This death, globalized by the nauseating video of his last moments with his neck under the knee of Derek Chavin, interpreted through the lens of an alleged systemic, white, especially police racism, ignited the BLM movement with monumental consequences. George became an icon of innocence violated; Derek the face of "The Oppressor."
Since that 2020 event, crime has surged in poor, black, urban areas; police departments are depleted by retirements, discouraged and passive before crime; racial resentment is heightened; polarization intensified; and, worst of all, the masculine self-esteem of the black male is diminished further. Liberal Democrat urban leaders who called for "defunding of police" are now begging for money for more officers. With the dust somewhat settled; with the fruits of that BLM/CRT narrative now obvious; it is time to soberly review the facts.
Recently, documents in an unrelated legal case (alleging sexual discrimination in Minneapolis law enforcement) unveiled that the original medical examination found no evidence of damage to the neck area and no sign of death by asphyxiation. Later, however, under immense pressure from the prosecution and explosive popular hysteria, the document was changed to find such evidence. It was a falsification. He had a very bad heart. At the time of his crime and resistance to arrest his body had three times the amount of fentanyl needed to kill a human. He admitted to stuffing fentanyl in his mouth to avoid detection by police. Before Chauvin even arrived, he was handcuffed in the police car, screaming that he could not breathe. The police removed him from the car to keep him from harming himself. He died by a confluence of bad heart, drug overdose, and hysteria due to resisting arrest. Cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest, a heart attack. That he was strangulated to death, murder by knee, is not clear from the facts.
Of the three officers who assisted Chauvin, one was black, one Asian, one white. This was NOT "white on black" violence.
Chauvin was a seasoned officer designated to train rookies in the chock hold he used on Floyd. The NAACP previously had requested that the police department discontinue that practice. They declined. They had a video and manual. Chauvin apparently applied it according to protocol. I take it that this is a disputed practice in law enforcement with pros and cons. It is not a racial matter, but it is understandable that the criminal and vulnerable classes would renounce it as dangerous and police with their family and friends might favor it as protective.
The previous police history of Chauvin is troubling. In almost 20 years of service he had received 18 complaints, with two resulting in letters of reprimand for misconduct; was involved with three police shootings, one fatal; and received two medals of valor and two commendations, all for aggressive action against criminal threats. He is, for sure, an aggressive man, probably violent. A number of the complaints came from blacks, but not all. Evidence for racial bias is not strong, but the propensity to an excess of violence is clear. This incident would exemplify systemic problems in police work: not racial bias but the appeal of the work to violent, even sociopathic men as well as the "blue wall of silence" which is the loyalty of police to each other, regardless of race/ethnicity and even in wrongdoing.
Lastly, a reconsideration of the context of the confrontation and death. The racist narrative is simple: racist white cop viciously murders innocent black man. Race may not be the issue here. The context was an alleged crime and resistance to arrest. Any resistance to arrest is inherently a life-and-death struggle as the officer carries gun and taser so that his life is at stake should the resistor prevail. Besides these lethal weapons, however, physical combat between strong men is already life-and-death combat. This is amplified of course by the strength and intoxication of a man like Floyd. The progressives, and especially many women, who were horrified by the video may not have identified this context if they have not ever observed a serious fight. Such is not Jason Bourne or Rocky going 12 rounds or John Wayne and Victor McLaughlin stumbling across the Irish hillside. It is a vicious, destructive, murderous thing. Any resistance to arrest is already a movement toward a killing, of officer or the arrested. Indeed, one of the many evil consequences of the "racism narrative" of this death is that it fuel the indignation of other young blacks and indirectly cause imitation of the resistance and more deaths, of both parties.
This is not to "blame" Floyd, who was obviously innocent, subjectively, by virtue of his intoxication. But it is to acknowledge the objective menace he was, by his strength. Nor is this to excuse the nauseating negligence, surely manslaughter, of Chauvin and his fellows. But it is to put in perspective the dilemma our police face in confronting such situations.
Such a disastrous, negligent misjudgment requires proportional punishment. But 47 years in prison is overkill for what this officer actually did. It is not an exaggeration to see a "lynch mob" dynamic at work here, in the overall hysteria and specifically in the falsification of the medical examination.
His death is emblematic of a police propensity to violence that is endemic to the work. This requires our vigilance, regardless of race or ethnicity. But these officers risk their own lives daily to keep us safe. We do well to avoid rash, especially blanket, judgment.
George Floyd is himself iconic and exemplary, not as an innocent martyr, but as a man who struggled valiantly against his own weaknesses and addictions, and tried valiantly to give to his community. He died in his addiction. A failure in that sense. But a gentle soul, aware of God's mercy and eager to share that with others like himself. I picture him looking kindly, tenderly upon Derek, another violent, suffering soul in need of God's mercy.
May they both...George in his purgatory above and Derek in his here on earth...in this November of the souls...be blessed by the Divine Mercy!
I thank my Minneapolis lawyer friend Tim Regan for much of the above information.
Afterthought: This being November, let us put this death in a clear Catholic context by raising a great theological question: Can the the souls in purgatory (the "Church suffering") pray for us on earth (the "Church militant")? We don't know for sure. It is not clear from Divine Revelation, Scripture and Tradition. The magisterium has not spoken clearly to it. Earlier traditions had the suffering souls incapable of such prayer and dependent upon our intercession. More recent traditions grant them this agency. I am myself old school. I doubt it. But we know with clarity and certainty: Derek can pray for George; we can pray for them both. I am confident that George, if he can, is praying for Derek. I have absolute certainty that George, when he has done his time in purgatory, will be praying from heaven for Derek and for us. I have a good feeling that George will finish his time before the 47 years that Derek is doing. But, on the bright side, if Derek accepts his sentence with patience, contrition, humility, gratitude and generosity, his time in purgatory will be very short! Don't ever forget: as Catholics, we play the long game...eternal life. We don't sweat the small stuff.
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