-- RVR
US police
officer Derek Chauvin stands charged with second degree murder for killing
George Floyd at Minneapolis. Chauvin (44) is a white American and Floyd (46) was an African American.
An unarmed George Floyd
was arrested without resistance on 25th May 2020 from a parked car, on a charge
of using a $20 counterfeit note
for a purchase. Moments after arrest, being
hand-cuffed behind and shoved, Floyd
fell near a pavement face down with his chin
touching the ground sideways. Then Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck,
while two other police officers were restraining Floyd to the ground, pressing
on his torso and legs. Another officer stood guard, keeping horrified bystanders
from interfering.
Pinned to the ground, Floyd
groaned in agony, cried out again and again, "I can't breathe" –
sixteen times, reports say – and begged for his life. Onlookers too asked
Chauvin to remove his knee, but he didn't relent. He just kept kneeling,
ignoring the pleas of Floyd, for nearly nine minutes till the man below became
silent and lifeless.
Some eye witnesses had filmed
Chauvin's violence, and there were also security cameras around, and he was
aware of the video recording. Footages of the tragic event
soon went viral. The world was shaken. Chauvin and the other three
officers were dismissed from service the next day. Chauvin is to be tried for
second degree murder, and the other three for aiding and abetting the murder. Meanwhile, protests and demonstrations over
police racism and the killing of Floyd erupted in more than 2000 cities and
towns across the US and elsewhere.
Floyd lost his life weeks ago, but a message coming out from his death seems relevant for all
time.
Let's start with some basics.
Police officer Derek Chauvin was stupid first and racist next. He
didn't kill George Floyd secretly with no one looking. Most probably he didn’t really
intend to kill Floyd. He was stupid to not know that if he pressed
his knee long and hard on the neck of Floyd held to the ground, the poor
man could die nine out of ten, and then the police officer could tell
no lies against video evidence and his future could be doomed in
prison for up to 40 years. Still he did the horrible thing. The law must punish
him.
Why is Chauvin seen racist
too? It is not just that he happened to be white and the dead
man black. If Floyd was also white, there was a 99% chance the white police
officer would not be so insane and brutal with a quiet man in secure custody -
or at any rate he would take off his offending knee
on hearing repeated cries of "I can't breathe". Here Chauvin was
heartlessly racist, and so never relaxed on his cruel deed that gave him racist
pleasure. Next, Chauvin would have had racist inclinations against blacks for
this reason - a large number of whites around him are racist in their
minds in varying degrees and from a young age he instinctively took it
from his community, though all of them wouldn't be so devilish like
Chauvin.
We come from different races,
nations, religions and religious sects, and we speak one or the other of
world’s many languages as our mother tongue. We have an innate affiliation to
these social groups, which gives us distinct identities unifying us within
our groups. Not just that. We instinctively see others with a different
group identity, especially strangers, as ranged against us in some
way, depending on the occasion and our mettle. We
can neither escape the unifying force of our group identities nor deny their divisive
appeal.
The killing of George Floyd
showed us the divisive part of a group identity in one man. Succumbing to negative influences
of their group identities is instinctive for most people, since evil attracts us quicker than good. What sets apart the others in the same group is
their ability to see themselves as conscious individuals first, and as group
members next.
Be with your social group,
but keep yourself secretly aloof to judge people and issues, including members
of your group, on their merits. Know your group history and learn its ways
and beliefs, but if you have to do a thing right and different at any
time so you don’t hurt yourself or others – that is a fine art of balancing -
do it. That way, any faults of your social group do not weigh much on you,
you resolve your social conflicts quickly and you don't fall into extreme
wrong acts in the belief of showing up your group identity. On the day
Derek Chauvin engaged with George Lloyd, the officer could not
take himself out of his group identity. Worse still, he lost his mind and committed
a gruesome act that now magnifies a historical blemish on white Americans.
So, we better keep in
check the play of our group identities which are double-edged
swords. We may fairly benefit from them but not let them detract or degrade us.
Sorry, George, you had to die to remind us on this powerfully.
* * * * *
Copyright © R.
Veera Raghavan 2020
You have drawn two presumptions about the police officer. One, he was stupid, and next he was racist. According to you, the Police officer was stupid, however, 'he did not intend to kill Floyd.' I do agree with with you.
ReplyDeleteYour next statement, 'If Floyd was also white, there was a 99% chance the white police officer would not be so insane and brutal with a quiet man in secure custody.' is not an objective assessment of the individual police officer. An individual's trait may be quite whimsical and high handed. It need not always be due to racist inclination. His obviously extreme and cruel conduct leading to the death of Floyd also seems to be result of his stupidity only.
Everybody agrees, in America there is no perceptible social racist discrimination. The previous President hailing from a non-White race occupied the chair for 8 long years. This incident which appears to be an individual's aberration is projected as racist discrimination. So I don't agree with your observation that 'he lost his mind and committed a gruesome act that now magnifies a historical blemish on white Americans.
We know this is an election year in USA. Only due to political reasons this episode is given different colour.
This is a ridiculous and illogical stance. You are clearly determined to cloud the basic issues that the author identifies so logically and with such insight.
DeleteWritten touchingly,but who is there to share our concern and anguish?
ReplyDeleteVery true and very apt in today's Indian conditions as well. As Mr. Veeraraghavan rightly says, we must all keep our fundamentalist group identities in check as they are double edged weapons. In India too nowadays we see the evils of majoritarianism slowly creeping in and people with different faiths, looks, race and political views being discriminated against. This is a very dangerous tendency and in the long run, will damage our country irreparably.
ReplyDeleteO dear Thomas, you have brought in India into this American thing! I am constrained to reply. You say, in India people of "different faiths, looks, political views are discriminated against". By whom? By government or by "majority people"? If by govt, then there is no such judgment by any court of law in India. If by "majority people", then your accusation will open a Pandora's box. One can justfiably suggest that what you mean by your accusation centeres around "different faiths and different political views". First about faiths: which are those faiths? Certainly, not Budhists, Jains, Parsees, Sikhs - and that leaves only "Christians and Muslims" who you feel are discriminated against. Is it not the crux of what you said? Now please consider this: Should majority people allow Muslims to one day change this country into Islamic Sharia law country? You would agree, it should never be allowed - and it includes any and every activity of Muslims helping or preparing to bring that change in India. Now about Christianity: Converting - and converting by dubious means - all Hindus (your term, majority people) of India into Christians CANNOT be a justified GOAL of Christians - even if Christians think that such conversion is mandated by Jesus Christ! Would you agree or not? If you agree, the matter ends - "majority people" are against such goal-oriented wholesale conversion. If you justify conversion, the "majority people" are justified in resisting this conversion. There is no disctimination - this is the dispute.
DeleteWhen ever a man dies by use of force irrespective of causes involved there is an upsurge of emotions empathising with the victim all over which is but natural. Here no body bothered to know whether Derek was in the knowledge of the criminal antecedents of Floyd whom he was restraining and why is that another two policemen had to act in cohesion exerting force over his hip and legs. If they were conscious of his half a dozen previous convictions on drug violation and armed robbery, they could not have entertained any compassion on their hold. Especially those who had a chance the scene to see a similar criminal in Atlanta who despite being floored and restrained by a couple of cops, over came their bond and attempted to flee after assaulting the cops, resulting in his being shot would agree that a criminal fighting to flee is more motivated than the law officers doing their duty.
ReplyDeleteIt is very certain that when Derek left home in the morning for duty, he did not intend to kill any body that day ! It is an error of his judgement and normally a hazard every policeman faces on the line of duty unless it is later proved that he is a sadist by nature and had previous history of smothering the suspects. Just because he is a white and the victim is a black, the unsuspecting public can jump to wrong conclusions and heap contempt on a law enforcing official and laud the sacrifice of the victim.
This is just akin to the murder in broad day light of Swati a soft ware employee by an S.C.boy on the railway platform of Chennai for simply not accepting his sexual advances. On his being apprehended and brought before the court, he confessed to the murder and eventually committed suicide under custody by electrocuting himself. There was enough uproar against the police and political parties suddenly emerged to prove his innocence and tarnish the image of the government just because it was loaded with political dividends to appear supporting the down trodden !
Wow! wondeful analysis!! Group indentity of everyone is instinctive but keeping that intact "balancing" with reality is necessary - it is required; it is the way out (medicine) of this kind of compulsive behaviour malady. Individual racism is bad but group racism is worse. Will people of America learn from this trajedy? Or, will it take many such trajedies before they - white Americans - come to sense their disease?
ReplyDelete