Day 82

Monday June 1, 2020 It is five months into the year 2020 and it feels like five years. The biggest change in the pandemic recently has been the focus. Everyone in the world is looking at the protests and ensuing riots born out of the unnecessary death of George Floyd. In the U.S. people have come out to protest the police violence against the black community.  The death of George Floyd during a incident involving four Minneapolis police officers, one of which knelt on Foster's neck for nine minutes, has the world in an uproar. And rightly so, this is just another case of police brutality against an unarmed black man. The protests have gone on for six days in which forty cities have now imposed a curfew and in fifteen states the National Guard has been dispatched.  Over the last few nights people have been shot, run over and beaten. Cars and buildings set ablaze. Graffiti has been a big part of the damage done to public structures.  Some police officers have joined the protest walks and in at least one instance in Queens, NY even kneeling with protesters.
In case there is a misunderstanding about why the peaceful protests turn to riots. There are factors to consider such as crowd mentality and interlopers who are just there to cause destruction and openly shame police. An important point was explained to me today and it is best understood by this quote for The Guardian, "Martin Luther King famously called riots “the voice of the unheard” – and as the outcry of people who have tried absolutely everything else for centuries, property damage means something very different from merely malicious or recreational destruction. Acting out to be heard is a common strategy used by children to get attention, but it is not just attention they or the protesters are seeking.  There is more to it. A need, a very important need is not being met. In this case justice needs to be served and protocols changed.  The racist and unlawful conduct inflicted upon the black community by white police officers has gone on for too long without retribution.
The rest of the world as well as the U.S. continues to fight a virus that has infected over 6 million and killed over 375,000.  Another 100,00+ new cases were reported yesterday.  Stay safe.