Seven Minutes and Forty-Six Seconds

The Murder of George Floyd

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, who was black, entered Cup Foods in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he was a regular customer. He payed for a pack of cigarettes with a 20$ bill, but the clerk called the police, alleging that the bill was fake. They found Floyd in a parked car around the corner with two other people. According to court transcripts from the bodycams of the officers, Floyd was co-operative with the police at first, “repeatedly apologizing to the officers after they approach his parked car,” according to BBC. As the officers attempted to put Floyd, who had been handcuffed, in the police car, he “stiffened up, fell to the ground, and told officers he was claustrophobic,” says the police report. Derek Chauvin then arrived on the scene and forcefully put his hands on Floyd, causing him to fall to the ground again, where he lay face-down, still handcuffed. Chauvin then proceeded to place his knee on Floyd’s neck for seven minutes and forty-six seconds. The bodycams show that Floyd told officers he couldn’t breathe over 20 times, pleaded for his mother, and said “you’re going to kill me, man.” To this, Chauvin responded “then stop talking, stop yelling. It takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk.” Six minutes into the almost eight minute period, Floyd became unresponsive. About an hour after the altercation, he was pronounced dead. I urge you to watch the New York Times video of the incident here.

Most people are already aware of the death of George Floyd, and the information I described above. What many fail to see is that it was not an isolated incident. The police have been biased towards people of color since their forming in the early 19th century. Let’s begin at the very beginning.

The History of Police in America

In colonial times, there was no established police force. Instead, there were informal police departments that were privately funded and worked for profit. In addition, many towns and cities relied on a “night watch,” in which citizens would volunteer for specific times to keep watch for minor crimes, such as gambling. These didn’t work very well, because the people keeping watch were often unreliable. In addition, cities were growing, and the system didn’t work on a larger scale. In 1838, the first community-funded police force was formed in Boston. Businesses wanted to cut down on the cost of protecting their goods, so they argued that it was for the “collective good,” according to Time, and they convinced citizens to chip in.

These police forces began to pop up in large cities across America, but they worked differently in the South. There, they were glorified slave-catchers, “tasked with chasing down runaways and preventing slave revolts.” After slavery was abolished and the Jim Crow laws went into affect, police were tasked with enforcing those, too. Even today, the policing system enforces segregation, according to The American System: How Police Enforce Segregation. Police are present in predominantly black communities much more than they are in predominantly white communities. In addition, hyper-criminalization of blacks has lead to the ratio of blacks to whites in prison to be very different to the ratio of the population as a whole. To summarize, black people are much more likely to go to prison for minor crimes, such as drug use, while whites will face less or no prison time for the same crimes.

Jemel Roberson

Jemel Roberson was a 26-year-old security guard working extra shifts to afford Christmas presents for his child, who was less than a year old, and his child’s mother. On November 11, 2018, Roberson stopped a shooter at Manny’s Blue Room in Chicago by pinning him to the ground. When police arrived, an officer immediately shot and killed Roberson. The officer was placed on paid administrative leave and still hasn’t been charged for Roberson’s murder. They say the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, but they cannot recognize a good guy with a gun unless the good guy is white.

Elijah McClain

Elijah McClain was a 23-year-old who spent his lunch breaks playing his violin for cats and dogs at his local animal shelter. On August 24, 2019, around 10:30 pm, McClain was walking home from a convenience store with an iced tea he had bought for his brother. He was wearing an open-faced ski-mask, because his face would sometimes get cold due to his anemia. Police received a 911 call about a “suspicious person.” McClain was unarmed, but an officer accused him of reaching for a gun and put him in a carotid hold, which temporarily cuts off blood flow to the brain. McClain tried to explain that he was “stopping his music to listen,” according to the officers bodycams, which “fell off.” He tells them his house is “right there.” He can be heard crying. Then he vomits and apologizes, saying “I just can’t breathe correctly.” He was then injected with ketamine, which was meant to sedate him, while officers pinned him to the ground. On the way to the hospital, he went into cardiac arrest and died days later.

Breonna Taylor

Breonna Taylor was an EMT in Kentucky. Police claimed that her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had been using Taylor’s address to smuggle drugs, so they procured a warrant for her home. According to the police, they knocked and announced themselves before forcing entry into the home, however Taylor’s family says they entered unannounced. Police also claim that they were shot at by Walker immediately after entering the home, so they fired back. Walker had a license to carry, but there is no evidence as to who shot first. Taylor was shot and killed by an officer. A 911 call was released from Walker’s phone, in which he tries to explain that someone broke into their home and shot her. “I don’t know what is happening,” he says in the call.

The deaths of Roberson, McClain, Taylor, and Floyd are all examples of the racism and injustice that runs rampant in the police system in the United States. Since George Floyd’s murder, protests and riots have broken out across the United States and the world, and the Black Lives Matter movement has been greatly emphasized. But what does “Black Lives Matter” mean? It does not mean that non-black lives don’t matter. It does not mean that all cops are bad. Black Lives Matter means that black people have been killed, enslaved, or treated as second-class citizens, simply for being black, for centuries. It needs to end, but how?

How You Can Help

Educate yourself. Many non-blacks are unaware of the racism and brutality enforced by the police, because they are unaware of it. What I have told you is just the tip of the iceberg. Read articles and books, watch videos, and just be aware of the issue. I will leave some resources below.
Educate others. After you have made yourself aware, educate your friends and family.
Listen to people of color. If you are not a minority, you can never fully understand how it feels to experience racism. It is important to listen to what black people want, instead of thinking you know what is offensive or racist and what isn’t.
Donate if you can. Again, I’ll leave resources below.
If you can’t donate yourself, stream YouTube videos that donate. I’ll link a playlist below.
Sign petitions. Make sure perpetrators face consequences.

EVERYONE CAN DO SOMETHING. BLACK LIVES MATTER. THE ISSUE DOESN’T GO AWAY ONCE THE TOPIC ISN’T TRENDING.