George Floyd

George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, while being arrested, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, MN. What happened to him is outrageous and should not happen to anyone.
Speculation: My understanding is that Mr. Floyd was resisting arrest, refusing to get into a police cruiser. I suspect the officer became frustrated and wanted to teach Floyd a lesson. In the process, the man died.
Observation: At the time of Floyd's death, he was already in handcuffs. There was no need for the officer to restrain him with his knee on Floyd's neck. That level of brutality and inhumanity is hard to comprehend -- and even harder to watch.
Opinion 1: I'm convinced the officer's act was at least manslaughter (murder 3). However, with Floyd and even bystanders declaring the officer was killing the man, it can be argued his action crossed over from accidental to intentional (murder 2). Convincing a jury that Floyd's death was intentional by the officer might be a tough sell. Considering the video, getting a conviction for manslaughter should be doable. We shall see how this plays out.
Opinion 2: Had Mr. Floyd complied with a lawful arrest and order to get in the patrol car, we would not be here today. He would have been taken to the police station, processed, and most likely released -- but no. Once again, we see someone resisting arrest and putting himself unnecessarily in a volatile situation. My thinking has always been, if arrested just go with it. The worst that will happen is that I'll have my day in court, which is preferable to my day at the morgue.

Reaction

Looting, burning, assault, attacking police officers, or any other form of violence and terrorism is misguided at least and certainly counter-productive to wanting real social change. I get being angry. I'm angry. We're all angry -- but our anger has not motivated most of us to
- burn down a local sport's bar, especially one owned by a black couple.
- loot a UPS truck 2,000 miles away.
- Stab a random police officer in the neck 1,200 miles away in Brooklyn, NY. NYT FOX
- loot a cupcake shop and terrorize the female owner
  When she heard a gun shot blow out her store window and a man charge toward her, she escaped to the back of the store and locked herself in. Her story starts at 39 seconds into the video.
  
  Kelly Kandah, owner of Colossal Cupcakes. Fortunately, she and her shop survived the attack.

Politics

As expected, the finger pointing and scapegoating has begun. The most common commentary I've read is that this killing is a result of "systemic racism" and "Trump's America". However, I don't recall such accusations during Obama's presidency. Most of us will recall a few of these:
I never considered any of the above incidents as "Obama's America", nor do I consider the killing of George Floyd "Trump's America". Both are ridiculous accusations. Here's a page on Trump's alleged racism.
If we're going to assess blame, let's take a look a little more locally. One of the first questions I ask myself when situations like this arise is: "Who's in charge, here?"
- Minneapolis Chief of Police is Medaria Arradondo, who happens to be black. A web search did not reveal ANY calls for his resignation nor has the mayor fired him. Don't those seem a little odd?
- To whom does Arradondo report? Mayor Jacob Frey who happens to be a democrat. In fact, democrats have run Minneapolis since 1974* (that's 46 years).
  * except for one year, 1976, when an Independent ran the city. I have no idea why and did not bother to investigate.
- Where are the demands from BLM that both of these men resign?
- If we look at who's running the state of Minnesota, it's Governor Tim Walz, also a democrat. Democrats have run MN for the past nine years.
- That woman I mentioned above that had her cupcake store looted? She's from Cleveland, OH. Care to guess who's been running Cleveland for the past 30 years? Yep, democrats. The appearance is, democrats who run these cities are more concerned about the optics of stopping this violence than they are protecting this woman and her cupcake business. Clearly, this woman (and every other business owner) had NOTHING to do with Floyd's death. How could any politician who is abhored by what happened to George Floyd look the other way as Kelly Kandah is being shot at and her store looted? I would argue there's an example of the real War On Women. Yes, America is watching -- and many of us are stunned.
Unless the officer who killed Floyd is a republican, I can't find a republican fingerprint on Floyd's death anywhere. Regardless of the ex-officer's politics, democrats possess the power structure. They run Minnesota. They run Minneapolis. If there's "systemic racism" in the Minneapolis Police Department, democrats own it. It's their police force. Imagine if republicans had run the city for the past 46 years. All we would be hearing from the media is how systemic racism has overtaken the police force from almost a half-century of one-party rule but because democrats have sat in City Hall for over four decades, Ssshhh! Not so loud. People might find out who's been running the show.