Grappling with the Death of George Floyd

For the past few days, I have spent my quiet moments reflecting on whether I have anything of value to add to the national conversation regarding the death of George Floyd. Like so many, I am fed up with the repeated incidents of police inflicted death and violence against people of color — and in particular, Black men. Like others, I fully acknowledge that there is a legal and political framework that enables the perpetuation of this violence, and protects the perpetrators even when they are exposed. I believe that for every recorded incident, for every incident that results in an unnecessary death, there are likely countless others that go unrecorded, or that do not result in death, but merely an injury, a humiliation, a run-of-the-mill injustice that is recorded in history as a run-of-the-mill police report.

I also believe — because I know them — that the vast majority of police officers are public servants who care deeply about the communities they serve. They are people of integrity who wake up every morning to do a dangerous job, and on any given day, they could be asked to do extraordinary things. Our society depends on them.

It is because the vast majority of our country’s law enforcement are good and decent people that it is critical that we root out the scourge that allows for the unchecked actions of a small minority to cast a shadow on the rest. To do that we must acknowledge that the current system — which whether by design, inertia, or the policeman’s code — requires law enforcement to close ranks, and does not lend itself to simply rooting out bad apples. We must acknowledge that for at least the past thirty years, the judicial branch, from the Supreme Court of the United States on down, has systematically ceded authority to officers to make stops for nearly any pretext, relinquished its oversight responsibility such that officers can justify almost any action by uttering certain key phrases, and has codified a set of legal standards that makes prosecution of officers so arduous that most prosecutors are loathe to prosecute, even in egregious instances. This is the system that allows a small percentage of police officers to inflict violence against others (whether motivated by racial animus or otherwise) with a sense of impunity.

And lastly, we must acknowledge that too many of us have been complicit in this reality, because we have known that to change it will be hard, and it will be messy. For this reason, the protests that erupted across the country in response to Mr. Floyd’s death touch a sensitive nerve for many, because we understand that as a society, we are abdicating our moral responsibility to fix this, not just for George Floyd, or Breonna Taylor, or Philando Castile, or Freddie Gray, or Alton Sterling, or Walter Scott (and the countless others), but also for the police officers who are left to deal with a bitter public that resents them for keeping us safe.

These protests are a natural response to years of pent up frustration. They are a reflection of our collective anger, which serve to amplify our society’s collective voice. They make the structures of power uncomfortable, and that is the point. Civil disobedience and direct action are powerful precisely because they provide a real, tangible, visible energy to the pain and frustration felt by so many.

But protesting, marching, and solidarity on the streets will not be enough to overcome the structural forces at work. There is only one way that our society will evolve beyond the present state of affairs, and that is by electing public officials who reflect these same morals, and who are prepared to fight for these same principles. Too often, as our anger subsides, the energy of the masses on the streets dissipates, and the reality of our day-to-day lives comes back into focus. The status quo understands this, and so they wait, placating us, allowing the protests to go on for as long as necessary, because they know that it is better to allow the cathartic experience to run its course.

We must not allow them that victory. Let us not squander this moment. When this anger subsides, we must remember that the struggle continues, and that in this country, the battle is won in the voting booth. It is the responsibility of every protester who marches on the streets to implore our brothers and sisters, our friends and our neighbors, that they must vote. It is no longer enough to simply say “I voted”; rather, the real task is convincing every other person you know that they must also vote, and they must vote for the causes of justice. They must vote, and not just for the presidency. To effect real change, we must sweep the Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate. We must sweep the statehouses and the governors’ seats. We must win city elections, mayors’ offices and police chiefs.

If every person who has marched the streets of America this past week pledges to vote…

If every person who marched in solidarity with the Women’s March on Inauguration Day 2017 pledges to vote…

If every person who is sick to death of ‘thoughts and prayers’ in the face of senseless mass shootings pledges to vote…

If every person who cares deeply about the future of our planet’s natural environment pledges to vote…

… the avalanche of votes will bury the forces that resist change.

But we must also understand that change does not come from a single election, or a single presidency. The just society that we envision requires patience, vigilance and repeated action. We should be wary of forces that sow division, of forces that seek purity tests, and those who are content to have nothing if they cannot have everything. We cannot any longer be duped by parlor tricks or conmen who promise what they cannot deliver. We cannot be distracted by third-party candidates who offer the illusion of protest, but serve only to undermine our cause. And we cannot become satisfied, allowing incremental success to permit complacency.

Rather, we should acknowledge that there will be missteps and corrections. That the leaders who emerge are fallible, but capable of change. That changing a system as entrenched as the judicial code in this country will be painful, and will require compromise and understanding on our part as well.

Lastly, we should understand that the opponent is shrewd, and has been secretly fighting this fight for far longer. We should accept that the opposition often controls the very levers of power that we are trying to wrestle away, and believes, much as we do, that their whole way of life is in jeopardy. We must accept that this struggle is bigger than any of us, but we do it anyway.

When President Obama reminded us of that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” he never said that bending it would be easy. We sit today at a historical crossroads, which direction we choose is in our hands.

Vote. Keep voting. Vote for George Floyd. Vote for Philando Castile. Vote for Breonna Taylor. Make sure every person you know, every person you are associated with, votes. Vote for the ones who no longer can. It is the single most dangerous weapon each of us possesses.