George Floyd, police brutality, and the cause for optimism.
The killing of George Floyd last week by police officers in Minneapolis has triggered a wave of large-scale protests around the United States, as well as abroad. Talking about why the protests are happening almost feels a bit pointless at this stage; if you don’t get it by now then you probably never will. Tamir Rice, shot by police in a playground at the age of 12 for holding a toy gun. Trayvon Martin, killed by a white man for walking through the wrong neighbourhood. Michael Brown, shot dead whilst surrendering to police with his hands in the air. Freddie Gray, killed in the back of a police van because the police driver wanted to give him an uncomfortable ride. Atatiana Jefferson, killed in her own house by police. Eric Garner, choked to death by police in broad daylight. The list goes on. And on. And on. And on.
In the weeks before Floyd’s murder Ahmaud Arbery was chased down the street by a convoy in Georgia, and shot dead, whilst newly qualified EMT Breonna Taylor was shot and killed when police fired 20 shots into her apartment whilst she slept. Floyd’s murder was especially callous (click here for the New York Times breakdown of what transpired); the officer knelt on his neck for almost 9 minutes even as Floyd repeatedly stated ‘please, I can’t breathe’, whilst other officers stood round watching without intervening. As is so often the case, his was merely the spark that ignited the fire.
The reaction by Donald Trump has been to pour gasoline on the already combustible situation. With an election in 5 months, and struggling in the polls, Trump has bet all on the law and order card. He has threatened the protesters with even more heavy-handed policing, branding them ‘lowlife and scum ’, has threatened to designate ‘ANTIFA’ as a terrorist organisation, and has deployed the military in DC (the only area of the US in which he has any authority to deploy troops). He’s threatened State Governors, and has had protesters (as well as clergy) gassed in order to get a photo op outside the White House grounds.
And for the most part, the police have taken their lead from Trump’s administration. The policing of the protests has been aggressive, confrontational, and in many cases downright vicious. All across the country eye witness accounts and video evidence has shown law enforcement officials instigating violence, and engaging in acts of brutality and violence; this Twitter user has compiled a list of 247 such instances to date.
Peaceful protests have, in many cases, turned violent only when police arrived on the scene. Six police officers in Atlanta have been charged after dragging a black woman from a car and tasering the black male driver. The Chief of Police in Louisville was fired after his officers shot dead a restaurant owner, after turning off their body cams. An officer in Denver was fired for boasting on social media about ‘starting a riot’, and an officer has been suspended after pushing over a kneeling protester (but not before gloriously being chased off by a fellow police officer).
Police vehicles have been spotted ramming crowds, elderly citizens have been pushed to the ground, health care workers have been beaten, children have been maced, officers caught making threats against people’s lives. Here, the National Guard fired rounds directly into people’s homes. Pepper spray, tear gas (illegal in warfare) and projectile rounds have been used with impunity. Eye and head injuries have been commonplace, raising the questions as to whether police are deliberately aiming weapons at protester’s heads.
Let’s be clear; cops aren’t for the most part tasering and teargassing and shooting ‘rioters’. (There are, as with most large-scale protest, rioters and looting, but more on that later). They are tasering and teargassing and shooting overwhelmingly peaceful protesters.
Numerous protesters have been arrested or attacked for doing nothing more than talking, or kneeling, as they are legally entitled; a right enshrined into the Constitution of the United States.
Worryingly, the press have also become legitimate targets for police officers, continuing a recent trend that has spread amongst right wing groups. The US Press Freedom Tracker has compiled a list of 233 incidents (as of 02 June) involving the press being targeted and their freedoms violated. Journalists have been shot, beaten, denied access, arrested; all in violation of the constitutional right to freedom. All were clearly identifiable as members of the press, all were entitled by the constitution to be present; all were targeted regardless. It is hard to separate this trend from the public war President Trump has waged on the media, often with violent rhetoric and dog-whistle call to arms.
Given that the protests began because of police brutality, their response has been extraordinarily tone-deaf. Trump’s leadership is a factor in how the police have behaved, but it did not create the underlying problems. Many of the issues long precede his Presidency.
This in part a long-standing recruitment and training issues, and partly the rapid militarisation of police forces; for years the police have recruited low-hanging fruit, pumped them full of testosterone and military grade weaponry, with little training in how to police communities or de-escalate situations. Many police forces are more akin to paramilitary organisations than a police force whose duty is to ‘Serve and Protect’. Clad in Robocop body armour and armed to the teeth, aggression is the only way they know how to deal with situations, yet due to their lack of training fear, panic, and loss of control often comes to the fore when surrounded by a crowd, leading to mistakes, escalation, and often deaths.
On the flip side, there have been a not insignificant number of police forces and officers who have taken a different approach; in places like Miami, Baltimore, Kansas City, Des Moines, Ferguson (scene of the Michael Brown protests), Camden, Fargo, Norfolk, Santa Cruz, Flint, Houston, the police have listened to, engaged with, and in some instances joined in with protesters. Many have joined protesters in taking a knee. Actress Keke Palmer spent two minutes talking with the National Guard at her local protest, eventually persuading them into kneeling alongside protesters. There is anger to be found amongst law enforcement officials about what has transpired; as well as the moral aspect, it also makes their job a lot more difficult.
In many of these areas confrontation and violence has been minimised or avoided entirely. This has, however, not been the case everywhere, and to some the very notion of celebrating engagement with police is controversial; the police are part of a corrupted system that creates the conditions that leads to confrontation with, and incarceration of, black people, and as such the police force and all within it are culpable. It is certainly the case that the American justice system is horrifically broken, from economic and social divides to policing, to the courts and the prison system, but I also think that a fit for purpose police force are necessary within a functioning civil society, and that good policing and positive relations with the community should be celebrated and held up as an example. I don’t believe that is the case that just because a system is broken, it cannot be fixed.
Some have also accused these police of engaging with protesters not out of a sense of solidarity or shared outrage, but for public relations purposes (as the White House have certainly attempted to do). That may well be true for some, but cynical as that may be, in most cases it still helps to de-escalate the situation and lead to a more positive environment in which peaceful protest can take place. That can only be a good thing, especially when the alternative is widely on show elsewhere.
Some very interesting police figures have garnered national attention from this group; notably Houston police chief Art Acavedo, who marched with protesters, and told Trump to “keep his mouth shut if you have nothing constructive to say”. These are not perfect police forces or leaders, by any means, and they have their own problems to deal with. But it points to a better way of doing things, and hope that there are still people who want to move in a more positive direction.
Murkier is the role of ‘outside agitators’ in the riots. There has certainly been a more diverse demographic amongst the protesters than may have been seen in previous protests; many white, Asian, and Latino people are allies who have been standing alongside the black community in opposition to police brutality; in some cases putting themselves in harm’s way to protect other protesters or property. Partly this is because of how big the demonstrations have become, and how they’ve encompassed wider anger against Donald Trump. Partly it is due to the demographic make-up of modern-day American cities, and a sign of increased solidarity and kinship between many young people; something figures such as Barack Obama and Spike Lee have praised.
But there is widespread evidence that much of the looting and damage to property, and instigation of confrontations with the police, is being perpetrated by white people. Some of those will without question be legitimate protesters caught up in the moment. There have however been wide ranging reports and eye witness accounts of both anarchist and white supremacist groups using the cover of the protests to fuel rioting and violence. The Mayor of Minneapolis and the Governor of Minnesota both highlighted this problem after the first night of protests (though they were forced to walk back the extent of their initial comments), and the police have confirmed that there has been increased chatter on known white supremacist websites and social media accounts, such as the ‘Boogaloo boys’ ,calling for members to commit acts of violence.
Three self-identified members of the Boogaloo movement were on Wednesday arrested on their way to a protest in Las Vegas with Molotov cocktail and gas canisters that they were planning to use to spark violence. And thus far, outside of the police and National Guard, the only armed people I recall seeing have been white ‘vigilantes’, often with the police standing by and doing nothing.
Meanwhile, the FBI have since confirmed that there is no evidence that ‘ANTIFA’, much vilified by Trump, were involved in or even present at any protests. Not surprising given that there is no such physical organisation as ANTIFA (ANTIFA stands for ‘anti-fascist’).
The NYPD have also confirmed that organised anarchist groups were involved in looting and rioting; as anyone who has ever been on any protest ever will tell you, and I’ve been on many, this is the MO of many anarchist groups, the more extreme of whom tend not to give a shit about whatever cause they hijack in their quest to spread chaos. In many instances protest organisers have confronted those graffitiing or vandalising buildings, businesses, and vehicles. In at least one instance the crowd apprehended an anarchist protester and handed him over to police officers. In more recent days they have conspicuous by their absence, and protests have been more peaceful and focused as a result.
That’s not to say that looting and has just been down to anarchists and white nationalist groups. Many opportunists have taken advantage of the chaos to loot stores and smash windows. As has been pointed out above, this is often counter productive to the aims of the protests. Then again, it is somewhat of a myth that only peaceful protest can bring about change. The Stonewall Riots led to legislation protecting the LGBTQ community. The anti-Vietnam protests hastened the end of the Vietnam war and changed the face of America forever. In the UK the poll tax riots forced the Thatcher government into a U-turn on the policy. And then there is the Civil Rights Movement; the widely held belief is that it was peaceful protest that led to the Civil Right Act; in fact it was 6 days of rioting after Dr King was assassinated that led to the Act, which had stalled in Congress, finally being passed.
America’s history is a history of protest. Yet every time a protest happens, it is deemed to be wrong and ‘un-American’, and those who take part branded as ‘traitors’ or ‘terrorists’. Colin Kaepernick knelt over police brutality. He lost his career and Donald Trump labelled he and other NFL players who joined his protest ‘sons of bitches’ who ‘shouldn’t be in the country’. Martin Luthur King was viewed unfavourably by 70% of Americans before he was shot and killed, by a white man. It’s the same anytime a mass shooting happens. No type of protest is deemed acceptable, and it is never the right time. And as such, things never change and we keep living this same cycle over and over.
What can we, particularly white people, do to help end this cycle? It’s a loaded question, but it’s not necessarily complex.
First of all, pause and listen. Listen to what the black community is saying, and has been saying all along. Don’t instinctively get defensive and retreat into your comfort zone of denying or underplaying the problem, or attacking those taking action to defend their communities and highlight injustice. Try to empathise; understand that just because you don’t live this existence or see it on your doorstep, that doesn’t make it any less real for tens of millions of others. Expand your understanding with books, articles, movies. Try to understand the anger, the frustration, the desperation, and the historical context.
Part of this is stop reflexively responding to ‘Black Lives Matter’ with ‘well, all lives matter’. The existence of the ‘All Lives Matter’ narrative serves no purpose other than to attempt to belittle and undermine the Black Lives Matter movement. Of course everyone’s life is important, and nobody is saying any different. But this isn’t about all lives. This is a movement specifically about black lives that have, for years, decades, and centuries, been systemically snuffed out for no reason other than they are black.
Try to understand what white privilege is, again without retreating immediately into a defensive posture. It’s not a slur on white people. It’s about disparities between how society views white people and black people, and how your skin colour determines who you and what you can and cannot do. A perfect example of this is how, just weeks ago, heavily armed white nationalist militias stormed the courthouse in Michigan, demanding that the COVID lockdown be lifted. Despite a heavy police presence, police did not arrest or attempt to arrest even one militia member. Now imagine what the police would do if a gang of heavily armed black men stormed, well, anything. Especially bearing in mind that George Floyd was killed by four police officers over a counterfeit $20 bill.
And if you want to understand what using your privilege constructively looks like, this week’s protests provided us with this beautiful moment:
After that, there is much else far more tangible that you can do; support and amplify the messages of those fighting to end injustice, calling out racism when and where you see it, if you are able get out and join a protest. Show solidarity. But first it is important to simply listen, understand, and engage.
This will be beyond many. Where I spent my childhood years, in southern England, is a pretty right wing place. I see a lot of people from there talking about these protests and those that have gone before it, and they show no signs of wanting to understand or to listen. They are too set in their ways, too deferential to authority, too apathetic, too conservative, or in some cases too racist. But you don’t have to be left wing, or anti-police, or even young to be outraged by police brutality and societal injustice, or to support reform. Far from it. This is something that concerns and affects us all, and not just in the US.
Fortunately Trump’s gamble in playing the law and order card looks to have backfired dramatically. Polling of the US public shows that the US public overwhelmingly support protests as well as the Black Lives Matter movement, and believe that Trump has handled it badly. Former military and political figures, including Trump’s former Defence Secretary James Mattis, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen, former Marine Corps General John Allen, former Director of the CIA and NSA Michael Hayden, Trump’s former Under-Secretary of Defence James Miller, and most importantly The Rock, have condemned the use of force against protesters.
Will this translate into the sort of systemic change that is required to ensure we aren’t having this conversation yet again in a few years? I wouldn’t gamble on it. But it does create a lot of opportunities; not least in helping to ensure Trump’s removal from office, which will require converting this energy into voting. After that it is going to take an awful lot of effort, and political will, to bring about the necessary change, whatever that may look like.
The X factor in these protests is the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. The US in particular does not have the virus under control, so crowds of people congregating are not a good sign, even with widespread use of masks amongst protesters. But it is important to remember that black workers have been front and centre on the front line in the battle against COVID, and have died at far higher levels than white people. That is as much the case in the UK as it is in the US. They stood in front of the virus to protect the rest of us, and as a community they paid a high price, and all the while the killing of their people for nothing more than the colour of their skin has continued unabated. For this as much as anything else, we owe the black community our support, and our solidarity.