On anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, Catholic leaders say Church must do more

[Michie]

This Forum is a place for respectful discussion and debate of political issues, by Roman Catholics, in the context of the Roman Catholic Faith.


NEW YORK – When Bishop Roy Campbell, Jr., considers the Church’s role on issues of race in 2021, he looks back at the civil rights marches of the 1960’s when “a lot of people with collars” marched alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and others.

“Has it come to that? I think so,” Campbell, an auxiliary bishop of Washington told Crux.

And he’s not alone in that belief. Today, on the one year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd – a Black man killed by police officer Derek Chauvin – Catholic leaders reflect on the renewed attention paid to racial justice this past year, and acknowledge the essential role of the Church on the long road ahead.

Continued below.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-u...der-catholic-leaders-say-church-must-do-more/

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

“How many friends do we have, or people just say to themselves, ‘I don’t have a racist bone in my body?’ We’ve all heard that phrase,” Dewane said. “Right now, it kind of sends shivers up my spine because I think we all have to look internally on this one.”

It takes humility.

 

[BrAndreyu]

Chauvin shouldn't have knelt on George Floyd's neck. I don't automatically support the actions of police just because the left hates them. Chauvin was wrong and a jury has decided that his actions were a murder, he got his sentence and he probably deserves it.

But let's not pretend for one moment that George Floyd was some saint. He didn't deserve to die for passing bad $20s, but the dude was no angel. He held a gun to a pregnant woman's womb during a home invasion and was probably in the process of doing a drug deal when he was killed by Chauvin and swallowed his stash, which is why fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in his body during the autopsy.

So while I can agree that George Floyd shouldn't have been murdered by Derek Chauvin, I refuse to hold him up and lionize him as something other than what he was. There are plenty of other black people who have been unjustly killed by police (Breonna Taylor) who are better faces for the movement against police brutality, but it doesn't shock me one bit that BLM is holding him (Floyd) up as a saint, as the entire point of that movement is to push the idea that black people should never be approached by police for any crimes that they commit, because the only reason (in BLM's collective mind) that black people commit crimes is because of "racism" and the fact that they aren't handed a government "reparations" check every month.

 

[prodromos]

George Floyd died of a drug overdose. He would have been dead regardless of how police treated him.

 

[Michie]

George Floyd died of a drug overdose. He would have been dead regardless of how police treated him.

Still no excuse for kneeling his neck in front of God and everyone for nearly 10 minutes. We saw a really unnecessary side of the police in that moment.

 

[prodromos]

Still no excuse for kneeling his neck in front of God and everyone for nearly 10 minutes. We saw a really unnecessary side of the police in that moment.

George Floyd was a violent criminal who was being non compliant. Chauvin was doing nothing more than he had been trained to do. Chauvin was a good cop who has been made a scapegoat on the altar of critical race theory.

 

[Michie]

George Floyd was a violent criminal who was being non compliant. Chauvin was doing nothing more than he had been trained to do. Chauvin was a good cop who has been made a scapegoat on the altar of critical race theory.

Well I think the training he displayed was overdone and skewed. He should have cuffed him after subduing him and transferred him safely to the police vehicle. The point is...there were other options. Especially when the suspect is saying he can’t breathe. Not staring at a horrified audience while putting his knee to Floyd’s beck for nearly 10 minutes. He had other options to handle his uncooperative suspect. Unfortunately , he did not employ those options.

 

[prodromos]

I don't think any of the people who had been robbed at gunpoint by Floyd would agree with you, most of whom were black, to the best of my knowledge. Black lives didn't matter at all to George Floyd.

 

[Michie]

I don't think any of the people who had been robbed at gunpoint by Floyd would agree with you, most of whom were black, to the best of my knowledge. Black lives didn't matter at all to George Floyd.

I must admit. I never heard anything about Floyd being an armed robber.

 

[prodromos]

I must admit. I never heard anything about Floyd being an armed robber.

He forced his way into the home of a pregnant Latinx woman and threatened to shoot her in the belly if she didn't give him money.

 

[BrAndreyu]

Still no excuse for kneeling his neck in front of God and everyone for nearly 10 minutes. We saw a really unnecessary side of the police in that moment.

Like I previously stated, I do not automatically give police a pass just because the left hates them. I have been on the crap end of the police myself over comments posted on the internet, because we live in a society where free speech no longer actually exists. Apparently as the law understands it, you're allowed to openly threaten Donald Trump, pose with pictures of his severed head, so on and so forth but GOD FORBID you point out what patriotic Americans who believe in the constitution should do to Big Tech CEOs that tread all over people's rights, even suggesting that they be dealt with in any way is akin to "terrorism" according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

So no, I don't worship police. I am not thankful to them for "what they do" because they really don't do that much besides protect the elite from the common. That's all the majority of them do at the end of the day and society is suffering as a result of the elite being protected from the common majority. Sorry not sorry.

Chauvin had no right to kneel on Floyd's neck for ten minutes. Police are fallible human beings and oftentimes do things wrong because the overwhelming majority of the ones I've dealt with are just fat, cowardly punks who hide behind a badge so that nobody can whoop up on them for bothering them. Chauvin got what he deserved, he was not a "good cop" just because he killed a black person (which is what the right's argument tends to be: any cop that kills a black person is a "good cop" and I don't buy that nonsense for a fraction of a second, because that's legitimate actual racism and I am wholeheartedly against that). However I do not buy the BLM line that "Po-LEASE need to be abolished". There is a reason for policing, but America is basically a police state now with militarized police forces and for what? What are these police departments that function as small militias actually protecting people from? They stood around and did nothing as domestic terrorist organizations burned cities to the ground, looted and vandalized businesses, and even murdered people last year-- so what is the point of having kitted-out cops with submachine guns marching around in the streets like a bunch of East German Stasi?

 

[BrAndreyu]

George Floyd was a violent criminal who was being non compliant.

That doesn't mean that he deserved to die.

But let me guess: you probably believe in capital punishment, right?

 

[prodromos]

That doesn't mean that he deserved to die.

Excuse me? I've not suggested any such thing.

But let me guess: you probably believe in capital punishment, right?

That's two strikes. One more and you're out.

 

[prodromos]

Chauvin got what he deserved, he was not a "good cop" just because he killed a black person (which is what the right's argument tends to be: any cop that kills a black person is a "good cop"

This is your third strike. No one argues this.
Has anyone listened to the testimony of Chauvin's mother about why he got into policing and what sort of a person he was? Obviously not, since it flatly contradicts the narrative being pushed.

 

[BrAndreyu]

That's two strikes

This is your third strike.

According to who? You don't get to give me strikes, buckeroo.

But seriously, it really doesn't matter what you think. Derek Chauvin was found guilty by a jury to have murdered George Floyd. That means that he did as far as the law is concerned, and now he'll be spending the next 22 years of his life behind bars, where he probably helped to put so many people.