Chekhov’s Gun

Good Morning.

I apologize that I have not written about Arsenal lately but you have by now noticed that the United States of America is in serious trouble. On May 25th 2020 a white cop named Derek Chauvin killed a Black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. To be more precise, the officer kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds: George Floyd cried out, he begged the officer to stop, he told the officer he couldn’t breathe, he called out for his mother, but Derek Chauvin continued to kneel on George Floyd’s neck until he expired and then kept kneeling on his neck.

George Floyd was executed for the alleged crime of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. This is something which happens all too often in these United States: where systemic racism and police brutality are wedded in an unholy alliance. Police killed over 1000 people in the United States last year, 24% of those killed were Black, while African Americans comprise just 13% of the population. And of the officers involved in police killings, 96% of them are never even charged, and just 1% of them are convicted. In the case of George Floyd’s murder, Derek Chauvin has been arrested and charged but the three other officers who were there at the scene of the crime have not. In Washington State (and many others) if these men were civilians they would all be charged with the same crime; murder.

And the people are rightly pissed. They have taken to the streets to protest police violence and systemic racism. And in most cases, these protests have been met with… police violence and systemic racism.

If this country had any leadership – and I don’t just mean the President, not just the Republicans who are in charge, I mean Democrats, ANYONE – we would be de-escalating this situation. But the Democratic Party candidate for President in 2020 gave his solution – police should be trained to shoot people.. in the legs.

Instead of de-escalation President Trump yesterday declared “If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.” Trump then had riot squads clear Lafayette Park and the steps of St. John’s Church so that he could go for a quick stroll and get a photo op of him holding a bible near the church. It wasn’t even his bible – “a bible” he said when asked.

On the one hand this was very clearly a cynical “show of power” so that he could basically kick off his re-election campaign as the “law and order” candidate. He had spent the last few days cowering in a bunker as flames erupted all over DC and needed to show off that he’s “not afraid” and that he can “dominate the streets.”

On the other hand, he has to follow through on his threat to use the military. This is like Chekov’s gun: if there’s a gun in the first scene, it has to go off. He cannot claim to be the “law and order” guy and demand that governors and mayors “dominate” the streets and then not follow through with his threat.

There are already two reports of the National Guard using deadly fire on American citizens and at least one American has been killed by the National Guard. Thankfully, there are also reports that Minnesota are standing down the National Guard and planning to ease their curfew.

In normal times, this would end when the President called a summit, worked with leaders from the law enforcement community and from groups like Black Lives Matter to change the laws so that the police are not allowed to kill citizens with impunity. But these aren’t normal times.

People are asking for just one thing: STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE. This isn’t controversial. This isn’t a huge overreach in terms of an ask. Police shouldn’t be allowed to use deadly force without reprocussions.

And the thing is that we know that things can be done to stop this violence. I know that I can be overly analytical but there are research-based solutions to this systemic violence:

Tweet three in that thread: “More restrictive state and local policies governing police use of force are associated with significantly lower rates of police shootings/killings by police. This is backed by 30+ years of research. We identified specific policies that work here: http://useofforceproject.org/

Demilitarization of the police should also be a priority. And along with that this country needs GUN CONTROL. This is a never ending escalation of violence between the police and the citizens that they are supposedly here to protect. We are wasting this country’s blood and treasure for some perceived freedom. That freedom to own military weapons is often recited by the far right gun lobby as the supposed antidote to EXACTLY what we are seeing here.

I have to stop now. I can’t. So. I. Look, I can’t process all of this. It’s too much for my little brain. The madness of all of this is too much.

What I can say is that I donated to my local community bail fund; the Northwest Community Bail Fund. If you want to do the same for your local community, there’s a huge list of them here on Papermag.com. If you have been out there protesting and want to tell your story, you can do so in the comments below. If you would like to publish your story here I will happily donate space to amplify your voice.

Qq

28 comments

  1. thank you for being counted, some year huh…

    I’m fascinated to see where all of this goes, I’m skeptical of course. still feels like only the surface is being scratched.

    Also I wasn’t feeling kaepernick at the time and it looks super weird. Liverpool of all places (slave history) has its players taking a knee!!!? in a circle?

    my first thought was: wow it looks like your saluting derek. Then I realised it was linked to Colin and that made it a little worse.

    surreal civilisation…

    1. My own view is that a protest against the mistreatment of any one people should not be diminished or dismissed simply on the grounds that the place of that protest was historically situated in that oppression. In what sense can any change occur in society if any gesture of good will or solidarity is unwelcome by virtue of factors (such as what some in England did a century ago) over which one does not likely have any control or agency? Why would anyone in the American South, for example, consider joining in solidarity with a black situation if those on the other side told them, “you can never be in solidarity with us no matter what you do because your region has that history”? Saying as much (as your Liverpool example suggests) is to actually desire division in a society, because it forecloses any chance whatsoever of unification. And, no, it is not “worse” to kneel in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick than it is to kneel in solidarity with that murderer. How could anyone assume that the team was imitating the police officer? I don’t understand how anyone could think such a backwards thing, but I can definitely see how one mode of suspicion such as exemplified in your comment would allow (sadly) that very idea to occur.

      1. The older I get, the more I realize that a lot of people make mistakes and need to be forgiven when they ask for it and show contrition.

      2. hi, I was merely thinking out loud in the moment. your questions are based on assumption so I won’t unpack it respectfully.

  2. I’m in Minneapolis, Arsenal fan for years and it’s been something. I’ve been to a couple protests (peaceful and good, though with its share of problems), participating as much as I can. Being a part of a trans-racial (AA) family it’s all close to home. As if our protests are about George Floyd in some atomistic world… this is a city of longtime severe redlining and racial covenants. It’s a country of Jim Crow. And we can’t pretend waving a wand to repeal it means it undoes all the systems built upon it. I’m too close to have to be “woke”. It’s my family; I don’t have to be woke.
    But agitating hatred and a simplistic construal of “power” isn’t going to get us anywhere but more violence, more division. Almost all the protests are for peace, for good change, for hearing and listening and silence. Those aren’t making the news, yet they are the ones that make me hopeful that this time will be different. A culture can shift, and that’s the hope I have when I walk with these sisters and brothers.
    Just my piece.

  3. if one of those officers simply had the moral courage to say to derek chauvin, “that’s enough”, george floyd would still be alive, they would all still have their jobs, they wouldn’t be facing prison time, and there would be no protests. all you needed was one officer, at the point of attack, to do the right thing. we shouldn’t even know who george floyd is.

    1. systemic racism survives another day until the next time some poor asshole forgets to say “that’s enough, bro.”

  4. I’m not sure the problem is solely with the police officers; more so with the vetting and background checks of law enforcement candidates.
    Why does an asshole like Chauvin get to be hired to keep the peace?
    That’s where the Problem begins.
    The causes go further up the ladder – right to the top.
    Good luck with fixing that!

  5. I’m probably not entitled to add my thoughts as I am white and not American. That said since 2015 roughly 900 to 1000 people are shot dead by non federal law enforcement officers annually and since that time only 3 officers convicted of murder, has the conviction stood. This comes from the Police Integrity Research Groups data so I trust their figures. Bad and bent Police are not exclusive to the US, the job attracts a certain kind of person, but training and management should keep the numbers minimal. In the US people in authority are just not doing what they are paid to do.. The look on Chauvin’s face while he was being filmed, didn’t have the look of a man that expected to get into trouble for what he was doing.

  6. Having watched the video, the thing that struck me most was the bystander cop, who couldn’t have looked more bored. Black lives matter? On the evidence of that, they obviously don’t. Interesting that the original “official” autopsy denied strangulation or suffocation as cause of death. If it hadn’t been for video evidence, this would have been swept under the carpet with all the other murders. Meanwhile “tough guy” Trump emerges from his bunker for a photo op, ably assisted by an army of riot police. Someone even found a bible for him to hold. Who in their right mind takes one look at that man and thinks, “You know what? He’s my kind of guy!” Do they put something in the beer?

    1. Citizens were yelling “he’s human” and he didn’t budge. This is the problem: for a lot of white people, Black people aren’t human. That’s not my experience. That’s the experience I hear from Black people who are speaking out.

  7. Thanks Tim for donating and being an ally all this time. I protested in Boston in the past few days and the amount of military police as well as riot gear police was staggering; we were also herded along by cops on bikes throughout the protest; what i imagine to be snipers were placed on top of the police HQ as we marched passed them. Overall, the escalation (and intimidation) is definitely from the other side. It is annoying to see violence blamed on protestors when the aggressors’ intimidation escalates the situation so much.

  8. Apparently, Chauvin had numerous complaints against him in his policing career, eighteen I believe. Sameer-Son-of-Nil asked what would happen to me or Mom if we had that many complaints registered against us. I replied, “absolutely nothing” because in all of the jobs I’ve held over the years it wouldn’t have gotten to eight let alone 18(!). I would have been gone in most situation after 2 or 3. How desperate are they in the Twin Cities to have an active duty patrol officer with 18 blights on his record?

    Apparently, at least one of the other officers on the scene also has/had a number of complaints registered as well, including one open case.

    There is still much to admire and appreciate about America – so many good things – but America is broken. I longer recognize the country I grew up next to. It’s like Boo Radley has become my neighbour. Is just misunderstood or his really the monster childhood imaginings?

    1. This is not a defense of the police involved in Floyd’s death, rather a bit of perspective.

      In the city that I work (I’m a police officer), making complaints is incredibly easy to do (widely reported as the easiest in the country). This is obviously beneficial in many ways as it means that there is a clear, easy to follow path for citizens to make legitimate complaints without hassle. And, I can assure you that our internal affairs division is aggressive in their investigation of those complaints. However, the flip side is that it is so easy to make complaints that officers quickly rack up complaint after complaint when many are baseless and unfounded. Example: officer sees known gang member running from a shooting scene, detains him, finds gun on his person and gun later comes back to shooting. Detainee, now prime suspect in a shooting, makes complaint that police are always harassing him.

      Again, I am not defending the Minneapolis police officers, but rather trying to provide perspective on some of the numbers that are frequently thrown out when a police shooting or death occurs (justified or not).

      1. Important perspective, thanks. When you deal with public in any all sorts of situations, literally anything goes, including blowback on good officers who did nothing to deserve it. I’m a Canadian and a Torontonian and everyone has their own stories. I’m lucky: I haven’t had a single negative experience with TPD or RCMP in my life. And I’m a gigging musican among others things. I’ve had plenty of encounters with the boys and girls in blue. Keep the faith man, I appreciate you.

  9. Longtime reader, rarely comment on any public forum because of my profession. I’m a police officer in one of the most violent cities in America and what happened to George Floyd is disturbing. Your post is thoughtful and reasonable. The only thing I would point out is that when you say “96% are never even charged,” it implies that every police shooting or death at the hands of the police is criminal. Every shooting and death is tragic, but some are, unfortunately, unavoidable and justified (at least in the near term when they happen).

    Like you, I hope that this country can find its way and heal. Police brutality and systemic racism are absolutely real, but until we treat the actual sickness (a broken society) and not just the symptoms (police brutality and disturbing homicide rates in minority communities), we will not see any real lasting change.

    I wish I was smart enough to know a solution. That said, I’m doing what I can; I gave up a well paying and completely safe job attained in no small part because of 7 years of college and graduate programs at top universities to get in the trenches and at least try to make a difference. Being a cop is certainly not for everyone, but I would love for some of the people hoping and fighting for change to accept the challenge and attempt to make that change from within. Responding to murder scenes of young men you’ve known or holding a young man and comforting him as he dies from gunshots while knowing that his name will never be published in the area newspapers and his death likely never even commented upon will give you a sobering perspective of just how broken our society is.

    1. If Arsene Wenger was acop he would definitely not be Inspector Clouseau! Hercule Poirot, maybe?

    2. Wow.. I want to thank you for taking time to say something and appreciate your perspective. I got those numbers of police being charged from https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/ obviously there can be some discussion there over their methods and as you rightly point out, not every police killing is unjustified.

      However, there are a few interesting pieces of information on that site which we can and should discuss.

      The first is the correlation between high crime and high levels of police violence is very weak and definitely not strong enough to suggest that there is anything like a causal link. There is, however, a STRONG correlation between states with loose (open) gun regulations and police killings. This suggests a different problem is at work: fear. As the population’s fear goes up, they buy more guns (and demand looser gun laws), and as the number of guns goes up the police anxiety grows (along with the need for things like body armor), and as the anxiety level grows the police kill more people, then since every police shooting is huge news, the people’s anxieties rise and they want more guns and so on.

      That suggests that there are things that can and should be done. Obviously, the biggest and most important is gun control laws. The (frankly) nonsense argument that American citizens believe in the 2nd amendment to protect themselves from a tyrannical government has been fully exposed. None of these so-called freedom fighters are out there taking on the government as they sweep citizens off the streets. Nor would I ever want them to! That would be the most heinous thing to happen to America. But we need to de-escalate this growing war between our citizens where huge numbers have weapons of war.

      The other thing is that there are known methods for lowering the number of police killings (even without gun control). We need to require police to exhaust all other methods (or at least more) before they can use deadly force. We need to ban things like “knees on the neck” and chokeholds. We need to require that all uses of force are reported and that police are REQUIRED to de-escalate situations prior to use of deadly force.

      In short, I would hope that we can all agree that no one should die for the crime of trying to pass a fake $20. Or even being high and trying to pass a fake $20. Or even being high, possession of a fake $20, and being belligerent to officers, or trying to escape, or resisting arrest.

      We live in a world where you can track people down so much easier than ever before. If you’re a cop on that beat, you know who George Floyd is. In fact, Chauvin knew Floyd personally, they had worked together for 17 years.

      There are so many other options for police now that no unarmed person should die in the cause of his arrest.

      1. t is refreshing to have this kind of dialogue.

        All very good points on your end.

        First, and most importantly, absolutely no one deserves to die for passing a counterfeit $20 bill. George Floyd was a human being and deserved to be treated as such.

        Sadly, on the gun control front, I am very pessimistic. Take the Bay Area of California, for example. On paper, it has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. In reality, the streets are flooded with illegal guns while the number of legally owned guns (relatively) and people legally carrying concealed weapons is low. Then, when someone is caught carrying a gun on the street, the punishment is minimal. A gang member I knew quite well was recently killed by gunfire (the specifics aren’t super important, but it was while he himself was armed and was robbing someone he’d followed from a jewelry store – the would be victim killed him). The crazy thing is, he was a documented gang member on probation for carrying guns three times over. He had never served more than a week in jail while awaiting trial. Clearly punishment and enforcement alone are not sufficient, but gun laws and regulation are meaningless without enforcement. The application of the same gun laws across different cities and counties is racist because, contrary to popular belief, it is so much less severe in predominantly poor minority communities (in the Bay Area at least). The result is young men on the street who have shown that they simply will not stop carrying guns killing other people with those guns, committing violent crimes with those guns and dying by gunfire themselves.

        I agree that we need a better form of gun control, I just don’t know how to do it.

        As for police being required to de escalate before using deadly force, I agree and that is how I’m trained. Of course, there will always be times when there is an immediate deadly threat that absolutely has to be addressed, but those situations are rare and quickly recognizing them is something that only comes with training and experience. As for knees on necks and choke holds, at my department those are considered deadly uses of force requiring the same justification as pulling the trigger.

        Which brings up a very important point: de funding the police will not improve anything. Better training, better recruitment and better strategies require money. People say they want better cops, but vilify those that make the decision to wear the badge (I can’t tell you how many friends I lost simply because I became a cop), yet they entertain themselves with mind numbing police procedurals on TV and in print. If a friend or a family member wants to be a cop, make sure they understand what they’re doing and support them. Demand budget accountability while making sure that police in your community are paid a salary sufficient to recruit and keep good candidates and the department has the necessary funding to implement strategies that actually work to reduce violence (these are not cheap).

        You touched on something that, from my perspective, is at the crux of the issue: law enforcement strategy. The data is very clear that the traditional model of high visibility police presence in high crime areas doesn’t work. Identifying the community members at the highest risk of being victims of violence, and perpetrators of violence themselves, is not hard. Likewise, there are effective methods of reducing violence amongst this group, and these methods lead to less police violence (you’ll have to take my word for this right now, as I can’t access the data while watching a nature documentary with my kid before another 12-16 hr shift). But, these methods require a significant change in structure and approach for most police departments. Basically, you balance outreach (directly contacting those at risk and offering them help) with targeted enforcement (those that continue to engage in violent activity are tracked and punished to the fullest extent of the law). If you’re interested in learning more, google the Ceasefire policing model.

        My department is far from perfect, but we are without a doubt one of the most progressive police departments in terms of strategy and tactics. The result has been (last time I checked) somewhere between a 20-30% drop in homicides over the past five years and the last police shooting of a black man occurring in 2015 (he was in a shooting vehicle and then crashed while being pursued, attempted to carjack a civilian at gunpoint to escape and then pointed his gun at officers as they approached).

        Again, thank you for hearing me out and engaging in dialog.

    3. perhaps you may need to change your vantage point.

      you believe the sickness is the society with the symptoms being the brutality etc…
      I know the reverse is true as the gov is running things not society. wanna see lasting change? become informed on the correct information and be righteous. the end.

      trouble is too much ignorance and playing dumb going on.

  10. This has to be the most craven, cowardly, mendacious person ever elected as POTUS:

    Trump admits he went to a secure bunker, but claims it was only for an inspection.
    President Trump on Wednesday first denied and then acknowledged that he had gone to a secure bunker below the White House over the weekend as protesters demonstrated nearby. He said he went there for an “inspection,” rather than out of concern over his safety.

    Mr. Trump has been irritated by news reports that he and his family were taken to the bunker while protests flared, and on Wednesday he was asked about the events in an interview with Brian Kilmeade of Fox News Radio.

    “Well, it was a false report,” Mr. Trump said.

    “I wasn’t down — I went down during the day, and I was there for a tiny little short period of time, and it was much more for an inspection, there was no problem during the day,” he added. He did not say which day.

    That contradicted the accounts of other officials, including one with firsthand knowledge, who told The New York Times that the Secret Service had rushed him to the bunker for his safety, not for an inspection, and that it occurred on Friday night, not during the day.

    An official familiar with the events said the agents acted after the White House’s security status was changes to “red,” a warning of a heightened threat, amid the protests.

    Mr. Trump’s concern about the perception that he was hiding contributed to his decision to walk across Lafayette Square on Monday to a church that was damaged by fire the night before. Law enforcement officers used pepper spray to disperse a crowd of demonstrators and clear the way for his walk.

    In the Fox interview, the president said he would step in to deal with protests in New York City, where Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have been at odds over the best way to contain the unrest. “If they don’t get their act straightened out, I will solve it,” Mr. Trump said, without offering details. “I’ll solve it fast.”

    Mr. Trump also repeated his baseless claim that the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was connected to the death in 2001 of Lori Klausutis, a young woman who worked for him when Mr. Scarborough was a congressman.

    WHITE HOUSE BUNKERPresident Trump contradicted other officials, news reports and himself, admitting he went to a bunker during protests, but insisting it was not for his safety.

  11. A few thoughts on these events:
    My 16 year old daughter organized a demonstration with four of her friends, here in Budapest, where we live as Belgian expatriates. Promptly there were thousands of people willing to join (in this country headed by a democratic despot who rejects all immigrants and defends “the Christian values”). The planned demonstration also attracted a lot of hateful and threatening comments on all social media, of course. The demonstrators will kneel in front of the US embassy, in silence, for 8 min 46 seconds on Sunday.
    This to give you and idea of our far this has spread (and to boast about my young sweet activist!)
    This Mister Chauvin might have done something good while doing something truly awful.
    As far as Trump is concerned, I can only share my profound sadness and complete incredulity that a nation like the US has elected such a morally corrupt person. Or I should say, such an obviously morally corrupt person. Who votes for him. Who reelects a guy like that? Where did we go wrong? Where is democracy heading. I’m lost. ( I realize people elected Berlusconi, Bolsonaro, Bush Jr or my friend Victor Orban, among many others but Trump is bringing the concept of casting error to an entirely new level!)
    One last thing, an unpopular thing probably, about black people representing 24% of people killed by the police. I understand it is twice their share of the overall population. But wouldn’t it be fair to see what proportion it represents of the criminal population? I m not trying to justify the unjustifiable but I do feel that both figures would help us fine-tune our understanding of the problem. One has more chances (!) to be killed by the police if one is a criminal after all. It would point to a much larger problem than only the police culture, the latter being very problematic too.

    1. If Trump is the best Republican to lead the US , I would be disappointed also.

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