Perhaps sensing their diminishing prospects in November, Trump's loyalists have now taken to attacking Floyd himself. Racial provocateur Candace Owens says that "we should not be honoring #GeorgeFloyd" and refers to him as the "bottom denominator of society". She claims that he was high and had drugs on him at the time of his "arrest" and then reads his rap sheet. Apparently, that means that society should not be angry that a police officer sat on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, two of them after his partner failed to find a pulse. In her view, the only reason that black people have so many interactions with the police is that they commit more crimes. She stops there without asking why this is so. Asking this question would require her to confront the systematic racism that she denies including the inequality written into the law, the inequality in the way that the law is applied, and the diminished opportunities available in minority communities.
Owens is correct about one thing: George Floyd was not a hero or a martyr. Being either of these things would imply that Floyd chose his fate. Nothing he did on the day of his murder or in his past put him in a position where he should have been killed by those who are supposed to protect and serve.
The more accurate term for Floyd is "victim." He is only one in a country who can list too many. Like Rodney King, the only aberration about his case is the fact that it was caught on camera. He, therefore, gets the unfortunate honor of representing the need for change. No matter the final results, I'm sure that he and his family would rather that he had been able to return home from a Memorial Day trip to the grocery store.
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Carl Petersen is a parent, an advocate for students with special education needs, an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council, an appointed alternate to theLAUSD's CAC, and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race. During the campaign, he was endorsed by the Network for Public Education (NPE) Action and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a "strong supporter of public schools." Links to his blogs can be found at www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.
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