Where life matters… in the hearts of police officer and a young girl
Joe Biden told the USA that the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial sends the message that nobody is above the law.
He called the killing of George Floyd a stain on the nation’s soul.
Biden was speaking after the jury returned the guilty verdict against ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin who is now in a maximum security prison on suicide watch. He was found guilty of three counts.
Chauvin looked around in disbelief as the judge read the decision, based on footage of the nine minutes and 29 seconds he knelt on the unarmed black man’s neck.
Biden has promised now push through civil rights reforms as White America hung its head shame.
Chauvin worked nights in one of Minneapolis’s toughest area by choice and he didn’t fit in with the other officers. He married to beauty queen who divorced him two days after Floyd’s death.
Part 1:
How Floyd’s fate moved a young Slovak girl to remember him
This moving portrait of police victim George Floyd was sent to the preservation society by the family of Karin, aged 13, who lives in Stropkov, Slovakia.
Karin was watching TV when a news broadcast high-lighted what had happened to Floyd. “It made her very sad,” a family member said.
i”She was thinking about this guy for a few days and wanted to do something so people don’t forget about him.
“She is angry about situation in USA and about racism. She is very young, but understands so much.”
George Perry Floyd Jr. was an African-American killed by police during his arrest in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.
Protests in response to his death and police violence against black people, has spread across the United States and the rest of the world.
Part 2.
George Floyd and why good cops hate bad cops
Guest writer, Mark Pearce, experienced UK police officer
I don’t normally get involved in stuff that goes around. But feelings are so strong regarding the death of George Floyd, that some things need to be put in to perspective.
The death of Floyd was needless and unnecessary and came about as a result of illegal actions by one main police officer, but assisted by three others …. George Floyd was not resisting and was complaining that he could not breathe….. in anybody’s book, you can see that the way those police officers dealt with this situation was wrong and unforgivable.
And quite rightly, they have been arrested, charged and will face the courts for the appropriate sentencing.
Now, George Floyd was committing an offence for which he was being arrested. It is quite common for people who are being arrested to resist.
And if this is the case, a police officer has to raise his level of involvement and, depending on the level of threat and resistance, it can involve the use of deadly force, for example, if an officer is about to lose his life or he needs to end someone else’s life to protect another person (such as in terrorist attacks).
Now, I have not seen any footage of the initial interaction between the police officers and George Floyd, so I don’t know what his initial response to the police was. But it is very clear that whether or not George Floyd had put up any resistance at the moment leading up to – and at the time of – his arrest, he was not resisting when the video everyone has seen was filmed.
That is why we can see, and we all know, that those actions were totally wrong and unnecessary.
More to the point, what happened is NOT a practice that is taught during police self defence classes… the taking of someone’s life is the ultimate last resort irrespective of what they have done.
But please do not tarnish all police officers with the same brush, please do not think that all police officers are bullies or racists. Please do not think that other police officers are OK with what they have seen. Please do not think that police officers are OK with what is going on right now. Please do not think that police officers want to be in confrontation with their communities.
Police officers want to help communities.
Police officers want to protect vulnerable people, police officers want to serve for the good. Police officers are drawn from the very communities they serve.
They are your neighbours, your customers, your friends. They are mums, dads, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles etc… they go to work like everyone else, but they see day in day out what can only be described as the worst aspects of the community. The police officer that you have just totally abused, spat at and attacked, might have just come away from a fatal road collision where they have just finished delivering an agony message, or they may have just arrested a paedophile, who has been assaulting someone’s young daughter. They may have just been dragging someone out of a burning vehicle… they may have just been tackling terrorists whilst unarmed and without protection.
As a police officer you have switch on and off emotions at the drop of a hat… one moment you are dealing with a person who wants to take on the world, high on drugs, attacking innocent people trying to go about their business and you end up in a fight with him to effect an arrest.
The next call is to help Mrs Miggins, who had a pint of milk stolen. With Adrenalin still pumping, still feeling angry that some guy has attacked innocent people, been extremely violent and abusive to everyone and anyone, you have to deal with Mrs Miggins like she is the first job you’ve had in your police career.
Good cops hate bad cops.
Good cops are there for the community. But every cop at some stage in his career more often than is acceptable, has endured massive levels of abuse and assaults, but everyday they go back to work because they believe they can make that bit of difference in someone’s life, and it doesn’t matter to a good cop whether you are black, white, green, brown, yellow or red, they will put their lives on the line for you.
Unless you have walked in the shoes of a police officer, it will be difficult to fully comprehend the messing around of emotions you go through on a daily basis, not knowing what you will deal with on any given day, not knowing if you will actually come home to your family that day.
A police officer has to wear many hats, and being human, that sometimes put the wrong had on for a situation, but we all do, we all make mistakes and have misunderstandings… it’s called being a human……(and please ….. by that, I am NOT referring to the George Floyd incident as a mistake/misunderstanding. That was wholly an unlawful act).
So all I am really asking is that you reflect on what is going on with an open mind in a sense that no one is better than anyone else, we are all equal irrespective of colour, creed, religion, sexuality, but there are some in society that don’t see that, and feel they can do what they want, and take exception when the law intervenes, and when they do, it seems like society is ready to jump onto the police without knowing anything about a situation.
If a police officer is arresting someone, like it or not, there will usually end up being some amount of force used, but once an officer(s) have gained full control the situation should calm down and the vast majority of officers know how to act properly not only before and during an arrest, but the aftercare of a suspect.
When you consider the amount of arrests made on an annual basis, the vast majority that occur without any complications, then it proves that on the whole, the police are doing a proper job of caring for detainees.
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