By: Aliana Brodmann E. von Richthofen -July, 2020
America’s identity since her inception was defined by the fundamental principles of democracy that encompass the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all citizens. Despite of this obligation the height of disregard for these inalienable rights was broadcast last month world-wide when a police officer, assisted by three others, suffocated a man by mercilessly digging his knee into his chest. The apprehended man pleading for his life as the officer stared defiantly into the video camera that recorded his atrocious crime. A despicable murder by a psychopath sure of his impunity.
For African Americans the fact that the police officer was white and his victim black harkened back to their history of helplessness and struggle for equality within our society. Cries for the defunding of the police grew into a national movement of rioting exasperated by an assortment of political interest groups under the Black Lives Matter banner that elevated the victim, George Floyd, to sainthood while destroying private property and national public treasures. Importantly, numerous other African Americans were killed within the same time-frame as George Floyd and hardly making the news. Most notably retired St. Louis Police Captain, David Dorn, a veteran of 38 years of public service, who attempted to stop a store burglary amidst the riots and was killed by 2 armed black men, possibly more.
No halo for this hero, despite the tragic loss of his honorable life versus Floyd’s with his sordid criminal history, since Dorn’s murder couldn’t be blamed on Systemic Police Racism. Apparently not all Black Lives Matter. Regardless of how damning, the death of George Floyd was an exception in circumstance and brutality and precisely the reason it provoked such broad outrage. Not, as the rioters would have it, because it is the norm for African Americans, as aptly stated by Heather Mac Donald in her Wall Street Journal Commentary of 6.2.2020. The Myth of Systemic Police Racism.
Floyd tragically fell into the hands of a criminal in police uniform, as they exist in other government departments, wreaking havoc with people’s lives of all colors with impunity, as they know they will evade accountability. Defunding police departments will ultimately hurt communities and not rid our society of arbitrary discrimination and unequal treatment.
In violation of America’s Constitutional Pledge warranting our inalienable rights, Americans can and are killed regularly in more ways than one by governmental abuse which is in fact systemic in our corrupt and collusive system. Governed by courts of law that overwhelmingly serve the well-connected and thereby encourage criminals that perpetuate crimes. In Mr. Floyd’s case the judiciary did its job. The four former Minneapolis police officers are facing charges for their crimes. We need to ensure that perpetrators across board will all face the same judicial integrity.
Copyright: Valle Patriot, Inc. & Aliana Brodmann E. von Richthofen 2020© ◊