Top 10 things you need to know about the George Floyd protests
Protest with knowledge, not just feelings.
By Aaron Zhao
2020 has been a hectic year so far. First, we had the coronavirus, and now #BlackLivesMatter is once again invigorated after the death of George Floyd. Here are the top 10 things you should know before participating in the protests.
1. What event started the George Floyd protests?
On May 25, 2020, a police officer was caught on camera, pressing George Floyd down on the pavement with a knee lodged into his neck. As Mr. Floyd suffered the crushing impact, he choked out a few last words before he passed away, words that would resonate throughout the entire nation and arouse America’s indignation towards police (once again). He said:
“I can’t breath.”
“My stomach hurts.”
“They’re going to kill me.”
And this time, the police weren’t going to get away with it.
As covered by The New York Times, the execution of a private autopsy on Mr. Floyd revealed he had died of mechanical asphyxia, which occurred as he underwent sustained pressure on the neck and back by Officer Derek Chauvin and two other officers, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Keung.
Mechanical asphyxia is when the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen is interrupted, and the victim can no longer breath. Oxygen fuels our body, and without it, our cells cannot survive. The most vulnerable organ to oxygen deprivation is also the most important organ: the brain. If it does not receive an adequate amount of nutrients and oxygen, the victim will begin on their path to death as their brain cells begin to die.
On the other hand, the state autopsy (carried out by the Hennepin County) recognizes George Floyd’s death as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” Read the full autopsy report here.
Regardless of how he died, it was still a clear case of homicide, and is truly unacceptable. This is what sparked the protests happening in America right now, mixed with other negative feelings that have long been brooding within people against issues like systemic racism, the clear disparity between black and white people.
Photo by 2. Police brutality towards black people has been going on for a long time.
Police brutality is the product of poor management, moral ethics, and culture cooked up in a corrupted police department. It is an abuse of their social status and power to fulfill what they have established to be the law, in a disgraceful manner.
First, let’s address police brutality with four infamous cases:
- 1991: The death of Rodney King, who was beat with batons, sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. (See next section)
- 1992: Malice Green became a victim of police brutality when he was repeatedly struck on the head by Larry Nevers with a flashlight. Wayne County autopsy concluded Green died of “blunt force trauma”.
- 2014: In a physical brawl between officer Darren Wilson and teenager Michael Brown Jr. resulted in the death of the latter after the former fired twelve bullets, six of which hit Brown front and center. Wilson was soon exonerated and even supported (mostly by the right-wing).
- 2014: Tamir Rice (12 years old at the time) wielding an Airsoft replica, was shot on the torso by officer Timothy Loehmann.
- 2020: Of course, now we have the death of George Floyd
Merely five examples may not be able to prove that police brutality is as terrible as it is, so let’s bring in the statistics. Here are stats directly quoted from Mapping Police Violence:
- “Compared to white people, Black people are 3x more likely to be killed by police.”
- “Black people were 24% of those killed despite being only 13% of the population, despite them being 1.3x more likely to be unarmed.”
Please visit mappingpoliceviolence.org for more information and statistics.
Also, don’t forget that police brutality isn’t just targeted on Black people, but literally all minorities.
However, after knowing these facts, don’t twist reality. Cops aren’t fundamentally bad. It’s very likely that the ideas they’ve learnt and adopted as a police has caused them to act in “certain” ways. The main idea here is that if you’re going to be a cop, represent them like a good one, or else naturally, people will believe that all cops are bad. What we need right now is a competent police force who will create a safe atmosphere around a community, not a squadron of gun-wielding men who kill people and say they are actually protecting a neighbourhood from violence.
3. Today is just a near repeat of history (1992 Los Angeles Riots).
On March 3, 1991, Rodney King, a motorist, was caught by police. Instead of escorting him peacefully into the police vehicle, the five Los Angeles Police Department officers “struck him with batons between 53 to 56 times”, said Chief Daryl Gates of the LAPD, along with a few kicks. King was then stuffed into the vehicle with a fractured skull, broken bones, and hogtied feet. On April 29, 1992, when news arrived to the public that four officers had been acquitted of their assault charges, the people became furious, just like now after George Floyd’s death.
1992 witnessed violent protesting, mass looting of stores, the implementation of federal troops, that is the Army, and curfew.
It iss clear that either the government is either not paying enough attention to the problem, or they are not dealing with it the right way. Why else would this same problem appear 28 years later? These incidents will only continue to resurface if we continue to do what we do now without major, political change. These uprisings are like buoys in an ocean. We push them down, but they always come back up. We have to find a way to weigh it down and sink it.
4. Institutional racism is the root of the problem, but we can’t fix it.
Institutional racism is an umbrella term that groups together multiple prominent issues such as unemployment, the wealth gap, and incarceration. These critical problems have been going on for decades. This essentially means that they have been engrained into society, and to be able to remove them is going to be a challenge. A really, really difficult challenge.
Here are some facts:
The National Association For The Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said, “African Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites.” and “In 2014, African Americans constituted 2.3 million, or 34%, of the total 6.8 million correctional population.” Listen, readers: A broken criminal justice system is not going to be solved in a day. Or even month. Let alone a year. It is a HUGE issue, and the more we leave it to the side, the worse it becomes.
According to raceforward.org , “in 2010 Black Americans made up 13% of the population but had only 2.7% of the country’s wealth”. When you’re rejected from job opportunities because of your skin color and your people end up residing in a poor neighbourhood with limited education, these factors will all impact the wealth gap. This gap is only going to increase if this issue is left unaddressed, just like the previously mentioned issue.
Getting rid of systemic racism is going to look like an impossible feat, because IT IS an impossible feat. Stop living in your idealistic bubble, because racism will always be around. The best we can do is to break apart racism, one little piece at a time until it is unnoticeable.
5. Looting and Mob Mentality
Although looters make up a small percentage of people involved in the #BlackLivesMatter protests, the damage they have caused is extensive. While some people are simply looting for material gain (like grocery stores and clothing shops), others may attack symbols of power, to release the anger of being suppressed. It is also possible that people are taking this opportunity to loot buildings and destroy property because their neighbours are doing it too.
Looting not only destroys the sense of safety and “normality” in a neighbourhood, it also ruins businesses. COVID-19 had already troublesome enough for small business owners, and with looting, their debt climbs even more. Despite the fact that insurance companies do cover looting damage, this is still a major hit to the chests of business owners (especially smaller ones) across the nation.
Seriously, is this how we’re going to honour George Floyd’s death…? By pilfering the stores and smashing windows?
6. Property Damage
Property damage was significant in 1992, when nearly 1 billion dollars worth of property (1,000 buildings) was destroyed during the riots. According to CNN, nearly half of all the destruction of property was endured by Korean Americans, a huge blow to the minority. Imagine being an immigrant and watching the place that represents your ethnic minority burn up in flames. Not only does it cause physical damage, but also emotional damage.
Fast-forward to today, looting has costed Minneapolis 55 million dollars worth of property damage, while FOX News states, “Looting during George Floyd protests could cost NYC businesses ‘tens of millions’”. And it surely won’t just be these two cities that have to face property damage. As property damage and looting add up, it is no surprise that the cost of these riots will end with many zero’s.
7. COVID-19’s effect on African Americans
The coronavirus has thrown too many people out of their jobs and out of business, resulting in a sharp increase of unemployment and financial struggle. Although good news arrived with a decrease in unemployment to 13.3% earlier this month, “unemployment for black workers rose to 16.8%, the highest in more than a decade,” stated Charisse Jones from USA TODAY.
The economic burden primarily carried by black workers is a result of structural racism, which continuously widens the economic gap between white and black people by gradually morphing “white privileges” into a legitimate, acceptable idea.
The coronavirus has brought some light to the racism in America’s labor-market, and how Americans of African descent are left out on opportunities, resulting in financial difficulties. People are already angry, and now that this virus had brought them back to square one, it is absolutely justified for them to protest.
8. Curfew and the involvement of the US military
A curfew was placed to try to ease the protests. Naturally, people are going to speak out and say that it is going against their right to freedom of speech and movement. But is it justified, after all the violence that has occurred? Some cities have seen an ease on violence lately after the implementation of the curfew, so it is not merely just a government action to suppress protest. It is an action to create peace.
But there is also a negative side to this.
Just like what the government did in 1992, Trump brought in the military to support the police departments. New York Times reported that “[soldiers] feel demoralized and exhausted.” What makes the situation complex is that some soldiers support #BlackLivesMatter, but are ordered to use inappropriate tactics to fight against the protestors.
Trump’s deployment of the military to prevent the protests from taking extreme routes has been widely condemned, by the people and ex-military members. Is this a conservative move by Trump to suppress the rights granted by the First Amendment: peaceful protest? There are many different POVs people adopt.
On a side note, many have been arrested for protesting past curfew (unsurprisingly). According to the LAPD, 2,500 people have been arrested for protesting beyond the curfew time.
9. Ways to support #BlackLivesMatter
There’s already enough people spreading awareness. In fact, many are ONLY spreading awareness, not actually helping to change the issue. While they are doing the awareness component of solving this problem, the best thing you can do is to educate yourself, because you can’t expect to walk into a debate after reading three Instagram posts.
Don’t be the typical teenager during crisis and only share Instagram stories and posts, thinking that will solve the problem. You need to ACT.
Sign petitions. Participate in peaceful protests. Keep up with the news. Donate to anti-racism foundations.
Are you old enough to vote? If so, vote for the right party that will actually act to the situation, and not shun away from it. Vote for a mature party that will promise systemic change. Do your research on what each party promises and their values.
Specifically choosing to buy items from stores run by African Americans is an excellent idea and I am all with it, but it is not sustainable. Let’s be honest here, you will eventually revert back to the shops you normally shop in, out of convenience.
We must constantly think of new ideas on how to support #BlackLivesMatter. Sticking to the same strategies is not going to work, because the world is a natural environment where one has to constantly adapt to new conditions.
10. It’s a complex issue, NOT A TREND.
Slapping #BlackLivesMatter onto your story just to be “relevant” should be heavily condescended upon. THIS IS NOT A TREND. Racism is an issue that has polarized America for centuries, threatening society by repeatedly instigating social unrest. Take this time to learn more about institutional racism and the #BlackLivesMatter protests, and how you can support it.