Looking Into the Mirror: Custodial Death Is Bad but Floyd Cannot Be Put on the Pedestal as a Martyr

( After writing this short hub I had half a mind not to publish it because of the sensitive topic but a friend advised to let it go)

The death of George Lloyd is a sad event. Nobody in his right mind can condone the act which amounted to custodial death. All the four policemen including the man who kept his knee in the neck hold on Floyd have been charged with second-degree murder. There can be no sympathy for these cops.

America and in particular the American- African have felt greatly hurt by the killing of a compatriot by the police. This led to violent demonstrations. Though starting peacefully they soon degenerated into rioting, arson, and looting. I don't know how anybody can justify looting shops as a way to register a protest at the killing of a black at the hands of the police.

The police need to be sensitized and made more people-friendly. There is no doubt about it. This cannot be achieved by violent demonstrations, arson, and looting. There appears to be a method behind this madness and lumpen elements including the extreme left and the communists have been adding fuel to the fire and taken over the agitation.

But a surprise is that artists from all over the world are now depicting George Floyd as an angel and a hero. Many want to put him on a pedestal. In Minnesota, artists Xena Goldman, Cadex Herrera, Greta McLain, Niko Alexander, and Pablo Hernandez painted a mural to commemorate Floyd.

This hero-worship is a bit of a surprise to me because there is another side to the coin as well.

If we have a look at the life of George Floyd the 46-year-old African-American a different picture of the man emerges. In no way, he was an angel . He was a felon who had served a jail sentence.

Even his last act was to try and pass off a counterfeit $20 bill as genuine. There are so many other facets to him. Briefly;

• He was under the influence of fentanyl and methamphetamine at the time of the arrest
• Floyd has more than a decade-old criminal history at the time of the arrest and went to jail at least 5 times.
• He pleads guilty to entering a woman’s home, pointing a gun at her stomach and searching the home for drugs and money, according to court records
• Floyd was sentenced to 10 months in state jail for possession of cocaine in December 2005.
• He had previously been sentenced to eight months for the same offense, stemming from an October 2002 arrest
• Floyd was arrested in 2002 for criminal trespassing and served 30 days in jail
• He had another stint for theft in August 1999.
• Despite all the crimes listed above it still does not justify his killing at the hands of the police. At the same time to make a man a martyr for the African cause and try to put him on the pedestal as an angel is difficult to digest.

I did not know about the past life of George Lloyd and this was brought to me by a friend of mine in the Singapore club. I will again reiterate that once a person is in the custody of the police the job of the police is not to kill him but to file a charge sheet against him and proceed with a proper trial. Police failed to do and that is the crux of the problem.

Again I am not too happy with the performance of the police all over America and with such sophisticated lines of communication, I find it difficult to understand how the agitation which started as a peaceful became violent and lead to mass-scale looting, arson, and rioting. It means that the agitations were taken over by certain groups that have an ax to grind in creating mayhem in society I don't think there am is the emancipation of the black man but to create chaos.

All right-thinking people all over the world have to unite and ensure that any form of racial discrimination is not allowed but at the same time, we must not try and make someone an angel who was a common criminal.