What happened to George Floyd never should have happened. The Minneapolis police officer who killed him was clearly not following proper restraint procedures, and the other officers at the scene failed to intervene to save George Floyd‘s life. They have all been charged, and will be held accountable for their actions. And, of course, nothing will give George Floyd his life back.
This tragic death sparked a movement across the country demanding justice for George Floyd, and for police reform. The First Amendment guarantees those protesters the right to express their desire for change. It’s a time-honored privilege every American has.
Of course there is no accompanying privilege to riot, loot, destroy property, tear down monuments, or target police officers or anyone else with violence. Nor is there a right to commandeer an entire neighborhood and set up one’s own autonomous zone, and bar first responders from tending to those who have been shot in said autonomous zone, resulting in their succumbing to their wounds.
Tragic as the death of George Floyd was, unjustified homicide at the hands of rogue cops pales in comparison to the odds of being a victim of out-of-control violence by non-cops in urban America today. For example, in Chicago just this past weekend, 77 people were shot, and 17 of them died – IN ONE WEEKEND. None of these victims was shot by a policeman. And there were no protesters in the street. No statues were torn down. No autonomous zones were set up. And the press mostly ignored it.
It’s not just in Chicago either. It’s happening in cities all over America. Even in our own city. Cincinnati is on track to have the highest number of murders in its history. And that’s despite the fact that the population of our city is much lower than it was in the past.
Despite this extremely disturbing trend, the answers from the left are not only unhelpful (in my view), they would be counterproductive. Defund the police? That’s just nuts. We need them more than ever. But it’s happening. The Minneapolis city council just voted to get rid of the police department. And replace it with – well, they aren’t really sure. And in New York City, with ultra-liberal mayor Bill de Blasio‘s blessing, they’ve just decided to follow the left’s demand and cut the police department by a billion dollars. You can expect the exodus of businesses and taxpayers from that city to increase – torrentially.
And the Democrats in Congress just voted to take away “qualified immunity” from the nation’s law-enforcement. That would mean that even if a police officer has followed all proper procedures, he or she could be sued personally, exposing their families’ assets – their home, their savings, their retirement – to hordes of hungry lawyers and frivolous lawsuits. Who’s ever going to want to be a police officer in this country again?
So in summary, yes, George Floyd and his family deserve justice. But so do the 77 victims in one weekend in Chicago and their families, multiplied by the victims of violence in cities all across the country. Their lives matter too.