Wednesday, May 27, 2020

What I Posted About the Murder of George Floyd

My workplace has no social media policy. I'm never sure how far my authority extends on our Facebook. Mostly I post pictures of stuff. Easy.

But sometimes something happens outside my usual purview.
Like, the police murder a black man a mile from our store.
[New York Times article
 contains a video of a cop kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, while Floyd pleads for his life. I can't watch it.]

What do I do?
I use our Mission Statement as a guide:
“A network of friends, inspired by Gospel values, growing in holiness and building a more just world through personal relationships with and service to people in need.”
A network of friends building a more just world would say something about the murder of George Floyd, right?
I posted this, using  the photo I'd taken at the protest last night:
As FB posts on this topic go, this was milk-toast. No "F.T.P." or anything.

Who would object to grieving violence and injustice?
Who? Well, ... have I mentioned we have a troll, "Thom"?
He lumbered out from under his bridge to object.


 The replies --many good ones, but some started to bicker about the meaning of "racism". I wasn't sorry to let those go.



Some people have emphasized that George Floyd was a good man.
It's good that's going public, for Floyd's family, friends, and his reputation.

But in larger, more impersonal social terms, whether a person murdered by the police is a good person or bad is beside the point:
Even if a person is a monster, the police are not exterminating angels. 
We do not want State-sponsored Death Squads.

2 comments:

Michael Leddy said...

A possible translation: “Perhaps we should focus on the welfare of the police and not on people they kill.” I think that’s what Thom is trying to say.”

River said...

I saw that on the news hare last night, the policeman kneeling on the man's neck. He doesn't deserve to be a policeman. I'm glad they fired him.