21/04/2021
In May of last year, George Floyd was murdered.
In August, bodycam footage of the incident was released that showed George Floyd was murdered.
Today, Derek Chauvin is the first officer in Minnesota to ever be charged and held accountable for the murder of a black man.
Since 2005, only seven officers in the USA have been convicted of murder in police shootings.
And still so many are justifying this horror. Just American exceptionalism, I suppose.
I’m going to list some tweets from prominent and professional white (and some Asians who join them, for good measure I guess) dickheads since the verdict was announced mere hours ago.
“Since Ferguson” tends to qualify Shapiro’s statement. It shouldn’t be normal, but it is, because it’s not just an individual case.
That is one thing that needs to be made clear about this: Derek Chauvin being held accountable for the murder of George Floyd is just one part of an immense problem in the US. It is not just an individual responsible here, it is the entire system – don’t let people convince you this is “justice”.
Chauvin not being convicted would have been a deep indictment of the state of the country, as if it could sink any deeper (it terrifyingly could).
Yes, exactly, that’s how murder trials tend to go. A man committed a murder and has been charged as such. If he had not been charged, it would have been wrong – this is a very clear case. I’ve seen a number of parodies to this line, such as, “You wouldn’t have said it was a successful surgery if it was an unsuccessful surgery.”
Good. If police feel they have to quit as a response to this trial then I’m sure the American people will feel safer for it.
“Justice for Floyd” is just one case that sparked the current outrage. Since then, how many police killings have there been? Including a 13-year-old boy that people like Crowder tried to justify because he had a “gang nickname”.
“Appeasing the mob” would involve actual change, not a single conviction.
Smug pricks like Rubin have been stoking the flames of division and racism for years. He defended and justified the murder of George Floyd since day one, and his response to the verdict was “Ok then.”
Given that the system has failed them for literally centuries, yes, direct action and protests work. Also, agreeing with the conviction is not a “far-left” stance, it’s the bare minimum.
This guy is an Australian. Avi Yemini is a Trump supporter, was part of the IDF, abused his ex-wife, and has defended US police and justified the murder of black people (despite his own antagonism towards Victorian Police because it’s a Labor government and he wants to be a victim). He masquerades as a journalist here and has a scarily large platform for his dangerous views.
When asked what the verdict will be, Chen’s audience said “riots”. Below that, she asked what the verdict should be. Almost half said acquittal.
PragerU, a fake “online university” run by a guy who said he doesn’t rape people because God says not to, is kind of correct here. Not on the first bit – systemic racism is the issue. But there are opposing values, such as PragerU valuing racism and white supremacy. They released a video advocating and defending slavery.
This guy plays as a “centrist” but is very much like the above crowd, consistently dog-whistling and submitting to the “far-right” rhetoric. In this case, he’s accidentally gone and had a good take.
There are a few reasons I wanted to list all of these tweets. The first is to highlight how massive an audience these dangerous and unhinged internet personalities have. Millions of people between them and many other sources have absorbed this narrative that, whether they personally realise it or not, attaches them all to white supremacy and deeply institutionalised racism. Being racist and plain wrong is not exactly an ideology, it’s just shit.
Second, as a white guy watching the American horror circus and the racial disparities here in my own country, Australia, part of our role in uniting with black people, or just any non-white demographic, is voicing loud opposition against those who rally behind white supremacist ideas. If they are going to actively engage in or defend a system of oppression, then we are obligated to tear that system down.
Today is a bittersweet relief – at least Chauvin was convicted and not acquitted. But that is a low bar, and it may be accountability, but it isn’t justice. Justice, as many online have stated, would be George Floyd being alive to see it. Justice would be an overhaul of the system. Justice would be no more deaths.
This is far from over.
Anarchist Rising 