There is no need to say the biggest thing that is happening beside the COVID-19 shutdown. It is the protests against Police brutality, sparked by the infamous incident that took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota between Police and a suspect in their custody that was captured on video and live streamed on Facebook.  

 The suspect was fully restrained by four Police Officers, but one of them had his knee entrenched in the suspect’s neck with his full weight pressing down; despite the suspect’s pleads and bystanders demands, the Officer did not let up; even when the suspect lost conscious.

Medical personal came on the scene, loaded the suspect in an ambulance and took him to the emergency room. But unfortunately the suspect did not regain conscious and passed away.

Apropos to the event, people were shocked, upset and angry and it sparked a series of protests that spread across the nation and made its way overseas to Europe.

The underlining issue is the notion that Police are operating with impurity; acting like judge, jury and executioner. There were many acts of Police killing unarmed suspects justifying the act with the phrase “I feared for my life.” Even though the Officer’s own body camera, and bystander’s video show that the murdered suspect was in no position to threaten the Officer.

Then there are instances of suspects being restrained, but the Officer takes it up on himself to kick and punch and beat up the suspect. Sometimes, the suspect concedes and gives up, and cooperates with the Officer; yet are abused even though the videos show that the suspects are not fighting back, or made any threats of violence towards the officer.

Now just because the word suspect is used it doesn’t mean that the person was involved in any criminal activity; it is just is what a person is called when they are in Police custody. There are many instances where a call is placed by unknown third parties on people doing everyday activities because they are of a different race, creed or sexual orientation. Those people may be just simply walking down the street; smoking a cigarette, shopping or even picking up trash outside their place of resident.    

Also, recognize that Police abuse doesn’t mean killing or beating up suspects. It also means being stopped and searching for no reason at all. Having legally purchased property confiscated for no reason other than an Officer’s bias that he thinks the person does not have the social status to buy the item they own.  

Organized protests started to take place; yet apropos to the protests rioting ensued. Businesses were looted and burned to the ground. Many believed that unscrupulous people took advantage of the protests and staged acts of violence against businesses, Police and peaceful protestors.

There is widespread belief that the acts of violence, rioting and looting are being instigated by Police authorities. This isn’t farfetched given that undercover officers were videoed doing some sort of action to spark the crowd to react in negative ways. Police are infamous for doing these sorts of things, because they’ve done it in the past.

If the Police isn’t involved in instigating violence, there is also wide spread belief that organized extremists on both left and right are attempting to control the direction of the violence. Some by furthering the course that everyone should bear arms walking around how people walked around with arms in the West during the 19^th century. While others use it has catalysis to remove all traces of the Confederate States symbols.   

There are even involvement of countries who are enemies of the Western World who are purported to have orchestrated the rioting to de-shelve the Federal gov’t; sparking massive unrest. It is Just like what happened a few years ago in the Islamic nation’s world what was dubbed “Arab Spring.”  Now the Western worlds are experiencing their “spring.”  

Politicians have acted like they hear the voice and has expressed that Police reform would be enacted. There is talk about defunding the Police. Whatever that means, I guess we’ll know soon enough.

Overall the type of reforms that people are protesting for is simple. They want Police Officers be accountable for their actions. They don’t want Officers break the law and not answer for their crime. People don’t want Officers to abuse restrained suspects.  People do not want Officers to kill unarmed citizens. People want Police Officers to treat everyone fairly regardless of race, creed, and sexual orientation. People would like to weed out the bad apples; if they get fired for misconduct, it shouldn’t be easy for them go to another state or county and be hired by another Police agency.

Hope this wasn’t too sensitive for you; but feel free to let True_George hear your opinion on this explosive issue.

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