On George Floyd and Institutional Failure

On Monday, May 25, a black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis was detained by police on suspicion of passing fake bills which he used to acquire various goods from a corner store. This encounter would ultimately lead to Floyd’s death. The store’s owner offered him a no harm, no foul way out. Give the merchandise back, and no need to call the police. This much, the owner of the store relayed to the 911 operator after Floyd declined his offer.

I don’t detail the precursor events to excuse the actions of Chauvin nor to suggest that petty theft and forgery are crimes worthy of death. They aren’t. But the deceased does bear at least some responsibility in the events which lead to his demise.

What happened after that point is still a bit murky. I’ve seen three videos on the subject. The now infamous one of policeman Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, a different angle shot of the same segment of the incident shot from across the street, and a surveillance video which shows the initial encounter between Floyd and police.

In the case of the third video, the media has held it up on a pedestal as evidence that Floyd did not resist arrest and thus no forcible restraint was warranted. This is done to feed the narrative that he was killed for being black, a characteristic beyond his control, rather than any action he took, which is certainly in his control.

It does not, to my eye, show what the media claims that it does. Floyd is very clearly belligerent and intoxicated. I’d guess alcohol, but I imagine the autopsy report will shed more light on that subject. It is worth noting that neither of the two officers in this video are Chauvin. One appears to be a white man who is wearing his COVID mask (the ubiquitous video of the neck sitter showed no such PPE) and the other is an Asian man, though not the one with the deer in the headlights look from the main video. The surveillance tape ends with Floyd being moved out of the frame, apparently in handcuffs. It seems likely that something happened between that point and the other videos, and we do not yet know what. We may never know.

It could also very well be that Floyd just pissed Chauvin off and the officer responded with excessive force. This is something that happens all too often in encounters between police and the people. And no, not just to black people. That it happens to pretty much every group in the Empire is why I think it is important to not reflexively denigrate the police nor to universally champion their cause. That dichotomy is created by the powers that be to heighten conflict and increase division. In such a state, bad police practices escalate rather than abate.  

Whatever does eventually leak out from the coroner and from the proceedings of Chauvin’s trial, it likely will not change popular perception. Narrative is so good at distorting the truth that when the latter is finally revealed, if at all, it is often lost in the ether. “Hands up, don’t shoot,” is still part of the mantra of Black Lives Matter, even though forensics and eye witness accounts wholly refute that bit of story telling from the Michael Brown case, for example.

This case picked up steam quickly. The four responding officers were initially fired, and on Thursday, Chauvin was charged with third degree murder and 2^nd degree manslaughter. Minnesota is among a handful of states that have a murder charge between 2^nd degree (deliberate but not premeditated homicide) and manslaughter (accidental or reckless action resulting in the death of another person).

I think it is important that we stake out a fact based, logical position in events such as these. Black Lives Matter axiomatically believes that every instance of police violence is murder, regardless of the circumstances of the evidence. The afterbirth known as Blue Lives Matter takes the polar opposite stance and maintains reflexively that the police are always above reproach.

My take on this is that the death of George Floyd and everything that has followed it represents something greater than the unfortunate incident itself: a total failure on the part of our institutions.

If you have watched the video in its entirety, Chauvin continues to hold Floyd down, knee to neck, after Floyd has indicated he was in physical distress and continues to do so after Floyd appears to go limp.

To a casual observer, this might evoke memories of the Eric Garner incident in Staten Island, New York. However, the choke hold used in that case was banned by NYPD whereas the kneeling restraint used by Chauvin was not, at the time, against the departmental policies of Minneapolis PD. I imagine that will change, and that is a good thing. That MPD allowed its officers to utilize such a hold is the first level of institutional failure.

Chauvin executed restraining technique that was, for some mystifying reason, legal. Because it did not violate departmental procedures, I do not think he is at legal fault at the point where the hold begins. However, his continued use of it beyond the point at which Floyd is obviously in distress slides him into the fault category.

The Third-Degree Murder Statute of Minnesota reads, in full:

609.195 MURDER IN THE THIRD DEGREE.

(a) Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 25 years.

My reading of that statute is such that I could not vote to convict Chauvin on those grounds. Was the act eminently dangerous? Not according to MPD. That also throws depravity out the window. Does that mean he did not commit a crime? Also no.

Section 1 of Minnesota’s second degree manslaughter statute reads in part that “Any person guilty of causing death of another…by the person’s culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another.”

To my mind, Chauvin is guilty of this offense. What he did was not inherently illegal, but he was clearly negligent in continuing to maintain his restraining position not only after Floyd ceased to be a threat, but also quite possibly after Floyd ceased to be. He certainly should be convicted of this offense, but I imagine that he will also be convicted of third-degree murder, because reality seldom matters in pathos laden cases such as this one.

Unfortunately for the people of Minnesota, the institutional failures did not stop with Chauvin’s actions nor the police department which permitted their usage. I don’t need to go too much into detail about the riots, because we’ve all seen the pictures and the memes. But it is clear that the civil authorities of Minneapolis allowed the riots to continue long after it became evident that they posed a danger to life, limb, and property of the people of that community.

Minneapolis authorities, much like those in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, allowed chaos to ensue. Police did not engage what the media calls protestors and what I call rioters. Countless businesses were damaged and looted. Many are total losses.

That isn’t the worst of it. At least one person is dead (another woman was found dead in her car, but it is unclear if that is connected to the riots), shot to death by a store-owner defending his property. Because Minnesota has a “duty to retreat” law, that man has also been charged with murder. A man dead and another life ruined because the police refused to do their jobs. Shameful.

The mayor of Minneapolis put out a statement which exhorted the “protesters” to be safe and wear their COVID protection masks. Chaos is okay, so long as you don’t allow yourself to be a disease vector. Not that the police bothered to enforce social distancing during all of this. So much for that little farce which has been a pox upon us for the past two and a half months. Even if all of the mass gatherings of many more than 10 people do lead to a spike in COVID-19 cases, I doubt very much that it would be reported on, because that would be construed as a criticism of the “protesters.” But more on the perfidious media later.

The Governor of the state, Tim Walz, admitted that it was not until the rioters burned down the 3^rd Precinct Police Station that there was any attempt at restoring order. At that point, he called in the national guard, who somewhat curiously were not actually armed. Yes, they carried their M-16s, but there are pictures of them walking around without magazines in said firearms. Law enforcement not doing (or not being allowed to do) their jobs is institutional failure number three. I would imagine that the stand down orders came from politicians, or possibly from the chief of police, but who knows.

But wait, there’s more! I have seen a video where a white male dressed in all black, wearing a black respirator mask, walks past a store front smashing every window. Some woman on Twitter recognized this man as her ex-boyfriend, a St Paul police officer. Black Twitter was quick to seize on this accusation, to deflect from the mounting pushback in popular opinion against the rioters. See, it was the police trying to make us look bad! White man with brown eyes is the extent of the resemblance between the officer in question and the man in the video. The accusation was fueled by a a vindictive ex. The truth is much more sinister than that.

Rather, what I think is going on here is that the man is a member of the Minneapolis AntiFa cell. Reading their twitter (they’re allowed to plan and organize violence on social media, because they serve the interests of the state that they profess to hate), analyzing the alacrity with which this became a nation-wide event, and looking at the anti-capitalist, anarchist graffiti which adorns many of the torched buildings, it is evident to me that white communists are fomenting the chaos. That does not excuse the black looters, but AntiFa is ginning them up and then spray painting their slogans on the aftermath. I doubt the average black person in Minneapolis is up on communist rhetoric or knows what ACAB (all cops are bastards) means.

Here is institutional failure number four. These domestic terrorists operate in plain sight, tweeting out their plans to cause mayhem and destruction, and neither federal nor local law enforcement do anything about it. If right wing groups discuss the violent nature of the shock-troopers of the establishment in an online forum and say that they need to be prepared for conflict, they are railroaded by that same establishment on charges of “conspiracy to commit violence.”

Consider that, for a moment. AntiFa openly displays its plans for violence and nothing happens. Suggesting that anyone who comes into contact with them needs to be prepared to fight back gets one arrested. This is why street demonstrations are not a good idea. The communists have the protection of the state.

To whit, yesterday, there was a press conference in which a state official (I only saw a clip of the address, and thus do not know his name or position) blamed the portions of the agitation committed by whites on “white supremacists.” His eyes dart up and to the right as he is uttering this absurdity, but few know that indicates a lie and would pay the optical motion no mind.

Further compounding this mendacity, Governor Walz stated this morning that there had been unconfirmed reports of white supremacist activity in the area. I have little doubt these reports came from AntiFa looking to cover their tracks. It isn’t communist agitators working in concert with the mob, oh no. It’s racist white boys surreptitiously seeking to discredit the righteous anger of the peaceful protesters! Videos of all black mobs trashing the Target or attacking an old woman in a wheelchair be damned.

Trump has occasionally blathered about AntiFa, but nothing has been done about them. This creates a situation not unlike the Weimar Republic: the German state was unwilling or unable to deal with violent communist mobs, so conservative Germans turned to an alternative that did not match their beliefs, but which professed a willingness to deal with the communists. The enemy of my enemy. AntiFa is more aptly titled AnteFa. Before the Fascism.

I don’t want the South nor the Empire to go down the path Germany did in the 1930s, but as institutions fail, people will inevitably turn to unsavory alternatives for want of a better option. Those who know history are doomed to watch it repeat itself.

Lest anyone accuse me of bias, let me add Donald Trump to the list. Beyond his multi-year refusal to deal with the AntiFa problem, his incendiary tweet which stated “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” was wholly designed to goad the political left into hindering efforts by police and the national guard to restore law and order. This was done entirely for political gain, so that he could show Midwestern whites what comes of rule by Democrats. Shrewd? Sure. Machiavellian, even. He won three Midwestern states by razor thin margins and missed out on Minnesota by a similarly small differential. Chaos in those regions will have a salutary effect on his electoral chances, contrary to whatever sanctimonious doggerel Taylor Swift and Jimmy Kimmel pump out.

I’m tickled that he chose to tip the cap to a Southern chief of police from the Civil Rights Era, which has lefty underwear in knots. But I know that he doesn’t actually believe that this should be done. He’s callously and brazenly being inflammatory so that more people suffer and in turn more people vote for him. Yes, I know that’s his trademark, and while generally it’s hilarious, I must draw the line somewhere. Institutional failure number five.

Finally, there is the media. I reserve my ultimate scorn for institutional failure number six. Police practices in this country are abysmal. I could write thousands of words on that score alone. But to the person who gets his or her information from the Pravda, the perception is that the abuses are heaped solely upon non-white people.

In that very same police department, a Somalian born cop shot and killed a white woman because he heard a loud noise (made by the woman as she ran toward his squad car) and became frightened. Unlike George Floyd, the deceased in that case was not accused of a crime. Rather, she had summoned the police because she feared a crime was going to be committed against her. There was no national outcry. There was no coverage. There certainly were no riots.

Of course, there’s a disproportionality at play here viz the number of blacks who are killed or otherwise abused by police versus the same things happening to white people. But when a small subset of the population commits a majority of the national violent crime, that’s bound to happen. I’m aware of the 13/52 meme, but it’s even more subdivided than that. Almost all of the 52-55% committed by blacks of the country’s violent crimes are committed by black males aged 16-44. A mere three percent of the Empire’s population. That turns a four-fold numerical disparity (population share versus crime share) into an eighteen-fold one. In less grandiose language: Black males aged 16-44 commit 18 times their population share’s worth of violent crimes.

That reality is going to cause the police to act differently around members of that subgroup, and that is normal, justifiable behavior. The left will call it racial profiling, because it is non-whites who are disproportionately subjected to scrutiny. But that is indicative of their rank hypocrisy. They’d have no such reservation if whites were committing disproportionate amounts of crime and the police reacted accordingly. Racial statistics and leftist hypocrisy aside, what isn’t acceptable are these nakedly abusive police procedures.

By turning a blind eye to egregious actions committed by the police against white people, be they suspected criminals or innocent bystanders seeking the protection of law enforcement, the media fuels the fire of racial discord. They amplify their sins by categorically refusing to treat the incidents objectively, always promoting the idea that the aggrieved party was targeted for his or her race and for no other reason. Because of this demagoguery, many people in this country honestly believe that police misconduct is exclusively a problem faced by blacks. This is utterly false.

The media increases the likelihood of these events occurring in the nakedly biased way that it covers the incidents. Truth does not matter. Waiting for the facts? Unheard of. They roll with whatever blue pilled cold take is most likely to cause the most racial animus. Racial grievance pornography sells, facts do not.

As the “protests” surrounding George Floyd enter their fifth day and spread from city to city across the country, I vainly hope that at least some people will start to see what is going on here.

We have bad police practices leading to needless death, which spins off into chaos driven by a symbiotic partnership between communist agitators and the angry black population of whatever city the inciting incident occurs in. These communist agitators openly display their intentions for anyone to see on social media and are allowed to do so by local, state, and federal authorities as well as by the owners of the social media platforms. AntiFa, having cells across the country, astroturfs the uproar into countless other municipalities. In a just world, they’d be punished for their actions. I won’t hold my breath waiting for the Empire to be just.

The civil authorities allow the chaos to continue because this shifts the narrative in the popular discourse away from the horrible thing that Chauvin (or whatever the next cop’s name will be) did and turns it into a tribal response. Conservatives who rightly detest the rampaging horde burning buildings and looting property reflexively defend the police. Liberals either willfully distort the character of the riots, calling them “peaceful protests,” or, if they’re honest about the character, justify them as an appropriate response to systemic racism. Thus it is no longer about Chauvin and Floyd but about Law and Order versus Racial Injustice. Neither response is productive, but that’s just the point.

Systemic racism isn’t the problem here. Total systems failure is. From the Minneapolis police department to the highest levels of state and federal government, everyone supposed to be in charge has been and continues to be derelict in their duties. This is symptomatic of a decadent and decaying Empire. Turning a societal problem like police brutality into a Byzantine Blue vs Green tribal discussion deflects and distracts from that problem. Which is exactly what the powers that be want, so that they can continue to ride high on the hog. AntiFa is the foot soldier group that ensures bad goes to worse, further dividing the populace, and as such, they are allowed to operate above the law.

The anti-government right and the anti-police left should be able to find common ground on restraining extra-legal police procedures. Or in the case of George Floyd, police procedures which should have been made illegal before they were utilized. But we can’t be having that, now can we?

Of course, I don’t need to tell anyone who reads this blog any of this. Y’all know the score. But my purpose in writing this is to offer talking points on how to address these endemic failures among your uninitiated friends and family.

There is no saving this moldering corpse at this point, not that it deserved to be saved at any point after 1861, hence my support for Southern independence. But that doesn’t mean we can or should ignore the major events shaping the Imperial zeitgeist.

Deo Vindice

-By Dixie Anon