George Floyd

I have struggled with what to say about the murder of George Floyd. So much has been said by so many who are much more articulate than I am. Mainly I have a few observations:

  1.   I don’t understand why it took as long as it did to arrest Derek Chauvin. The delay made it appear that the police department and the prosecutor were waiting to see if they could get away with letting the murder slide. That is consistent with Chauvin’s apparent confidence as he was killing Mr. Floyd while looking at the camera. He appeared to think he had no reason to fear any repercussions.

2.   Likewise, I can’t imagine any legitimate reason that the other three officers have not been arrested. It makes some sense that the authorities would have to figure out what charges to bring, but aiding or being complicit in a blatant murder could be a good starting point and they could do the remainder of their figuring while the guys are in jail. What kind of message are they sending to the rest of that police force?

3.   The rioting, burning, and looting have nothing directly to do with George Floyd’s murder. The gap between rich and poor in this nation has been growing rapidly. There has been growing anger about that. Combine that with the highest unemployment rate in decades and people with nothing to do because of the virus restrictions and we had riots across the country waiting for a cause. Rioters were both Black and White. There has been some talk of "outside agitators", but there is little evidence that outsiders have driven all the violence.  Mr. Floyd’s family has pleaded with the public to stop the violence, but the violence is not really about George Floyd’s murder.

4.   What is the role of the church? My prayer throughout this time has been that the Lord’s church will be a light in these dark hours. That is made much more difficult by the stay at home orders. The church is its people; the people are the church. We need to be peacemakers; to be loving caring, gentle people; to speak up when someone is insensitive or unkind. We need to planfully and deliberately work together on improving relationships between the races. We need to help figure out how our economy can function without leaving so many people out. And we need to insist that our representative democracy does not hire people to protect us who have murderous intent or who are afraid to confront their counterparts who do.

SPPD

Each cohort of the Saint Paul Police Department’s (SPPD) training academy designs their own t-shirt. This is the one from the academy Mark was in. I am proud of his participation in it. He worked long and hard to get there. 

He already had a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree and several years of experience as a Child Protection Worker and had to start over where a high school graduate would start to become a police officer. There were several years of basic law enforcement skills training with no promise of employment. We were all excited when he subsequently was selected for the SPPD academy. The other students referred to him as the old man. But he stayed focused and he met his goal.

You may know that I did an earlier blog here about my Black Lives Matter t-shirt. The beauty of it all is that there is no contradiction. If you throw out the stereotypes of people who wear such shirts, the sentiments are very much in concert.

We also have a thin blue line sticker on the back window of our van. The police are indeed a thin blue line between us and total chaos. I love the SPPD and their current chief. The Saint Paul department is widely recognized as the best in the state, Minneapolis included.

When they were doing the background investigation to approve Mark’s hiring, a fellow came by to talk with Charlene and me. One of his questions was why we thought Mark wanted to be a police officer. I told him that Mark had always wanted to drive fast and make a lot of noise. There is more truth than joke in that explanation. But I did tell him the rest of the story. Mark wanted to be the friendly cop on the neighborhood beat that everyone knows and loves. The one who settles disagreements and makes peace. 

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9