Afraid For Your Life? Was George Floyd Afraid For His?
Misguided right-wing advocacy isn’t helping law enforcement or anyone else
In 1980, I was driving to the house of my boyfriend’s parents in San Diego County when I was pulled over by a man later convicted of cold-blooded murder of a beautiful young woman, Cara Knott: CHP Killer Craig Peyer.
I hadn’t been speeding: my cheap VW Rabbit wasn’t capable of it.
Peyer had a lot of questions, none related to driving. He frightened me badly. He wanted me to get out of my car. Fortunately, I was able to remember the advice given to me by my grandfather, an honest and decent Sheriff.
“If an officer pulls you over and tells you to get out of the car, honey, don’t do it. A real officer would never ask you to do that.”
My grandfather told me that fifty years ago.
He served as the Constable in Redlands during World War II. He never drew his gun on duty. He never harmed a single prisoner. He turned in his resignation the day after he and officers had been required to shovel a man’s remains off the train tracks near downtown.
My grandmother had served as a Sheriff’s matron. She was called in to help with unruly female prisoners. She told a famous story about a “gigantic” Indian lady who would not cooperate with officers until a lady … my grandmother … was in the room.
I know about the thin blue line. Cops came to Family Service Association, where I served as Director for a decade, every day at about 3 PM to “shoot the s**t.”
I have been assisted many times by good officers. Craig Peyer wasn’t one of them.
Neither is Derek Chauvin, the man who was convicted of killing George Floyd by putting his knee on his neck for 8 minutes.
When I was raped in 1983 by a highly-paid literature professor who came from a wealthy Washington, DC family, the city cops in Claremont were sympathetic and believed every word I said: they knew the man was a sex predator. My case was far from the first time they’d investigated him.
When my baby died in an accident at home in 2005, everyone who investigated was professional and caring, with the exception of DCFS, which is noted for its corruption and endangerment of children (as opposed to assisting them). When I endured domestic violence afterward, the Van Nuys cops were sympathetic and wanted the DA to charge the responsible people. But the DA was retiring in two weeks. Too bad, so sad, how lucky for them.
Both my brothers were beaten by Hollywood cops.
I have had many friends in law enforcement over the years.
I know of none of them who would agree that Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin should have put his knee on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes.
There are good cops. There are bad cops.
The Golden State Killer, who was not apprehended for decades, was a former cop.
Every bad cop endangers the life of every single one of his brothers and sisters.
Right now, right-wing news networks are heavily pushing former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin’s appeal of his murder conviction in the death of George Floyd.
But everyone around the world saw the 8-minute video that showed Derek Chauvin with his knee heavily on Floyd’s neck. They saw the other officers standing around with varying degrees of guilt or lack of concern on their faces. Everyone who watched that video could see an officer behaving outside of his training, outside of regulations, and with extreme lack of concern for the man on the ground.
Was George Floyd a drug user?
Yes.
Did he have drugs in his system at the time of his death?
Yes.
As the author of a book entitled Fentanyl: The World’s Deadliest Drug, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that the Minneapolis coroner’s determination that George Floyd died of cardiac arrest because a knee was on his neck for 8 minutes, is Floyd’s cause of death, not a fentanyl overdose.
Living in Southwest Florida, I have many conservative friends.
None of these people personally harmed Floyd, and likely never harmed anyone else directly in their lives.
But they also overlook the facts I’ve provided.
Every dirty cop like Chauvin and the others present at Floyd’s death puts their fellow officers in danger.
Not recognizing Chauvin’s wrongdoing, making every excuse for him and demonizing the man he killed, does not help any honest law enforcement professional.
Sure, George Floyd used drugs. He didn’t need a knee on his neck and did not deserve to be murdered in the street on videotape as he begged for his life.
He needed to go to detox. He needed a helping hand.
An officer like my grandfather or like the other good law enforcement officers I’ve known would have tried to offer that helping hand. Or at least, they wouldn’t have encouraged Floyd or involved him in their petty criminal schemes.
Because that’s who that group of officers led by Chauvin were: recognizable easily by someone with my experiences as well as most others who’ve ever lived and worked in an inner city or corrupt rural community.
There’s going to come a day when even entitled, privileged Fox News viewers will get pulled over and will experience the Peyer or Chauvin type of treatment.
Do they think that if they are armed, they will be able to beat the dirty cop to the draw?
That is, sadly, what it may be coming to. If people live in privileged circumstances and do not know to put their hands on the wheel when pulled over and why they should do so —
They can just make more of those thin blue line flags and multi-colored all first responder flags.
They can just keep on telling themselves Floyd deserved to be suffocated in the street as he begged for his mother. Or which was it? Suffocation — or fentanyl?
Why do such people bother at all? They care so little for others other than themselves.
They have so little sense of how their behavior endangers them and their homes and families as well.
A dirty cop endangers all of his fellow officers in the same way that a diehard right wing advocate who looks for any and all reasons that anyone killed by law enforcement deserved their fate.
You make a key point. Those cops who elevate power into their own hands place every cop - including the good ones - in danger. The only way to purge that dynamic is for police forces to reject their "code of silence" that protects the bad ones among themselves. Until they clean up their own house, they will never earn the public's trust to help keep any of them safe. They are on their own until they make the decision to take their own motto to heart "To Protect and Serve"
Rupert's done a lot of damage to the world. Normalizing sociopathy will likely be his most enduring achievement.