George Floyd

George Floyd, murdered by police on May 25, 2020

When I started this open journal, I thought I was focusing too much on police misconduct. So I laid off a bit. But goddamnit, the police just can't figure out how to stop murdering people. 

George Floyd, as everyone knows by now due to the riots going on nationwide, was murdered by the police for the heinous crime of passing a counterfeit bill. A crime I didn't realize comes with the death penalty.

A police officer had his knee on Floyd's neck as Floyd begged for his life. Onlookers also pleaded with the police to ease up, some saying that the police is going to kill him. Of course, the police went right ahead with its brutal tactics, blocking off Floyd's airwaves until he passed.

Perhaps the most shocking thing about this is that the cops involved were actually fired, with similar wrongful death cases, the officers consistently getting placed on "administrative leave", or as libertarians have memefied as "paid vacations".

As protests started up, the police raced to prove the protesters correct, shooting paint canisters at people in private property, broke into cars and tased its occupants, and driving a police car into crowds. They also decided to inexplicably arrest CNN reporters and shoot rubber bullets at MSNBC journalists. So, people are protesting because of police brutality and the police decides to unleash brutality on protesters. Smart.

On the flip side, rioters raced to get as many people on the side of the police as possible, breaking into private businesses, looting stores, and setting private property on fire. They also had their run in with journalists as a group assaulted Fox News reporters.

I can get behind large scale protests. I think it's necessary. I think it's good. Hell, you can even convince me that burning down a police station is justified violence to protest police brutality. But when it turns into riots where people (who are probably on Floyd's side) that have nothing to do with police brutality get their businesses ruined, it becomes clear that many are just breaking shit for the sake of breaking shit and looting because they can. There is little that is more counterproductive than this. The rioters are enemies of the protest and George Floyd, not friends of.

How pathetic of a human being do you have to be to take advantage of an innocent person's death to steal stuff from Target? Let's just admit this. Hong Kongers are great at protesting for a cause. Americans suck at it.

Unfortunately, America's undying passion of injecting race into everything is unceasing here. I do think African Americans definitely get the short end of the police brutality stick, but listening to people talk, you would think white people never get wrongfully shot by the police. General knowledge seems to be that white cops shoot black suspects more than black cops do, which is false. This complete misdiagnosis assures that a real solution is far instead of near into the future.

Tony Timpa, murdered by police
on August 10, 2016

Case in point: I wonder how many people know Tony Timpa's name? There are many national articles comparing Floyd to Garner. There's a comparison there to be made, for sure, but far closer of a connection is Floyd to Timpa. For the media to pretty much completely ignore Timpa for Garner in itself, seems kind of racist to me. So who was Tony Timpa? He was a white man, murdered by the police in 2016, in nearly the exact fashion as Floyd was. It was Timpa himself that called 911, asking for help because he was schizophrenic and was off his medication. Timpa was already handcuffed by private security. Then the police showed up, pinned him to the ground, shoved a knee on his neck the same way they did to Floyd, and despite also begging for his life, died under the boot (knee) of his oppressor. The bodycam footage, not released until years later in 2019, shows the officers laughing and joking about how he was "sleeping" until the paramedics showed up and told the officers he died.

Well those cops must have been fired, right?

Wrong.

The officers involved were placed on "paid vacation" as their case was investigated. According to internal affairs reports, they were "disciplined" and "reprimanded", which as far as I know, is a stern talking-to as a boy would receive from his mother for not making his bed. A grand jury indicted the officers, but John Creuzot, the district attorney, which they might as well just rename to "accomplice of the police department", inexplicably dropped the charges. The officers were then reinstated to the police force, presumably with the same fat pensions as before they murdered Timpa.

Maybe if we had a large scale protest to Timpa's case, Floyd would still be alive today.

Duncan Lemp, murdered by
police on March 12, 2020

Breonna Taylor, murdered by
police on March 13, 2020

Bounkham Phonesavanh,
critically injured by
police on May 28, 2014

The system that allows the violence is the real crux of the problem. While the Floyd and Timpa case may be attributed to poor training and/or sheer stupidity, the police often turn far too quickly to aggressive tactics. No knock raids on people without even any violent backgrounds have resulted in cases like Duncan Lemp, which could have easily been avoided by just knocking on the door or waiting until Lemp had left the house. Worse yet, incompetence while fighting the destructive war on drugs results in cases like Breonna Taylor where they break into house using bad information and kill the occupant. Going back a few years, how about the time the police threw a flash bang into a child's crib, blowing the infant's chest open?

The rules of engagement are so loose for the police that they can open fire any time they feel their life is threatened. So of course, when the police have their adrenaline pumping, and see Stephon Clark in his grandparent's backyard holding a cell phone, they mistake it as a gun and open fire.

Stephon Clark, murdered by police
on March 18, 2018

Daniel shaver with his children,
murdered by police on
January 18, 2016

As if that's not bad enough, it is ridiculously difficult to fire or bring officers up on charges. Stephon Clark's murders won't face charges. Even the officer that threw that flash bang was somehow acquitted. A systematic lack of accountability for police officers, often collectively bargained into employment contracts by police unions, allows the bad apples in the police force to remain untouched. Even if officers are fired, they often will find employment in a different department elsewhere. None of them face any financial damages, even from the pool of pension funds. All damages to the victims of police are paid for by the taxpayers. Take the case of Daniel Shaver, for instance. The police that killed him was acquitted of charges, though was fired. Then he appealed his termination and was temporarily rehired to gain medical reimbursements for, get this, PTSD he incurred when he murdered Shaver. In what sane world does someone get $2,500 a month for the rest of his life, courtesy of the taxpayers, after shooting and killing an unarmed man? Don't worry, the city agreed to "neutral recommendations" for future employment. That'll show him.

Therefore, making the issue primarily about race distracts from the real problem at hand because if it is about race, the solution is to kick out the racists and everything's fine. How do you find the racists? The majority of cops that have shot a black suspect probably don't think they're racist. But it's the system itself that is broken and needs reform. It's the system that allows cops with violent records, regardless of any racial bias to remain. It's the system that protects them from facing the consequences of their wrongdoing. Swapping some people out and keeping the system is just asking for more innocent people to be killed by the police.

Thankfully, there seems to be some positive movement, despite all the misdiagnoses around the Floyd killing. In previous killings, there seemed to always be a thin blue line contingent that apologizes for the police's malpractice, but there seems to be none of that in this case. Legislatively, libertarian US Congressman Justin Amash has introduced a bill, and likely the best bill on the floor out there, to eliminate qualified immunity for police officers. The Democrats have a few good ideas too like ending the sale of military weapons to local police departments, but it doesn't dig into the root of the problem like Amash's does. The Republicans seem to be content with sitting on their thumbs on this one aside from Trump tweeting his usual idiotic tweets, but at least they're not being blatantly on the wrong side of the issue like they have been before.

I can't wait for Congress to completely fumble the Amash bill and Jameis Winston the ball back toward their own goal line.