BLACK LIVES MATTER!

Another black man is arrested and killed, likely murdered, by the police. This time for simply being accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill.

The police involved in the arrest have been fired but the numerous videos circulating clearly show that the man, George Floyd, was totally and safely controlled by the police. He was handcuffed behind his back and was laying face down on the street.

Video shows three cops holding him down with one officer kneeling on his neck - for seven minutes. All the while, the man is saying 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe'. At the same time the man is being held down the officer with his knee on the man's neck is saying 'get up, get in the car'.

George Floyd died while in control of the police and although the four officers were fired, none, so far have been charged with any violation of the law.

Wide spread rioting, burning and looting is spreading through out the United States. I do not condone this behavior. I do condone peaceful demonstration (I protested the Vietnam War even though I was a Vet)

I am reasonably concerned about the current police officers/departments who are supposed to be guarding our safety. Many, too many, of these police officers are running amok with their bad attitudes, especially if you are a black or brown man or woman.

Yes there are many more good, caring, courageous, law abiding police officers. But there are simply too many people being killed by police officers during police confrontations.

Of course all lives matter, but BLACK LIVES MATTER is not simply a statement to be spray painter somewhere. BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Hi Miki,

A touchpaper was lit somehow. We have seen cities in the UK have marches and more are arranged for.

Black lives do matter, very much so and the peaceful protests are justified and justice must be met. Maybe the only solution is re-education of members of law enforcement and very strict guidelines issued. Police are requisite, they are necessary and no nation will flourish peacefully without them until equality throughout all society is achieved. Equality is not likely to occur anytime soon if ever, so re-education and strict rules are the way forward.

Every decent thinking human would wish this awful occurrence did not happen and that George Floyd was alive and well, enjoying his life as he should be doing so right now.

I do hope that all protests are peaceful and continue until justice is served and Law Enforcement agencies take this seriously, very seriously. I do hope violence, theft and disorder does not continue, for it tarnishes the protest. This momentum must continue and not be lost because of law breakers taking advantage of the protests, so well done those that prevented a store being ransacked yesterday.

Let peace and prosperity reign, for all mankind throughout these already difficult times. Black lives matter.

Celia xx

Celia Eriksson wrote:
Black lives do matter, very much so and the peaceful protests are justified and justice must be met.

Yes!

Celia Eriksson wrote:
Maybe the only solution is re-education of members of law enforcement and very strict guidelines issued. Police are requisite, they are necessary and no nation will flourish peacefully without them until equality throughout all society is achieved.

I agree that there needs to be some sort of mechanism for dealing with the outliers of society. But maybe, too, we need a ground-up rethinking of what policing is. Why do we call it a police force, as opposed to, say, policy guides? Maybe the use of the word force makes violence inevitable? I don't know.

I strongly feel like the rush, especially in the US, of police departments to adopt a paramilitary look, wearing all black or camouflage, combat boots, driving huge SUVs and armored vehicles, is counter to the whole point of policing in a democracy.

The U.S. is burning because the Minneapolis District Attorney is reluctant to charge three additional officers who were involved in George Floyd's death.

The officer, Derek Chauvin, who held his knee on Floyd's neck was charged with 3rd Degree Murder and the lesser and included charge of Manslaughter. The family of George Floyd wants 1st Degree Murder. 1st Degree Murder cannot bring a conviction with the even the most willing jury as it requires forethought of the murder. 2nd Degree Murder, maybe, because it came out after the initial charges were filed against Chauvin that he held his knee on Floyd's neck for 2 minutes after one of the other officers holding Floyd down couldn't find a pulse on Floyd's body as he lay there in the street.

By charging Chauvin with the lesser grades of homicide it allows a jury to convict Chauvin of Manslaughter, the lesser and included charge. That is simply prosecutorial cowardice. This prosecutor is the one who could have stopped the rioting. HE COULD HAVE STOPPED THE RIOTING BEFORE IT STARTED IF HE HAD ONLY LOOKED AT THE VIDEO WITHOUT A COWARDS EYE. How can anyone see anything other than a police officer killing someone when officer's knee is on this mans throat. "I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe' and then he couldn't, he was dead.

Why have not the other three cops been charged. Doing so would send home the peaceful protesters. Doing so would leave only the 'professional' protesters. There are protesters on the ultra-left and anarchists who have driven to the cities under pressure and are starting or contributing to the destruction. There are ultra-right and white supremacists who are in the nationwide cities under pressure and are starting or contributing to the destruction.

Trump is hiding in a bunker under the White House, tweeting to his base. There is no leadership left in the U.S. No leadership.

In 1968, when Martin Luther King was murdered, there was similar rioting across the U.S. The right wing used this as a pretext for electing Richard Nixon. I truly hope Biden can come up with a campaign to deflect the commentary Trump will be using to get re-elected. I hope the middle of America, many of whom are swaying this way and that way politically will see through Trump's didactic threats with his 'keep America safe dialogue(s)' and come out this November and vote to get rid of this growing and menacing right-wing movement.

I hope the rioting in the streets and the looting and destruction of property stops now. I hope the protesters and police who charge each other throwing bricks and being shot at with rubber bullets stops now.

I hope this stops now. To quote another who was subjected to a police beating: '[b]CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG/b]'.

Hi Miki!!!!

Yes, I have to agree with all that you say. Except I have to admit to not knowing what the other policemen were doing? If they were drawn elsewhere, it is  a different kettle of fish. If they stood by watching, then yes they should be charged with something. Justice has to be that, justice, true and fair.

It seems the charge should have been 2nd. degree? Then cannot that still be pressed for?

Also, I am intrigued, is placing a knee upon a man's throat a policy?????? If so it should be removed from guidelines IMMEDIATELY!!!!!

And whoever suggested it as a method of restraint should be fired!!!! If it is not in guidelines, then the policeman murdered George Floyd, in other words, it is NOT, EVER, NEVER by any means of the imagination manslaughter, it is murder!!!!!

Hi Tara!!!

Yes, they are getting that way here. But the police in the UK are far more less likely to do anything like that. And they are scrutinised closely. The BME community here still do not trust them and we need more black police officers.

I am happy with the British police and I trust them wholeheartedly. That trust needs to extend to both the black and Asian communities in the UK, and it is for the police to earn it, I believe that they are actually trying...… I hope, no I wish, that they try harder to gain that trust.

Black lives matter!

Celia xx

The available video shows two other police officers holding George Floyd down while the fourth officer stood there watching. At some point, one of the officers holding Floyd down checked for a pulse and didn't find one and suggested to Chauvin to let up with his knee. Chauvin kept his knee on the Floyd for another two minutes without any attempt at resuscitation.

Placing a knee on an uncontrolled suspect can be appropriate to subdue someone. Rolling someone onto their stomach to subdue the individual can be appropriate to subdue someone. But Floyd was already in handcuffs and to my knowledge no police department trains their officers to maintain a suspect on their stomach ad/or to keep a knee on the suspect's neck/throat.

The three officers who have not been charged should be - as being complicit in the murder of George Floyd. I don't know if they can be charged with the same crime as Chauvin, but they need to be charge for somehow aiding and abetting the murder of George Floyd.

Someone on the news last night pointed out through out European and American history, the jack boot on the neck of someone has always been portrayed as demanding submission from an oppressed individual.

Hi Miki,

It would seem in that case that the other three should be charged then. With each case taken separately, as I am sure would be the case. If only the officer that told him to lift his knee insisted and took action. I have read of commentary saying those filming should have helped..... I think they most likely would have found themselves in a similar aggressive situation had they intervened so no they could not!

The officer placing his knee upon George's throat, that officer does not deserve my looking up his name, should be charged 1st or 2nd degree in that case....

I did not know George was already cuffed. In England, for sure, the first move is , once cuffed to place any suspect immediately into the rear of the police vehicle. It is designed so that the suspect, cuffed, cannot escape and I would be VERY surprised if US law enforcement vehicles were any different.

The whole thing is a terrible indictment of police procedure and to have happened in the twin cities is quite a surprise too, I thought they were nice, quaint places to live, or am I, as a European, getting St. Paul more than Minneapolis in that summation or vice versa or am I living in the past?

It will be, hopefully, a watershed moment, a time for all law enforcement in the USA to look very closely at themselves.

As for why? Black Lives Matter!!!!!!

Celia xx

There was an EMS crew that responded to the scene and pointed out the ill that Chauvin was forcing on Floyd - they were ignored.

There were several bystanders who complained about Chauvin but in doing so they could have/would have been arrested for interference.

One of the major problems we have in the States is with police unions. They are very strong and very strident in protecting their own. Chauvin had a least 14 other serious reports filed against him over his tenue with the Minneapolis Police Department but not once was he disciplined - no once.

Very view police department unions will allow for civil oversight. THAT ONE THING HAS TO CHANGE - NOW! MAYBE, JUST MAYBE IT WILL, THIS TIME!

Hi Miki,

I am not a great union gal. they have their place. In England only a fool would not pay prescription. This is because the die are loaded towards employers if you are not a union member.

You have to have worked anyhow, (union member or not), for two years, else any company can dismiss you, or not require your service anymore, no reason given, no comeback excepting extreme circumstance, sexual assault etc..

Even if you outlast the requisite two years, it is your court case costs accrued, should you feel you are sacked unfairly and a court finds that, actually you were not.... and that is tens of thousands of pounds.

This is where union fees kick in, they cover court costs and appoint lawyers to help in cases that are only winnable of course..

But unions can ruin a nation. They did a very good job in 1970's England and it was Thatcher that saw them off. It was necessary, to prevent the nation becoming a hamstrung state.

Police are not allowed to strike in England and they have a very strict code.

Trust me, contrary voices are few and far between here, everyone I have spoken to upon the subject is disgusted with the treatment of George Floyd.

But here, communists and anarchists, are mooting untrue facts about UK policing, customs & excise and spook units..... using the American tragedy as an excuse to whip up trouble and it is whites stirring, whites causing the trouble. Where black people are protesting and setting out peacefully, white far left wing agitators have made trouble on purpose.

Yes some are black left wing agitators, but they are much fewer relatively to the racial make-up of the peaceful protestors.... and there is the rub. White extreme left wing, communist organisations are the powerhouse of trouble here.

I can tell you this.... every police force in England has openly supported the peaceful protests and supported that, they have all felt disgust about this tragedy.

If any law enforcer in the UK placed his knee upon any Citizens neck, preventing him to breathe, for any length of time, just a moment, they would be immediately fired and face charges, whether the victim survived or not.

And I know for a fact that applies at least in all North West and West European nations too and no doubt, many, many others, throughout the free world.

I cannot believe, in the Western world. And I include the USA as such. No nation is perfect. We all have problems. That a union, an inherently, usually left wing biased organisation, would see a cop with 14..... 14!!!! transgressions to still operate upon the streets. Words are beyond me, perhaps they are Nazis.

And four cops. One kills a dear man, whoever he may be, whether he is an angel or not. I personally would not hurt a spider. But it matters not. NOBODY deserves that treatment and for four men to stand by and watch it happen is beyond belief.

God Bless America..... please sort your law enforcement guidelines, rules and regulations out and make them very, very strict. We all know they have a very, very, difficult job. It has been made much harder now. Maybe, just maybe, they will actually do something to make it easier, by not killing men on the side of the road.

Black Lives Matter. Very, very much so!

Celia xx

There was an incident in Buffalo, NY yesterday where a white elderly man (75) was pushed backwards by two police and he fell and hit his head. He lay bleeding, with blood pooling on the sidewalk, and none of the tens of cops rushing by him stopped to render aid. Eventually the EMS came and he is in serious but stable condition in a local hospital.

The mayor of Albany suspended the two cops who pushed the man. Today, in solidarity, 57 local police officers resigned in protest of the suspension. WHAT THE FUCK?

I  hope the mayor has the courage to honor the resignations of these cops. They ARE the problem, not 75 year old men standing in a sidewalk walk questioning why are the police there?

Film at 11:00 https://youtu.be/0bX7j3xUB3A?t=5
______________________________________
If 75 is elderly, then why do I not feel elderly at 73?

Hi Miki,

Ye, that was headlined in the UK, can it get any worse for law enforcers in the USA? But I am sure the majority of them are NOT like that.... and 73 is the new 50 btw! Gosh your hair is far healthier than most 50 y.o. women.. cis or transgender!!!

Well anyway, it's getting ridiculous in England now. The point has been made here. I cannot believe the way people behaved tonight.. In London 10 policeman were injured by a violent crowd, a policewoman fell off her horse and has very serious injuries. It is time to pull up the drawbridge and let justice take place.

Placards manufactured by the Socialist Workers Party were very much in evidence, a communist faction in British politics. they were seen handing them out to protestors. The peaceful ones left London hours ago, but those that stayed used poor George Floyd's misfortune to turn this into civil unrest.

It is such a shame. I support those in Washington atm, watching them live now...  for they are peaceful for now. I truly hope no more violence occurs. The policemen were violent towards George, every decent thinking human abhors that!!!!!

Please do not support any further likewise violence and that includes violence towards police, most of which are most certainly not like the knee-man, who does not deserved to ever be named, dirty little cowards should never carry a name, they have no right to own one, and no other coward can revel in it then.... keep the name low.

But stop the violent response.... now!!!!!!

The momentum has been lost, peace cannot reign and history has proven that it will achieve no sympathy from the masses, the masses being of all creeds, races and religions. All will support law and order in the end.

I have said upon here that policing needs to be looked at very closely, hat should now be the target. But because of violence, now that is more likely not to happen! If anything, it will cause more racial divides, more support for strong policing, more support for fascists..... please no more violence, if you protest do not get drawn in by communists and anarchists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Black Lives Matter!!!!

Celia xx