Fred Miller Essay: George Floyd did not deserve to die
Below is a note Fred Miller, our CEO, sent on Thursday, 22 April 2021:
George Floyd’s family and friends and all of us should have George Floyd on Earth as we live this day.
George Floyd went to the store and ended up dying, murdered, on the street with his hands cuffed behind him and his breath taken from him. George Floyd did not deserve to die.
Somewhere in the documentation and expected practice of law and justice in the United States of America is the doctrine that the punishment should fit the crime. And in fact, in the United States’ legal system there is also a doctrine involving mitigating circumstances—factors that should be taken into consideration when deciding on the punishment for a crime that might make the punishment less severe.
The inclusion of mitigating circumstances in sentencing decisions is an attempt to make the application of justice more just. It is an attempt to make our justice system more humane. If we are to live together in a civil society, our humanity should come into play as we decide on the punishment of another human being.
George Floyd did not deserve to die.
For some people, consideration of humanity is not the dominant reality. For some people, trying to be more humane, to understand root causes, to appreciate unique circumstances or to consider where mercy may be warranted is not the default behavior. For many black and brown people and others, it is also not the default expectation.
For black and brown people and others who are often treated as “others,” the legal and justice systems in the United States have worked in the opposite manner. Somewhere, someone read the book wrong. Somewhere, the isms that are still so prevalent in our society infiltrated the process and practice of seeking and applying justice.
The isms we have experienced in the past and still too often in the present infiltrate too many decisions regarding justice and humanity. Instead of humanity and circumstances being considered to make the punishment for knowingly or unknowingly passing a counterfeit 20-dollar bill fit the crime, George Floyd met racism. Somehow for George Floyd, the punishment was a death sentence. A petty crime became a capital offense.
George Floyd did not deserve to die.
Sure, everybody involved in that incident could have done something differently, and the outcome may have been different. But that extra factor of being black in America does not guarantee that if George Floyd had done something differently, he would be alive today.
It is tricky to know what “doing something differently” means:
· Don’t drive while black.
· Don’t jog or walk in a neighborhood when you are black.
· Don’t sleep in your bed when you are black.
· Don’t have a car with temporary dealer plates and be in your military uniform.
· Don’t have an apartment on a different floor that looks like someone else’s.
· Don’t drop your gun and then put your hands up.
It is tricky, but it does not seem like it should be. “You should just do the right thing!” But what is seen as the right thing when you are black? And where and when does your resistance to a society and system that tells you that you are less and undeserving so many times kick in and you say “no” and that results in a death sentence?
George Floyd did not deserve to die.
If he had only done X, or if he had only done Y, things would have turned out differently. For some, it is very confusing, at times impossible to know which X or Y actions would make the difference. It is so easy to say to black and brown people, “Just listen to what you are told to do and follow instructions.”
Sounds good, but it works best when you trust the person giving you the instructions…when you believe that following the instructions will lead to you being unharmed, safe and, if you did nothing wrong, found not guilty. Many people in our society, especially black and brown people, do not carry that belief. Too many have seen or know of people who tried it that way and things did not go well.
In dealing with the pandemic in the United States, six to eight people have had a bad reaction to the J&J vaccine and millions have not had bad reactions. Yet it was halted. Six people out of millions. And some people have decided they won’t take it because of the experience of those six people. Six people out of millions having a bad experience with the vaccine have caused some people to make a decision, perhaps risking their lives. If I did my math right, that comes out to 0.0006%.
Every black person has one, a few or many stories about how someone acted in a racist way towards them. And every black person knows someone who has experienced racism. That is not 0.0006%. It is 100%. It is easy to say to black and brown people, “Just do what the white person tells you to do, and everything will be all right.”
George Floyd did not deserve to die!
How many lives will never be the same? A child without a father? A family without his presence? Friends without their friend? A neighborhood without a member? A society without another African American man? It is a high cost for passing a counterfeit 20-dollar bill. Yes, things escalated. Yes, he could have acted differently. But when you are black, it feels like sometime early in life your fate was cast, that circumstances have not played to your favor and your lot is to end up on the street with a knee on your neck saying I can’t breathe! THAT is a harsh statement, and for too, too, too many African Americans, it is a reality. And my tears as I write this cannot stop it.
George Floyd did not deserve to die!