-six seconds. But at the fifth minute, Floyd stopped moving. Still, Chauvin did not release his knee. Bystanders were erupting in anger as they recorded the victim’s murder. But that did not stop the arresting officer to kill him.
On May 29 (American time), Chauvin was sued of second-degree manslaughter and third-degree murder. He was taken into custody, two days after he was fired, alongside three other officers.
Protests erupted all over America, from Minneapolis, Minnesota (where precincts were set on fire) to Albuquerque, New Mexico. And around the world, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter trended once again on Twitter, calling for police brutality and racial injustice to come to an end.
Decades after the Civil Rights Movement, black men continue to suffer on the hands of the police. From Eric Garner and Michael Brown’s passing to George Floyd’s killing, it seems that arresting officers haven’t learned from the scars of the past. Such aggressiveness against the black community is just appalling and heartbreaking.
Floyd’s killing is, indeed, a state of emergency.
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This brazen act of inhumanity should never be condoned, ever. We should not be tired of reminding the police that they should observe maximum tolerance in arresting criminals, no matter what race they are. That they should not behave differently when they’re confronting a black man as much as they do to a white man.
But in reminding the police of observing human rights, we should not resort to violence. It is not the best way to send the message that we want because it only adds insult to injury. A peaceful demonstration is much preferable at this point.
In conclusion, the lives that were lost due to discrimination and brutality should not grow longer. We cannot stomach another black man who passes away like what Chauvin did to George Floyd. Floyd should be the last person to receive this kind of treatment. And he, alongside all other black men who expired in a vicious manner, should receive justice.
The world will be watching on the fate of Derek Chauvin. If he is pronounced guilty, then there will be a slight sigh of relief. If he is pronounced not guilty, then there will be a reckoning to follow.
Featured image from NBC News.
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