George Floyd, Derek Chauvin, and the United States of America
Encounter with Cops and Protesters in a strange demonstration
To many a surprise and with great relief, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, a White man, was found guilty on all three counts in the murder of George Floyd, a Black man from Texas, originally North Carolina, who had recently moved to Minnesota. There was not any hung jury nor partial rendering of justice. The jury, itself composed of people from different ethnic groups including Blacks and Whites, deliberated quickly and returned their verdict to the court. The verdict took mere minutes to read out loud, and the world changed. Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, guilty of murder in the third degree, and second-degree manslaughter. Sentencing is set for two weeks, why so damn far out I don’t know, but the killer will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. Although Minnesota abolished the death penalty back in 1911, the murderer of George Floyd is more likely to be killed in prison by fellow convicts than to die of old age.
Faithlyn, my fiancé, first notified me by text while I happened to be on a break at work. We are both hard of hearing so we text to stay connected. She’s excited, riveted, and texted me “…The verdict is about to be read!” Moments later, she wrote one text: “Guilty.” Then, “On ALL counts.” Later on, she texted me it felt “so surreal.” Sent me an image of her avatar crying, “TEARS of JOY.” Full disclosure here: my Beloved is Black, Deaf, and an Immigrant naturalized as a US citizen while I am White, Hard of Hearing, and a native-born US citizen. Aye, tears of joy!
My workplace was quietly abuzz with the news. A sense of relief, even quiet joy was evident. The top manager of the entire Mothership store spoke with relief in support of the verdict. Preparations for outbreaks of violence were monitored. The President of the USA did as well. Even a number of conservatives came out in support of the verdict.
At first glance it’s an open and shut case, yes? And haven’t there been too many other cases where it’s clear the police went overboard and killed someone only to be absolved of responsibility for the crime? Haven’t we all seen this movie before? Yet the world suddenly experienced completely different results. After all, the evidence presented by the prosecution is clear and testimonies presented so compelling the defendant is obviously and decisively guilty, guilty, guilty! The defense was so lame as to be laughable and puzzling. Mr. Floyd died of carbon monoxide poisoning? Give me a break! Ditto the small and insignificant amounts of recreational drugs found in his system. And so on and on. Yes, George Floyd was murdered. Yes, Derek Chauvin is the murderer. The evidence is clear, and the case stood.
For me, what happened in a Minnesota courtroom today felt remarkable, indeed, the verdict rendered was extraordinary. Extraordinary!
This is beyond Black Lives Matter and global protests against imperialism, colonialism, and institutional racism. National and even global healing can now begin on a whole new level of depth. Systemic racism is recognized as real and deadly. Racism and intersecting issues from gender and class to ego and power are recognized as demanding immediate need to address and resolve. The police are to be held accountable. Accountable! Accountable to the public! The police must understand they are not above the laws they are entrusted to enforce. The police are not above the public they swore to protect and to serve. Indeed, the police, OUR police, are part of the public citizenry. The thin blue line misused and abused by far too many police officers for far too long to hide corruption, abuse of power, sexual assault, systemic racism, and other crimes including murder must be dismantled and purged. Policing must clean itself up.
In other news, more alarming news presented on our newly renamed global climate emergency and the affects of human development polluting and wrecking our planetary biosphere. In perhaps even more disturbing news, the DEFCON status for US military readiness is at a 3, altho some private sites say 4 and one insists its still a 5. Earth is riven between two great heavily armed superpower blocs, one dominated by Russia and China versus one dominated by the United States, NATO, and their numerous allies. The Doomsday Clock is 100 minutes to midnight, and the American Strategic Air Command recently issued a start yet confusing warning of nuclear war. Ukraine and the Baltics with Taiwan and the South China Sea are the current trigger-itchy flash points. Back home in America, White cops shot a Black teenage girl 4 times in Ohio today, a girl who called the police as she felt her life was in danger. Tomorrow, however, is now. There is much work for all of us to do to combat racism and root out institutional racism and class war. We must peacefully educate many more people to be more aware of what the institutionalism they may fail to even recognize.
Immediate Aftermath
Where I work in the former Cascade neighborhood of the City of Seattle, an area merged by wealthy developers with other ‘hoods into “South Lake Union” during the Great Recession, the upper level management notified us they were monitoring protests. While the management clearly preferred the guilty verdict as was indeed rendered, they were also concerned about marches and protests devolving into riots and property damage. The open justification was to protect customers and staff so all may get home safely. There is a history of demonstrators, usually a minority of the total protesting, blocking freeways and interfering with traffic. My own experience of such tactics is blocking traffic of people rushing to get home, get to class, going to work, going to the doctor or the grocery store, picking up their children from childcare, getting to the post office, going to visit friends and relatives, well, block traffic is one of the fastest ways to lose general widespread support. Blocking traffic pisses people off. It’s unnecessarily dangerous. It’s stupid. It’s for people who seem unable to think big picture but seem to think they’re gonna “win” by creating havoc.
We all left work peacefully and in a timely manner. Most of the protests did not affect us on the job. Most of us leaving work supported the verdict. We knew when the euphoria of the moment passes more killings will occur and much work demands attention already. So off we go.
As I drove down a side street in my dilapidated 1997 minivan, the streets lit up with moving red & blue police lights. Uh oh, an accident? I turned down another side street but the lights kept moving, too. OK. So I drove westward with the plan of eventually connecting with Aurora Avenue North. Came upon a protest in motion at the intersection of the side street with Fairview Avenue North. It was dark. Night has fallen. Somewhere between 21:30 and 20:00. Numerous street lights, however, made the avenue and corresponding intersections well lit enough to see. The traffic light was green, but the demonstration blocked the intersection. Thank goodness I didn’t have to pee real bad! So I sat there in the intersection with my engine running waiting for the protest to move down the street. I quietly cheered the verdict but didn’t care for the protestors blocking my route home. Things soon got a little weird.
What I witnessed:
A small gaggle of young men, mostly White, one Black, dressed in a manner I associate with Far Left anarchist types, jogged down the sidewalks with cameras and recorders. They all wore headlamps on their heads and backpacks.
A phalanx of anywhere from 30 to 50 people marched in a surprisingly organized, tight formation downhill towards Lake Union. While they could have chosen a busier street such as Westlake, they chose the next busiest in the area, Fairview. But did they march down even busier Denny from Capitol Hill? Most of the marchers appeared young, and most of them were clearly White people. They were uniformly dressed in black garb. The odd thing was they were relatively quiet. I am hard of hearing, but I would’ve detected yelling and bellowing. No bullhorns, no loud instruments, no large signs or placards. Instead the marchers chanted in a monotonous low tone and made a persistent racket of, sigh, for lack of better terminology, tinkly clinkly music. It’s not the type of music I associate with anarchist groups.
Was this an Antifa or Anti-fascist group? Probably. Remember, tho, Antifa is an umbrella term for a loosely organized network of rapidly forming, dissolving, and reforming groups. Membership is often ad hoc and temporary in nature. Black Bloc is a tactic borrowed from European protestors back during the Anti-Globalization revolts such as the 1999 Battle of Seattle. And what the Hell did I know in the here-now of April 2021? Aye, what do I truly know? I haven’t been engaged with anarchists much since the aftermath of the Battle of Seattle in 2000. All such curiosity died, really, after 9/11 and the Global War on Terror. While some aspects of Anarchism as an ideology appealed to me, I was also struck by the utopian naivety of people who felt smashing windows of businesses working class people needed to work at or setting fires were examples of nonviolence. How much glass did Gandhi and MLK break? How many flammables did they torch in the name of nonviolence? The belief of some Anarchists I encountered who ate out of dumpsters, something my ex Gwen and I did once, and otherwise living off the garbage and other refuse of Capitalism was the same as some kind of libertarian socialist liberation from the shackles of The Man struck me as delusional. While the ideals of radical interdependence, localism in a globalist context, and cooperative self-responsibility inspired me, they weren’t limited to Anarchism. Loved the concept of techno-euphoria, however, the belief since the early Age of Machines in the ability of technology to solve all of our serious challenges.
All of these intellectual judgments and cerebral opinions roared thru my mind in nanoseconds, and I had to remind myself to stay grounded in the empathy of my heart. Whoever the protesters were may howl with derision at my interpretations of their demonstration and think me an idiot, and, yes, OK, that’s to be expected. Cynics are to be expected to whine and sneer at any semblance of empathy and compassion. And, so what? I’ve become yet another member of the Leftist public alienated by weird fucking idiots who still have the naive courage to march with the police aiming at their backs.
Even so, I chose not to whip out my smartfone to record anything. First, my greater responsibility was to maintain control of my vehicle at an unpredictable traffic junction as others backed up behind me. Secondly, I wanted to bear witness to the entire sprawl of the action, not laser in on any one isolated aspect.
The fact is, however, I didn’t know what or who this organization marching down the street was. I made an assumption they were an Antifa organization. They seemed surprisingly well-disciplined, and perhaps what they were doing had evolved as a response to guerrilla style Black Bloc tactics. Whatever they were doing clearly baffled the police following behind them. One thing that confused me was someone held up a cardboard sign with what appeared to be Hebrew written upon it. Then, gosh, maybe it was Ge’ez script associated with the languages of Ethiopia and Tigray. After all, it was night time, the sign was small, and the sign holder was marching rapidly. The sign confused me at first. Was it a Hebrew Israeli marching in solidarity with the Palestinians? An Amharic Ethiopian or a Tigrayan protesting the genocidal atrocities of the ongoing Trigrayan War? Weren’t these protesting police brutality and institutional racism? Black Lives Matter? Anti-capitalism and anti-fascism? Pro-democracy and pro-justice? What was the significance of all the tinkling clanky clinky music? What’s the deal with all the jangle bells? What does it matter anyway?
The police followed behind in loose formation. Cops lined up on bikes. Many were White. Some were not. Many appeared male. A few, women. Behind the cops were a smattering of police vans and cars with whirling cop lights but no sirens. A small number. One person was calmly declaring thru a bullhorn calm reminders the march was illegal as the marchers did not secure the required permit and they were blocking traffic and thus presenting a danger to themselves and others. If they failed to disperse at a certain time they would each be subject to arrest. And so forth. I couldn’t help but wonder if the surprisingly calm manner of the notorious SPD was a learned response to the ferocity of anti-cop protests in the BLM movement and the calls to defund the police played a role in “making them behave.”
Eventually, and quickly, the march passed downhill towards the north. Yes, the southern shore of Lake Union is to the north of my current location in South Lake Union. I proceeded thru the intersection after the last cops passed by and the lights turned back to green. Continued on home without any further delay or incident. Felt tired after a long day of work with all my injuries and health problems. None of them are serious, all are mild to moderate, but together they have slowed me down. Ugh, I felt too damn old for the last few months of my 61st year. But nothing compared to what George Floyd and Breonna Taylor must have felt, and generations of the oppressed before them.
Remember this: There is a distinction between the racism of the oppressor and the hostility of the oppressed.
The next few days while I learned of some small demonstrations in Seattle and the surrounding areas with even smaller accounts of violence, I wasn’t able to find out how the march down Fairview ended. Did it ended peacefully? Or did it degenerate into a riot? Did the phalanx of marchers provoke the cops more and more? Trash neighboring businesses? Or did the police lose their patience and assaulted the marchers? Does it bother you the reader as it does me the writer I wrote more on the march I encountered on my way home after work than on The Verdict itself?
On a different note, the DEFCON level went up to 3 at one point, altho am not certain what the official one actually was, but has since been lowered all the way back to 5. A major world war, a war likely to be of such cataclysmic proportions as to render The Verdict in spite of its importance a meaningless, remote memory for any survivors remains serious threat. It is seriously real even if the general public dismisses the reality of today’s ongoing military buildups by so many nation-state regimes. Will it drag on into another prolonged cold war where resources are drained away yet again from resolving our pressing domestic and global problems from racism to climate emergencies? Or will it explode into a thermonuclear exchange?
In the meantime, we all have a lot of work to do.
William Dudley Bass
Tuesday 20 April 2021
Thursday 29 April 2021
Seattle, Washington
USA
Earth
Sources:
Forliti, Amy, and Steve Karnowski, Tammy Webber. “Jury’s swift verdict for Chauvin in Floyd death: Guilty,” AP: The Associated Press. New York, April 2021. https://apnews.com/article/health-race-and-ethnicity-george-floyd-business-death-of-george-floyd-d93d1f9fc61a5261e179240dc16924dc.
Copyright © 2021 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.