3 ms·
The whole social phenomenon surrounding George Floyd's veneration and martyrdom is very interesting. He was literally a convicted felon for multiple crimes, one
by exoverito 3y ago
The whole social phenomenon surrounding George Floyd's veneration and martyrdom is very interesting. He was literally a convicted felon for multiple crimes, one of which was home invasion where he held a gun up to a pregnant woman's stomach. The day of the incident he was passing counterfeit bills and acting erratic which prompted the call. The toxicology report showed he had fentanyl and meth in his system. The body cam footage started with him in the driver's seat of an SUV without ID, acting erratic and resisting arrest, and when first put into the back seat of the police car Floyd said he couldn't breath. Odds are he was probably already having a heart attack from the drugs, and then Chauvin's maximum restraint technique pushed him over the edge.
Objectively speaking, Floyd was a miscreant at best and almost certainly a net-negative in terms of benefiting society. A fair trial would have classified the incident as manslaughter, but since cities were literally burning and the jurors were publicly known, they were not at liberty to judge the case impartially. The transformation of Floyd into a martyr and the violent quasi-religious movement that followed will be a good case study for future historians.
- standardUser 3y agoYou have that entirely backwards. People don't generally sit around waiting for the perfect martyr. A martyr is a symptom of social unrest, not a cause. Dwelling on the specifics of the individual, instead of what they represent, is an obstacle to actually understanding the issue.
- l3mure 3y agoNo such thing as a true innocent for avowed racists anyways, these are people that celebrate the murder of children like Emmett Till, George Stinney, and Tamir Rice.
- fragmede 3y agoSometimes they do. Rosa Parks wasn't the first to resist racial segregation on the bus, but a sex worker did the same but that wouldn't have played as well in the media so she went un-rallied around.
- anigbrowl 3y agoJury selection for the trial of Derek Chauvin started in December 2020 and the trial itself took place the following March - many months after rioting had ended. Get your facts straight.
- LorenPechtel 3y agoManslaughter??? No, that requires a lack of intent. Once you engage in felony violence against the person an inadvertent kill carries the intent of the original felony. Murder, not manslaughter. The cops engaged in a bit of street justice. Usually they get away with it, but since it resulted in death on camera they were caught. This is not to say that Floyd wasn't a criminal--he certainly was.
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y agohis past isn't relevant to the case, there is clear evidence of misconduct by the police that resulted in an unnecessary death. Had the police been better they would have taken him in and no one would have batted an eye but that isn't what happened.
- mrWiz 3y agoAccording to the toxicology report on Floyd, fentanyl and methamphetamine were present in his system but not at levels that indicated use the day he was killed.