By: Ayyan Shaikh
Justice and Peace. Two interlinked concepts. But what happens when there is no justice, no equity, and no fairness? There ceases to be peace. That’s what happens.
In the United States, the death of George Floyd, an African-American man has sparked protests in at least 30 cities. George Floyd, a 46-year-old man, was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill in Powderhorn, a neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was later arrested by police officers who claimed that George was resisting arrest. However, surveillance footage appeared to contradict police claims. As shown in the video circulating the internet, police officer Derek Chauvin was seen kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed, immobile George while his partners, officer Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas K. Lane stood there and either held him down, did nothing to stop their fellow officer or both. It was reported that Derek stayed kneeling on George’s neck for about 8 minutes and 46 seconds. 2 minutes and 53 seconds of that time occurred after Floyd became unresponsive. Following this incident which was recorded and observed by various citizens, anger erupted among people.
It started on Twitter, where after just a few hours of the video being uploaded on the platform, many hashtags started trending worldwide including #Blacklivesmatter, #Nojusticenopeace, #Heknewwhathewasdoing, and many more. Everyone came together asking for justice and for the cops to be arrested for murder as soon as possible. A huge amount of people took to the streets for what were peaceful protests as first calling for the police brutality against black people and the systemic racism faced by the black community for the past hundreds of years to end. Soon after that, people shared the lesser-known, heart-wrenching previous deaths of black people due to racism, which were pushed under the rug by the country’s faulted legal system and the broken policing system. This further increased the already ignited flame of anger at the constant oppression faced by the black community. Meanwhile, all four officers present at the time of George’s death were fired. Yes, you read it right, they were just fired. After there being literal proof of one of them murdering a man while the others didn’t stop him, they were not arrested but only fired. Funny, isn’t it?
As mentioned above, the protests started as peaceful, demanding justice for George, or as they called him, "a gentle giant". However, as reported by almost everyone at one of the first few protests and video evidence, it was clear that the police force - which for some reason was in riot gear despite the protests being peaceful - started the violence. Many other pieces of evidence were presented which indicated that the protest turned violent because of the police force and some opportunist white supremacists who took advantage of the situation.
(Photo from Newsweek showing a peaceful protest)
Now, for comparison, look at this picture here which shows the different ways the police react to protests. One is against the national lockdown due to coronavirus by mostly white people holding guns and not wearing masks while the other is from a peaceful protest turned violent by police using their riot gear to disperse a crowd of mostly face covered people demanding justice. Look at this and tell me, do you not see the blatant racism?
The shocking part about these pictures is that these aren’t even the worst of what they portray. There are pictures of white people screaming into the cops’ faces with the cops not even batting an eyelash but suddenly a jogging black man is a threat for them? How many more people need to die before it is okay for people to protest and demand rights that are theirs’ by law? Why is it so hard for people responsible to get what they deserve, to be punished for their unlawful actions?
If you think the police protecting the murderers’ house was not ridiculous enough, add in Donald Trump calling for the police to open fire at people looting from Target, and you will get a perfect mix of racism and absurdism. But wait, why are people looting from Target at a protest? It was reported that Target was not chosen at random, rather, locals explained that the reason Target was targeted by the protestors was that it had a history of funding and supporting local police as well as refusing to sell the protestors food and milk after they were tear-gassed. But hey, wasn’t America stolen from the Natives?
(Photo from news18 showing protestor infront of a community on fire)
Finally, after four days, ex-officer Derek Chauvin was arrested on charges of third-degree murder. For those who don't know, third-degree murder is defined as killing someone unintentionally and not done as part of the commitment of another felony. In simple words, it means an accidental murder. This resulted in another outrage among the already angry protesters as the video evidence of Derek kneeling on Floyd's neck clearly shows that it was not an accident.
It is common knowledge that one of the most important arteries is present on the side of a person's neck which supplies blood to the brain. Kneeling on top of it can block the oxygen supply of the brain which then registers it as unable to breathe and hence why George kept repeating, " I can't breathe". Since then, various articles have come forth explaining how dangerous it is to kneel on someone's neck, that too for such a long period, as it could result in asphyxia or harm to the spinal cord. State held autopsy claimed that George did not die of any "traumatic asphyxia or strangulation" but likely died due to underlying health conditions such as coronary heart disease and hypertensive heart disease and any potential intoxicants in his system.
This illogical autopsy report prompted George's family members to demand an independent autopsy and once again, the systematic oppression of black issues is proven when the independent autopsy report showed that the manner of his death was a homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression. Which means that it was indeed Derek who had killed George.
(Photo from irannewsdaily showing the Minneapolis police station on fire)
Now onto some information about Derek. Derek had previously been working at a nightclub for 17 years and everyone was shocked to find that George also worked at the same nightclub, however, for only one year. Now, this may be irrelevant, but it could be used to develop the case into a first-degree murder. Furthermore, what was even more shocking and appalling to everyone was the news circling about Derek Chauvin having been involved in many previous murder cases, reportedly in 2006 and 2011 along with more than 10 complaints filed against him throughout his career. A man who already has all these complaints and various potential murders on his hands and the state wants the world to believe that his actions were an accident? How naive of them to think the world is this naive, or maybe they just don't care at all.
Due to the continuous riots throughout the country, people have split into two groups: those who support these riots and those who don't. The people who are absolutely against the riots claim that there should be peaceful protests instead of riots as these are damaging private property. However, pro-riot people counterattack by saying that all their previous attempts at peaceful protests against racial injustice did absolutely nothing. This debate encouraged people to provide various pieces of evidence of past riots, which in turn resulted in actual changes being made, which were not possible due to protesting. Another few focal points of this debate were the fact that it was riots that resulted in the freedom of speech, it was riots that gave women their inherent rights, it was riots that resulted in 8-hour workdays and, most importantly it was riots conducted after the death of Martin Luther King - who said the infamous saying," Riots are the voices of the unheard"- which resulted in the passing of the Civil Rights act 1968. Riots are not just people taking advantage. It's not just anger and seamless frustration at any current issue, there are always underlying deep-rooted reasons for them. If all these years of oppression, abuse, racial inequality, and economic inequality result in riots then aren't these riots justified? If not, then what is?
(Photo from Medium showing the impact of riots in DC)
On the other hand, the young generation has once again proven themselves to be more politically aware, morally awake, and empathetic than many other age groups in this society. Broke college students, young high school students, and newly employed people, have constantly been donating, signing petitions, raising awareness, and joining the protests to speak against inequality and injustice. This brings forth the point that no matter the injustice, this generation will not sit and take what the government spoon-feeds them and it is enough to give this world new hope.
Although many celebrities, who constantly profit from copying the black culture, have done nothing but taken the whole BLM movement as a trend, few celebrities have spoken up, and rightfully so. These include almost all black celebrities(not Kanye) and a few white, Asian and biracial celebrities such as Halsey, Yungblud, Billie Eilish, Cole Sprouse, and Ariana Grande, etc.
During these difficult times, we need to come together and speak for what is right and what should be right. Here is a video of a black woman tired and done with the injustice and inequality but at the same time determined to bring a change:
What we, as the future of this world can do and should do is very important. Come and help bring justice to the people who deserve it as much as we do by signing petitions here:
Donate to those who need it the most here:
But most importantly, remember, Black Lives matter is not a trend, it should be a lifestyle. You and I may not be able to directly help much but change comes from the inside. Educate yourself and the people near you and constantly talk about racial injustice faced by the black community, so that people don't suffer just because of their skin color and their race.
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