The Death of George Floyd
The world stopped as a police officer knelt on the neck of a man for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The officer remained in that position even after George Floyd had passed out and his heartbeat had become undetectable. Videos of the incident circulated rapidly, and protests broke out just one-day later. The death of George Floyd and the following protests raised various existing issues of segregation, police brutality, and corruption across the US.
The Protests
The protesters carried signs with messages like, “I can’t breathe,” and “Black Lives Matter.” The prevalent movement in the U.S became the BLM movement (Black Lives Matter). 8 minutes and 46 seconds became a memorial of the history of racism that has been disgustingly tolerated in the US, and “Karens” and “Kens,” the racists that have spread hate and violence for decades, were revealed.
The Effects
With the eyes of the world on the US, protesters quickly grabbed the opportunity and used it to fuel the spread of the BLM movement. The effect of the aggressive number of protests was widespread. The protests showed us who our true leaders were. Some of our “leaders” acted quickly and dealt crippling blows to racism. However, other leaders violently forced peaceful protesters, who were protected by the First Amendment, out of public spaces with tear gas and rubber bullets, defended those who we should be fighting against, and repeatedly failed to take action when they should.
Breonna Taylor
The death of George Floyd shook the world and launched a movement. But it was the death of Breonna Taylor that kept it going. Breonna Taylor was an emergency medical technician. She was an innocent citizen, trying to do what she could to help. And yet three Louisville Metro Police Department officers forcibly broke into Taylor’s home and shot her eight times, fatally wounding her. The officers did not knock nor did they announce a warrant. Taylor thought that she was being robbed, and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired at the ground to scare the bandits off. However, the officers immediately fired 20 rounds within Taylor’s apartment. Despite this, Breonna Taylor did not even possess any of the drugs on which the no-knock warrant was based. Rightfully, angry protesters swelled up in the streets of Louisville the next day. How could it have felt to know that despite weeks of protesting, an innocent person was fatally shot for no reason! To know that there had to be endless death for America to wake up to reality. That despite the death of George Floyd, and hundreds of thousands of people telling America to wake up, an innocent African-American was shot while trying to sleep. For the world to have to tell America that black lives matter, and for America to stubbornly refuse to listen! Why should anyone have to tell America that a human is a human? Centuries ago, our predecessors enslaved other humans for existing. They segregated us and told some people that they were better than others. And even now, for innocent people to be slaughtered for no reason.
An Opinion
Many would argue, validly, that this movement has inconvenienced many. They would also argue that violence has followed the trail of BLM. But this movement represents the centuries of blood and tears that were spilled on American soil. It has shown us the deep pits of racism and brutality that have existed within our society since the USA's founding. The death that has been caused because of our ignorance and resistance to necessary change. We have seen countless lives ruined and destroyed in front of our very eyes. How can we ignore that? Black lives do matter, and the US should have extinguished police brutality, racism, and ignorance. How many lives need to be taken by racism before America wakes up?
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