With all of the violence we've witnessed following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, I have just one question. Where are the heroes?
Watching the rioting unfold on television, it was like deja vu all over again. I lived through the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, following the beating of black motorist Rodney King by a group of Los Angeles police officers.
Mr. King had led police on a high-speed chase down a Los Angeles freeway, ending with officers savagely beating him with their nightsticks, a beating seen round the world. That was nothing, though, compared with the rioting that followed, after an almost all-white jury (no blacks) set the officers free, with a verdict of not guilty.
I was home from work when the news broke. Black people, and many whites, were shocked by the verdict.
Protests began almost immediately at the city's police headquarters near downtown Los Angeles, not far from where I lived. I watched developments unfold on live TV as the protests grew, and eventually exploded. Almost literally.
My home was in the hills near Hollywood. On a smog-free day, I could enjoy a panoramic view of Los Angeles from the skyscrapers downtown to the Pacific Ocean. But at the peak of the rioting, my view was marred by plumes of smoke billowing from countless fires set by rioters. Ashes from those fires actually floated over my yard.
Nearly 30 years later, far, far away from Los Angeles, here at home in Hattiesburg, I watched my "other hometown" burning again. On live TV, again, I watched looters pillage an athletics shoe store in Los Angeles' hip Fairfax district. Vandals waited their turn, entering the store a few at a time, grabbing all they could then running out, arms loaded with boxes of expensive athletic shoes. Brand names like Nike and Adidas were clearly visible. Some maximized the thievery, pulling up in automobiles, filling their trunks with stolen goods and driving off, unchallenged. Los Angeles police were nowhere to be seen. No heroes to be found here.
New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, and other major cities across America were being burned and looted. Things like this just don't happen in the United States of America, right? Where were the heroes?
After the worse of the rioting ended, I'll never forget the eerie calm that settled over Los Angeles in 1992.
A calm effected by the presence of military vehicles cruising down Wilshire Boulevard, a street that forms the city's commercial spine, making its way from downtown to the Pacific Ocean. Wilshire is filled with businesses and museums, but on the days following the rioting, the usually fashionable street was dotted with National Guard troops.
I was reminded of how surreal Los Angeles felt, as I watched on live television military caravans rolling down the streets of our nation's capital, like the occupation of some major city in the Middle East. Only this time, it was our country, our Washington, D.C.
Over the past weeks, it's sad to say, I didn't see as many heroes as I did bad actors. Beginning with the officer arrested for the killing of George Floyd. Three other officers, by their inaction, aided in the murder. They have also been arrested.
The looters and arsonists? More bad actors. Their actions had nothing to do with the death of Mr. Floyd - nothing. They were criminals before Floyd was murdered, and are criminals now. They seized the opportunity to hijack the protests, hiding under the cover of darkness to exercise their mayhem. Some people conflated the actions of a handful of thugs with the good intentions of the protesters. That is so unfair. The two groups were not the same.
The President of the United States? Another bad actor. Donald Trump has built his career spreading racial animosity. According to the United States Department of Justice, Mr. Trump and his father, Fred, allegedly excluded blacks from renting Trump-owned properties in the New York City area.
Then there's the Central Park Five, the name given to a group of five black and Latino men accused of raping a white female jogger in Central Park. Mr. Trump declared the men guilty, even taking out full page ads in New York City newspapers, urging..."Bring back the death penalty." Another man later confessed to the rape (confirmed by DNA evidence) exonerating the five men. No apology was issued, ever, from Donald Trump.
And let's not forget, Mr. Trump began his political career with a false assertion: that the first African-American President of the United States was not born in this country. A lie from the moment he uttered the words, despite his claim of having "investigators" working in Hawaii to prove Barack Obama was not born in America. (We're still waiting on his promised results of that investigation.)
That's a short list of Donald Trump's offenses on the issue of race. At a time when this racially diverse nation of ours needs healing, what do we get? A president who sows more division, threatening to use armed troops on American citizens, and violently dispersing demonstrators so he could stage a Bible-holding photo-op. In times such as these, where is the compassion and empathy we need from a president? Will Mr. Trump be our hero? His past and present actions suggest the answer is no.
We watched as Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin snuffed out the life of George Floyd, the force of his knee pushing Floyd's face into the pavement. You could hear the fear in his voice. For 8 minutes and 46 seconds, Officer Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck, hand in pocket, disturbingly cavalier in his actions. Mr. Floyd's cries for help went ignored as he lay on the pavement, dying. He mustered the strength in those final breaths of life to shout, "Mama," calling for his late mother. Three of his final words have become the battle cry for hundreds of thousands of protesters. "I can't breathe!"
The mayor of Petal, Mississippi, Hal Marx, saw nothing unreasonable in the actions of Officer Derek Chauvin. Policeman, just doing his job? That would be a frightening job description, Mr. Mayor. I'm still looking for a hero.
George Floyd himself is the hero, you say? Not so fast.
From the time this story began to unfold, I have wondered about Mr. Floyd. He has been called a "gentle giant" and that may very well be true, to a point. But he has an extensive criminal history and I don't think it should be ignored. Much of the media, though, have chosen to do just that. You hear very little about George Floyd's past, while the media, and so many others, have made him into a hero.
Almost nothing is mentioned of George Floyd's long criminal record. That includes posing as a water department employee in Houston, Texas. Mr. Floyd, wearing a blue uniform, attempted to gain access to a woman's home. After realizing he was not with the water department, she attempted to close the door on him, as a struggle ensued. The woman, by the way, was black. One of his accomplices in the home invasion guarded her while Floyd ransacked the home, reportedly looking for drugs and money. At one point, Mr. Floyd reportedly placed a pistol to the woman's abdomen, who, it should be noted, was pregnant at the time. George Floyd plead guilty to the crime and served prison time.
None of this is brought up to diminish the murder of George Floyd. I hope the jurors who hear his case will be fairer in their verdict than the "justice" shown Rodney King. But George Floyd, a hero? I wouldn't describe him as such. Nor was Rodney King.
During the rioting that followed Floyd's murder, there's another video we don't hear as much about.
David Dorn, another African-American man, served nearly 40 years on the St. Louis, Missouri police force, retiring in 2007 with the rank of captain. On the morning of June 2, rioters (not protesters) were looting in St. Louis. Captain Dorn was shot and killed while trying to protect a friend's pawn shop from looters. His last moments of life were also caught on video, posted on Facebook and, thankfully, later removed. His body was found on the sidewalk early that morning in front of Lee's Pawn and Jewelry.
Captain Dorn and his wife led the St. Louis police department's Explorers program, created for young people interested in law enforcement careers. He spent the last years of his life dedicated to working with young people, especially disadvantaged youth. He was a beloved role model for young men and women in his community. Captain David Dorn: finally, we get to a hero.
The death of Mr. Floyd is an American tragedy. For the record, no matter his past, his heinous murder cries out for justice. But a hero? Martyr is a better description. The video of police officer Derek Chauvin crushing George Floyd's neck until he was dead made this story about something else altogether. In fact, it's not so much about George Floyd now, or his past. It's about injustice and abuse of power.
Our ubiquitous cell phones, and their video capability, are changing the course of history. I dare say, had those cameras not been present, a whole other version of the death of George Floyd would have been told. Officer Chauvin would have been able to write a report, "confirmed" by his partners. Keep in mind, witness testimony carries a lot less weight than that of a policeman's. In short order, the entire episode would have been swept under the rug, neatly tied with a bow. "The End."
How many stories are there like these, that share an altered truth? America does, indeed, have two separate justice systems, one for the privileged (those with money) and one for everyone else.
Throughout this all, I have been encouraged by only one thing. That is, not just African-Americans are peacefully demonstrating for justice in the murder of George Floyd. They have been joined by whites, Latinos, Asians, Middle-Easterners, a beautiful rainbow of the races God created, and who make up our great country. Perhaps and, again, perhaps, this will be a wake-up call for America that we must, for the sake of our country's future, come together as one. If that turns out to be the case, then George Floyd is indeed a hero.
Even better, we all are.
Jones is a writer and a proud graduate of both Hattiesburg High School and the University of Southern Mississippi. Look for his column in The PineBelt NEWS every other week.
