You were suffocating.
You were pleading.
You were begging.
You were helpless as you felt the iron knee of a white police officer take away your right to breathe. To live. To speak.
I can only imagine the thoughts that ran through your head: “Why me? What did I do wrong? Why is this officer who’s supposed to protect me, KILLING me instead?”
I felt this. I was shaking and sobbing as I too felt the hard asphalt press into the pores of your skin. I felt the loneliness, the pain, the fear, the helplessness.
“I can’t BREATHE.”
When I saw the video, I felt my heart break into a million pieces. It’s the year 2020 and racism, white supremacy and hatred towards skin colors that are not white still exists? I have no words.
I wanted to jump through the screen and join those witnesses who were pleading with the police officers to remove the knee from his neck and cease to choke him. They watched as blood poured down his nose, tears raced down his cheeks and his eyes struggled to stay open.
You were unresponsive. Of course the officers knew that, but they didn’t care. Why would they care? It’s not like he’s white like them. That’s the reality minorities face every day. They can’t walk the streets without fear squeezing their chest, threatening to consume them.
Your life fleeted by with every moment that policeman pressed his knee against your throat. You would pass out occasionally, fighting for oxygen that would not reach your lungs. You were helpless. And then you stopped trying to breathe altogether. You were gone. Dead.
No. You were murdered.
Derek Chauvin (badge #1087), Tou Thao (badge #7162) and every single law enforcement officer that has ever literally or metaphorically squeezed the life out of the colored people in the United States deserve to rot in the deepest, darkest, hottest part of hell.
George Floyd, you were murdered by the Minneapolis Police Department and you deserved better. You deserve justice. And although nothing could ever bring you back to life, rest assured that thousands of people of different ethnicities, races and countries stand with you.
Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.
Abraham Heschel
I wish I could do more than just write a blog post. However, we must never underestimate the power of our voices and our actions. Speak, if you can. Take action and make a change. We all have the same colored blood rushing through our veins.
This needs to end. George Floyd was not the first black man (or individual in general) to be murdered by the law enforcement system in America. But God, I wish with all of my heart that he be the last.
Xx j
Drops of Honey 