Seeing is believing. Racism. Police brutality. Likely a murder.
For nearly nine minutes, a white police officer in Minneapolis knelt on the neck of George Perry Floyd, a handcuffed black man lying face-down in the street.
Along with bystanders, as I watched the video, I begged the officer to stand up while Floyd pleaded, “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”
But Officer Derek Chauvin didn’t stop. Not until Floyd stopped speaking. Stopped moving.
Floyd, a restaurant security guard unemployed because of the coronavirus pandemic, died Memorial Day, May 25, 2020. He was 46, the father of two daughters, 6 and 22.
He was suspected of trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli.
As a patriotic American, I didn’t like it when football player Colin Kaepernick knelt instead of standing for the national anthem. Where else but America could he earn millions playing a football game?
When protests erupted in August 2014 after the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., I wondered why people defended a man who had roughed up a shopkeeper and assaulted a police officer.
Then I watched in horror in April 2015 as a police officer in South Carolina shot and killed an unarmed man in the back as he fled after a traffic stop for a non-functioning brake light. I understood the protests that stemmed from the shooting of Walter Lamar Scott, a 50-year-old forklift operator with an outstanding arrest warrant regarding child support payments.
Scott’s family received a $6.5 million out-of-court settlement. The North Charleston police officer, Michael Slager, 33, was convicted in December 2017 of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The justice system worked — that time.
But not in the case of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African-American man who was pulled over near St. Paul, Minn., for a non-functioning brake light in July 2016 and shot seven times in front of his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter. I was appalled and horrified as I watched the live video posted by Castile’s girlfriend. Within 40 seconds of stopping for police, Castile suffered five gunshots and died 20 minutes later. He told the St. Anthony, Minn., police officer that he had a firearm and a permit to carry it, but when he reached toward his pocket, 29-year-old Officer Jeronimo Yanez fired seven shots into the car at close range and killed him.
A year later, protests erupted when a primarily white jury acquitted Yanez of second-degree manslaughter. The family received $3.8 million in settlement of wrongful death lawsuits.
Valerie Castile, Philando’s mother, said the verdict shows “the system continues to fail black people.”
“My son loved this city, and this city killed my son, and the murderer gets away … I’m mad as hell right now.”
At the time, my 22-year-old son lived in St. Paul, but I never had to worry about police killing him because of his skin color.
The brutal killing of George Floyd took place only months after a white father and son in Brunswick, Ga., chased down and fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery as the 25-year-old African American jogged in his neighborhood in February. And in mid-March, three plainclothes police officers barged into a Louisville, Ky., apartment shortly before 1 a.m., searching for a suspected drug dealer, and woke up a sleeping couple. The man fired at what he thought were intruders, and officers sprayed bullets that killed 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, a black woman who worked as an emergency medical technician.
On Friday, police arrested Chauvin on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter stemming from Floyd’s death — after protests by people fed up with racial profiling and the unjust slaughter of African Americans.
I’m white, but I finally understand: blacks arrested in America fear for their safety.
But only a fraction of police officers engage in racial profiling and brutality, just as only a fraction of Catholic priests molested youngsters.
“Law enforcement, like any other occupation, has people that do not belong in the profession,” said Chehalis Mayor Dennis Dawes, former Chehalis police chief. “Even when they have numerous sustained incidents on their personnel file, labor rulings have made it difficult to get rid of bad cops. The overwhelming number of men and women in law enforcement are true professionals and should not be judged by the actions of these bad apples, but they are. Given this, it’s no wonder departments are struggling to find people to fill the depleting ranks.”
He described the video of Floyd’s arrest as “troubling, to say the least.”
“This is not how I was trained, nor do I believe officers are trained this way today,” Dawes said. “The amount of force used to make an arrest should only be enough to overcome the resistance from a suspect. Once handcuffs are on, the suspect should be placed in the car and transported from the scene for processing.”
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said the video of George Floyd’s death “paints a horrific picture.”
“I, like much of America, was horrified by the video and the senseless death,” he said. “Police have a difficult job. Yet, the majority of the men and women of law enforcement do their job well and truly care for those they are sworn to protect and serve. However, when officers such as Derek Chauvin cross the line into criminal conduct, there is no protection the law does, or should give. This was not a lapse in judgement. This was 8 minutes and 46 seconds of a man not caring about someone he was sworn to protect. Eight minutes and 46 seconds of blatant disregard from another man’s life. There are some circumstances where the taking of a life is appropriate. This was not one of them — not even close. Mr. Floyd was arrested. OK. That does not mean the officer gets to play judge, jury and executioner. That means the officer has a heightened duty to care for Mr. Floyd. He was arrested, handcuffed, and defenseless. Also tragic is that others simply stood by as this happened and did NOTHING. With the limited information I have, one must wonder why others are not also facing charges.”
While outrage over Floyd’s death prompted protests to voice outrage and demand change, some took the opportunity to vandalize and break laws.
“As for what we’re currently seeing in major cities — people have the right to peacefully protest and should be allowed to do so,” Dawes said. “I have never been able to grasp the context that attacking citizens, burning down businesses, and setting buildings on fire will get them what they want.”
Former Chronicle reporter Stephanie (Schendel) Iris, now a police officer in Seattle, posted on Facebook that her entire body hurt after she and her team were hit with rocks, fireworks and water bottles. She said officers all showed professionalism in extreme danger as protestors trashed the city.
Peter J. Abbarno, a Centralia attorney and city councilor running as a Republican for Rep. Richard Debolt’s 20th District seat, described Floyd’s death as “a tragedy.”
“Every citizen is equal under the law and should expect to be treated as such,” Abbarno said. “The initial peaceful calls for justice were transformed into further tragedy by extremists seeking to profit from our pain and divide our country. America is our home and we should expect better. We must not allow ourselves to fall to one side of the wedge; but instead, use this tragedy to peacefully bring us closer together.”
Like Abbarno, Timothy Zahn, a Toutle Democrat running for Debolt’s seat, described Floyd’s death as “a tragedy.”
“It highlights the need for third-party oversight in our law enforcement system,” Zahn said. “I support the right to peaceful protest, but I do not condone violence and property damage.”
Brian Lange, a Republican contender from Morton for the 20th legislative seat, noted he had “only seen snippets of the actual footage” and “other footage that is somewhat contradictory to the narrative.
“However, I have not seen anything that would excuse the destruction of minority-owned businesses or the looting that seems to accompany such socially violent reactions,” Lange said. “I still have questions. But also can understand the initial outrage over this tragedy.”
Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund referred to comments by Floyd’s family stating that “looting and violence distract from the strength of our collective voice.”
“As has been said in many different ways, there is a difference between peaceful protests and rioters who loot stores, set fires, and show total disregard for law and order,” Fund said.
Her challenger, Sean Swope, said he’s praying for his law enforcement friends, grateful for what they do each day, selflessly laying down their lives “to protect and save the ones who spewed hate and violence just days before.”
He described what happened in Minnesota as “absolutely horrible, senseless and disgusting” and noted those involved need to be held responsible by the law.
“The death of George Floyd is a tragedy on so many levels,” Commissioner Bobby Jackson said. “The officer most responsible has been arrested and now it’s time to let the process play out. As for the demonstrations around the country, many have started peacefully then become violent, which is also tragic. The events in Seattle over the weekend have brought that home for many of us. Add to that the current situation with COVID, you have emotions running at an unprecedented high level right now. My hope is that resolution will be found quickly for everyone concerned and that our nation can begin to heal.”
His challenger, Lindsey Remund Pollock, described events of the past week as “alternating between deeply disturbing and amazingly heartening, eliciting a whipsaw of emotions.”
“We find ourselves asking, ‘What to do?’ This is not the time to warm ourselves on the bonfires of self-righteousness,” Pollock said. “Nor is it the time to wallow in the self-pity of apologetics. Now is the time to walk out of the valley of despair, heads held high, arm-in-arm with our sisters and brothers of all races, colors, creeds, and occupations across the county and across the county… Especially heartening have been the activities of peaceful demonstration in Centralia’s Washington Park with Centralia Police bringing food for the protesters. These actions demonstrate the love Lewis County has to offer.”
It’s unsettling to watch 24-hour coverage of protests, fires, violence and looting. Amid all the disruption, I saw hope — police officers taking a knee in solidarity with protestors and others buying food for those engaged in protests.
Sometimes bad actors infiltrate the protests and take advantage of the opportunity to incite violence and engage in criminal activities, Dawes noted.
“In short, bad cops need to be held accountable if they act inappropriately, whether it’s in departmental actions or in criminal court,” Dawes said. “The good cops should be allowed to do their jobs, show respect to the citizens they serve and be appreciated for the difficult job they do.
“Those inciting violence toward others and destruction of public and/or private property should also be held accountable for their action. These groups often call for the abolition of police — just imagine if they were to get their wish. Who would be there to stop their actions?”
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
