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Today, on Tuesday April 20th of 2021, Derek Chauvin was found guilty on three charges for the murder of George Floyd. Am I happy? Yes. Am I satisfied? No. Should we, as a nation and global community be satisfied? Definitely not.
I plan on using this blog to share essentially just my train of thoughts. This is totally just going to be me standing on my soapbox, because I’ve learned that people rarely appreciate or listen when you do it in real life. People become uncomfortable in our modern day, I’ve found, when you want to hold a conversation with substance.
Something that is going to make them think. Something that is going to make them feel. Why are we all so afraid to feel? In my opinion, feeling is one of God’s greatest gifts bestowed upon us. It is one of the only differences between us and our animal primates. Feeling and thinking, when combined, are nearly unstoppable.
But anyways, I’m getting off topic. For me, this is apolitical. Regardless of political party, one should be able to see the value in humanity. A life is a life. God sculpted us in the image of him, and therefore we are both powerful and valuable. I firmly believe this. We are magic. So was George Floyd and all others (regardless of race, although POC statistically and undoubtedly fall victim at a much higher rate than their white counterparts) were magic and the world was robbed of that.
One can say, “not all police are bad”, and I truly believe that on personal level. I know officers who I seriously doubt wake up every morning and decide to target minorities. However, that is no longer enough. Their silence today, results in violence tomorrow. While individuals may not be “bad”, none of that matters if the system they work for is twisted. The problem is not that the system is broken. The problem is that the system is working exactly as intended and it still does that.
Why are they not mad? Their “honorable” profession has been twisted and corrupted by these “bad apples”? Why don’t they care. Rather than getting mad at those causing the outrage, they target their frustration at the public. It is so much easier to place anger outwards than inwards.
It is such a taboo nowadays to just say “the system is flawed, outdated, and racist”. Rather than admit our own flaws and reform, we lose innocent lives. There was 18 days in 2020 where the police did not kill someone. Read that again. Think about those lives and families destroyed. Do you see a problem? Rather than looking at the heroics of the police, can we just look at how tragic that is? It devastates me to even think about.
Honestly, I don’t care if someone was on drugs. I don’t care if they forged a bill. I don’t care if they were driving too fast. Or if they even had an air freshener. Guess what! That’s not a reason to die. Our police officers are not judgers, nor executioners.
As a white female, there are so many things I will never have to think about. Things I’ll never have to worry about. Does that mean I have no worries or stressors? NO! Rather that is one thing I don't have to think about. That is what people do not understand.
Like I previously mentioned, the George Floyd and BLM movements have been overly politicized. How? I’m not quite sure. How did we find ourselves fighting over the value of a human life? Personally, I value people over a gram of weed or even meth. Especially when a certain group of people are targeted at a much higher rate. That is no longer caring about the crime, and rather the group of people being unfairly prosecuted.
Many will say “Why don’t they just follow the law?’. Guess what! White people don’t follow the law. Oftentimes at an equal or even high rate. So, that begs the question why are POC charged and prosecuted at a much higher rate? What is the baseline difference there?
There is far more shame in resisting the idea that there is a problem, than continuing to hurt individuals, families, communities, and an entire community.
This is a systemic problem, and it's far more embarrassing to let it continue than to admit it and fix it.
