The police murder of George Floyd led to another night of protests, confrontations, and clashes not just in Minneapolis, but in over a dozen cities. Floyd’s murder has become symbolic of the long—and still unbroken—history of police violence against the Black community, and the protests have become a nationwide channel for the anguish, grief and rage of a community that has found every reasonable request, every attempt at conversation, either ignored or quickly forgotten.
Though the fresh round of protests may have been triggered by the murder of Floyd, other communities are using the moment to remind the nation of other injustices. From Breonna Taylor in Louisville to Dion Johnson in Phoenix, there is no lack of other cases in which police violence has been excused without consequence. From New York to Portland, Atlanta to Milwaukee, protesters gathered in hundreds and in thousands, often in defiance of locally-imposed curfews, to mourn Floyd George and others, to call for an end to police violence, and to express their anger at an unjust system that appears to be unlimited and unending.
The four police officers most involved in Floyd’s death have been fired, and on Friday, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who put his knee on Floyd’s neck until he died, was finally charged with 3rd degree murder and manslaughter. But many protesters felt that the action against Chauvin was taken with far too much reluctance, that the charges were too light, and that the other officers on the scene should also face charges. Anger was further increased by a report from the Hennepin County medical examiner which indicated that the cause of death was not Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s throat, but “underlying health conditions” and “intoxication.”
The fourth night of protests in Minneapolis started peacefully, with over 1,000 protesters marching in defiance of a curfew. But within hours, protesters exchanged words with police, pushed past and around attempts to block their progress, and eventually rocks and bottles flew. As The Washington Post reports, more buildings and vehicles burned, and shots were exchanged with police.
In New York City, police tackled some protesters and held them on the ground as others cried out that they were demonstrating exactly why the protests were taking place.
In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms urged the crowd to return to their homes, saying, “This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos.” In Lincoln, Nebraska, police issued a shelter-in-place warning after declaring that the protests there were “no longer peaceful.” And in Washington D.C. the White House was placed under lockdown after crowds continued to defy orders to disperse in the early hours of Saturday. CNN has a list of other cities in which protests occurred. It’s both lengthy, and incomplete.
The murder of George Floyd is both a tragedy and outrage that demands justice. But it’s also clearly not what’s brought thousands onto the streets across the nation to risk their lives in the face of a deadly pandemic and against lines of police in riot gear. The source of the protest is not what happened to George Floyd except in the sense that Floyd’s murder is a reminder that this is still happening, and still happening, and still happening, and it’s only when there is protest, only when those in charge are forced to look at what’s happening, are there consequences.
Meanwhile, AP reports that the Pentagon has ordered soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York to prepare for possible deployment to Minneapolis. Additional soldiers from Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas have also been told to stand by. These actions came after Donald Trump made a call from the Oval Office on Thursday night. Expectations are that these soldiers would be deployed under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial.
And that connection, going back almost 30 years at this point, seems sickly appropriate. Because when the police officers who beat Rodney King on live TV were allowed to walk without consequence, that seemed like a turning point in a system where police violence against Black men was routinely excused. It didn’t start with George Floyd, or with Eric Garner, or with Michael Brown, or even with Rodney King. The protests that followed those events were points in which the community reached a breaking point; in which it was no longer possible to remain silent.
And this time, like every time, there are plenty of white Americans ready to blame the protesters for venting their anger, rather than doing one damn thing about the source. Because this time, like every time, those same Americans count on the Black community to sit down, shut up, and take it — even if that means calling in the military.