Two shocking white-wash reports, one to normalize police brutality the other to deny racism, emerge as Derek Chauvin goes to trial. Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you? A catchy tune for a popular TV presentation of US Law enforcement in action, a show where they begin with the incongruous statement: “All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a Court of Law!” Well you could have fooled me… That poor bastard, predominantly a man of colour, squirming, prostate face down on the ground in the dirt, ‘munching the asphalt’ so to speak, sure didn’t look like much attention was being paid to any ‘presumption of innocence.’ How did US policing reach such an extreme stage of manhandling suspects, but more importantly right now, when and why did the UK choose to emulate this excessive use of force? This aggressive, vindictive, public humiliation is an overt assertion of criminality and one that’s frequently grossly disproportionate to any violation that might have been suspected.
I am eager to hear Derek Chauvin’s Lawyer construct some type of justification for his cliants cruel actions in the public murder of George Floyd. Why is this so important? Because only by fully understanding exactly what police training is instilling in the force and what procedures have become normalized and acceptable, do we have this unique opportunity to challenge this increasingly violent authoritarian culture and set new rules. If a suspect has a weapon, becomes violent or they are an imminent flight risk the order to “get on the ground” might be justified, but if they truly are innocent until proven guilty there is no legitimate reason to exact punishment of any kind let alone torture leading to an extrajudiciary execution in full view of impressionable minors. Those young people will be deeply scarred by witnessing this grusome public ‘lynching by knee’ as it has been called. A Firefighter testified how she was refused access to offer medical assistance; she will be forever traumatized by her inability to do her job of preserving life.
They say to “Assume makes an ass out of you and me,” but perhaps there are certain things that conscientious Police Officers should ‘assume’ when approaching a suspect. If they have been called to the scene to apprehend someone under the influence of narcotics it’s crucial to ‘assume’ that opioid drugs might depress their breathing. What other reasonable ‘assumptions’ should a cautious arresting Officer make knowing a suspect has a history of opioid addiction? Cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases are common among chronic opiate abusers who may concurrently suffer from other comorbidities and exhibit a myriad of complications including hypotension. But, in light of these significant risks Chauvin decided it was appropriate to heighten Floyd’s stress level by slamming him onto the ground and actively compromising his breathing! Why did a drug disorientated unarmed man, presenting no threat, who may or may not have used a counterfeit $20 bill, but was already securely handcuffed need to go down on the ground?
This grotesque indignity is resorted to by out-of-control Police Officers, often with racist motivations, to intentionally humiliate, bait, aggravate and escalate a situation that could have been dealt with calmly and rationally. After allegedly witnessing consumption of some pills and having been called to the scene regarding suspected drug intoxication there was even greater necessity to act with extreme caution. Chauvin’s Lawyer asked the jury to examine the facts rationally because his client had done exactly as he was trained to do. Well if that was truly the case there’s a lot catastrophically wrong with Police training! Despite the strong suspicion Floyd was under the influence of narcotics that could compromise his breathing and put a strain on a drug damaged cardiovascular system Chauvin clambered on top of his back and neck to constrict his breathing. What did he think was going to happen under such extreme circumstances? Why did he threaten the qualified medic, concerned enough to offer to check Floyd’s vital signs?
Imagine if this were the defence Lawyer in a different murder/manslaughter case: “Your Honour the man was unable to swim and desperatly reaching for my cliants hand as he feared drowning. Naturally the defendant reached out and shoved his head under the water to expedite his demise, but he denies any wrongdoing or responsibility for the man’s death!” Chauvin’s Lawyer is trying to claim that it was George Floyd’s opioid addiction that killed him, his poor health, a heart condition probably as a result of his drug use, but kneeling on his neck just exacerbated his potentially fatally compromised breathing to hasten his death, while blocking his access to medical attention. Even the youngest of the children who witnessed this horrific event was smart enough to realize that George Floyd was being killed right there in front of them all. The defence want us to believe it was acceptable for a supposedly trained veteran Police Officer to be incapable of recognizing that his knee was choking the life out of a man yelling “I can’t breath.”
Chauvin refusal to allow a trained Medic to assess and treat George Floyde is unforgivable as he must have been fully aware that he was commiting murder. But, like so many other rogue Officers before him, he was no doubt emboldened by the fact that such excessive use of force rarely results in any internal discipline let alone a criminal conviction. The total lack of humanity expressed by Chauvin during that excrutiating nine minutes of torture demonstrates his contempt for the law, the public he was employed to protect, but most of all the racial hatred he must have harboured to commit such an appauling crime. One of the observers noted how he appeared to be enjoying the pain he was inflicting on a black man; drunk on the euphoria of the power his badge conferred on him. As the prosecution Lawyer so eloquently reminded the jury, after going to great lengths to outline the fine ideals of every Police Force and the sworn commitment of Officer’s in a duty to protect and serve the public, ‘Derek Chauvin betrayed his badge.’
Chauvin was a repeat offender with 23 complaints against him during his 19 years on the force. Right after his arrival on the scene he was pictured with both of his hands around Floyd’s neck after he was dragged back out of the police car. Chauvin’s bodycam fell to the ground with no explanation of why? I would say that the US authorities need to do so much more than find Chauvin culpable and guilty of murder because ‘this time he went too far.’ This is an opportunity for the public to demand that the obvious precursors to such inhumane treatment are entirely removed from common practice with use of force a real last resort in extreme emergencies both in the US and here in the UK. Instead of expanding the justification for excessive force we need to strip back authorization of such powers so that in future Police Officers never come close to taking another life because they ‘just went too far!’
The defence want to exonerate Chauvin by claiming that an opioid overdose was the real cause of death, but their argument does not justify exacerbating the well recognized complication of: depressed breathing. The combative, doped-up, criminal defence is all too familiar, but in reality the escalating opioid crisis in the US is fueled by the overprescription of medications for chronic pain, a common problem that Floyd’s girlfriend admitted they both suffered from. With the growing number of Police call-outs to overdose situations, forces across the US are training their Officers to use Narcan (Naloxone) to reverse and prevent a deadly consequence: depressed breathing. Paramedics noted that Floyd’s pupils were dilated, not opioid pinpoints. Although the training teaches Officers to recognize the signs of an overdose, it’s a safe drug, causing no harm to a person not on drugs. Also Narcan doesn’t need to be injected and as one of the meds that can be applied down an endotracheal tube there is now an easy to use nasal spray applicator.
Video footage appears to show that George Floyd had already been handcuffed and was in the police vehicle when Derek Chauvin arrived on the scene. It is unclear why he was dragged back out of the car, but the violence escalated when he was forced onto the ground. This unnecessary move was bound to induce panic initiating a vicious cycle, as such distress signaled an expectation of violence that was soon fulfilled! Anyone on the ground will instinctively resist the extreme discomfort of being held down which then escalates to the point where several Officers are pinning the suspect down with increasing pressure on the torso and possibly their neck. Floyd would either have needed to be allowed to stand up to get back into the police car or have the life crushed out of him to the point where he was carried from the scene; Chauvin consciously chose the latter thinking he would get away with it.
I am not entirely ignorant of the potential for agitated individuals to become seriously unmanageable, exhibit seemingly super-human strength or become violent and a threat to others. There were occasions when I worked in the ED at Jackson Memorial in Miami when the Police brought in a patient under the ‘Baker Act’ who required restraint. It was crazy enough in that overwhelmed public facility without patients kicking-off, but we were all encouraged to take a course in non-violent crisis intervention. This two day course instilled a few important principles regarding de-escalation and how to stay safe while treating the mentally disturbed with humanity. Drugs offer an escape to the desperate who are often struggling in a dire situation without hope, but they are no less deserving of our care and sympathy than the terrified young man I witnessed experienced his first psychotic break as a schizophrenic in my ED. Code named a ‘vitimen H moment,’ when a patient at Jackson became extremely agitated or dangerously combative we administered Haldol.
If a suspect’s hands are already handcuffed behind their back they cannot use a weapon or gain complete freedom by running, so logically there is no reason for them to be wallowing face down ‘chewing the concrete;’ this is sadistic, punitive and is bound to induce a desperate reaction. It appears that increasingly the Police don’t need to justify why such degradation might have been necessary due to serious combative behavior or flight risk neither of which was true in Floyd’s case. There are powerful indications that this extreme practice has just become routine practice even here in the UK. We religiously follow all US bad practice as the vigil arrests demonstrated. With the warped report on the Clapham vigil Priti Patel is seeking to normalize dangerous aggressive practice like bringing an unarmed person to the ground and piling in on top. In addition the Police cannot be allowed to revel in the adrenaline rush of uncontrolled violence as appeared to occur when Officers in Bristol used their shields as offencive weapons!
This trial is taking place in the US, but we need to pay close attention here, because all of the dangerous precursors to extrajudicial executions by rogue Police Officers are being rationalized, right here, right now, in the UK. The exact same potential for extreme escalation exists within our law enforcement where Home Secretary Priti ‘Ice Pick’ Patel is eager to expand the Police powers to resort to excessive force on a more regular basis: against peaceful protesters to protect Corporate and Tory Government interests. Such was the case when an unarmed female morner at the Sarah Everard Vigil was wrestled to the ground by Police Officers in Clapham, but an ‘Internal Review’ of the event has completely exonerated the police of any wrongdoing. This was an inevitable conclusion that we must robustly challenge, as it effectively, very publically, normalized excessive use of force by the police. This was the hardest case for this authoritarian Tory Cabal to justify as it was a vigil for a woman allegedly killed by a Police Officer.
It is not difficult for regular ‘white folk’ to dismiss the harsh reality of ongoing racial profiling as urban myth and try to find less toxic explanations for the experiences of even our most trusted friends. When I was putting together my international all female team to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race, a creative young Puerto Rican entrepreneur offered to help me with computer graphic design for our Team Pro-Maxi logo. He was a highly motivated, extremely industrious individual who channeled all his funds and boundless energy into his business enterprise; despite losing touch I really hope he is doing well. He paid little attention to the condition of his rather beat up car, it was functional and got him around; he really didn’t need to impress anybody. However as a darkly complected Hispanic with a strong accent he got pulled over by Police a lot. At first I questioned his driving and the run down state of his car, but in reality, I was just incapable of comprehending the very real racial prejudice of ‘driving while black.’
Throughout my life and despite intense pressure, due to my dyslexia, I resisted being forced to learn to drive a car; in the US this singles you out as downright weird. One evening while I was living in Fort Lauderdale it was dark as I walked home carrying two full bags of groceries; I took a shortcut beneath a building leading into an alleyway. As I emerged from the alleyway I intentionally ignored what seemed like heckling coming from a passing van. This turned out to be a police van and to them I looked like a really easy target for harassment as a ‘bag lady’! Two Police Officers bounded out of the van brandishing truncheons in an aggressive show of force. Brandishing my broccoli and milk wasn’t going to cut it; they wanted to take me down to the station. I felt totally helpless and terrorized, less than two blocks from where I lived with John awaiting my return. What ended this scarry standoff? I pulled out my business card with a business address in that same block they were claiming to protect from a ‘dangerois bag lady,’
All of a sudden I was no longer an easy target for harassment; I was among the privileged white elite, an eccentric business owner risking walking home alone at night. I was so incredibly angry when I got home all I could think of for days was leaving the country. At last I finally understood those who felt targeted and were so angry at the Police. Those two Officers tapped their batons in their palms in a threatening manner to indicate that they wouldn’t hesitate to cosh me if I dared to move without their permission. But, they did not lay a hand on me, I wasn’t handcuffed, I wasn’t forced to get down on the ground or suck the curb; how lucky I was for all those white privileges! It was in that one brief moment when I came close to feeling the deep humiliation and anger that targeted minorities must feel on a daily basis. Looking back on this traumatizing event I realize it was a vitally important wake-up call and I am damn glad I was targeted! Screw the Tories bogus review, racism is not over in this country, we must robustly fight it head on!
Racist PM Boris Johnson decided that the multiple reports on UK racial disparities he has simply dismissed to gather dust, with their important recommendations studiously ignored by his racist Tory Government, signaled the need for yet another report. In a callous response to the Black Lives Matter campaign the dictate regarding the remit required all the data to be very carefully cherry-picked in order to deliberately slosh several large buckets of whitewash over those past reports and bin them along with their tedious recommendations. The report’s warped findings were an urgent necessity to support the Tory double-speak of our racist PM in his La La Land pronouncements to the BBC, the press and in the House of Commons. Johnson’s hand-picked out-of-touch elitist team of hard-core diversity denialists, placed in key ministerial roles, are dedicated to a ruthless agenda of flushing future opportunities for their ethnic minority brethren down the sewer. The Sewell Report will certainly expedite their passage towards the sluice gates!
One of the most deeply offencive passages in the report attempts to rebrand the atrocity of slavery as if it was some peverse fast-track to a better life under the British Empire boot. According to this slick report it would be unwise to teach our children the truth about this particularly brutal episode in the history of our nation. Such honesty wouldn’t be ‘on message’ at a time when the Tories are so determined to instil homage to the Union Jack untainted by the horrific reality of the blood soaked ‘Butcher’s Apron!’ The ongoing remembrance of the Jewish Holocaust is observed without question, not because anyone wants to revel in the carnage that occurred under the Nazis, but because we must continue to demand “Never Again.” If the British history curriculum remains in persistent denial of the subjugation, exploitation and ravages of empire perpetuated throughout the globe there is no necessity to correct that injustice and Tories will build support for their abandonment of Foreign Aid obligations in favour of continual greed.
In the London Economic Article entitled “Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities chair accused of ‘putting positive spin on slavery and empire” Joe Mellor highlights reactions to Tony Sewell’s Report. He notes that in his foreword Sewell “argued that ‘neither the banning of white authors or token expressions of black achievement will help to broaden young minds’. The chairman of a Government-backed review of racial disparities in Britain has been accused of putting a ‘positive spin on slavery and empire’ when explaining its recommendation on teaching history in schools. The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report published on Wednesday proposes a Making Of Modern Britain teaching resource to ‘tell the multiple, nuanced stories of the contributions made by different groups that have made this country the one it is today’.”
Mellor says that “In commission chairman Tony Sewell’s foreword to the report, he said the recommendation was the body’s response to ‘negative calls for ‘decolonising’ the curriculum’. He wrote that the resource should look at the influence of the UK during its empire period and how ‘Britishness influenced the Commonwealth’ and how local communities influenced ‘modern Britain’. He added: ‘There is a new story about the Caribbean experience which speaks to the slave period not only being about profit and suffering but how culturally African people transformed themselves into a remodelled African/Britain.’ Highlighting the passage on Twitter, Labour’s shadow women and equalities secretary Marsha de Cordova said it was ‘one of the worst bits’ of the report. She tweeted: ‘Putting a positive spin on slavery and empire. Published on a Government website in 2021. Is this for real?” Sewell’s swill can now be used to sanction racist Boris Johnson’s propaganda lies spewed during PMQs and Press Briefings.
Mellor notes that “He added: ‘We have argued against bringing down statues, instead we want all children to reclaim their British heritage. We want to create a teaching resource that looks at the influence of the UK, particularly during the empire period. We want to see how Britishness influenced the Commonwealth and local communities, and how the Commonwealth and local communities influenced what we now know as modern Britain. One great example would be a dictionary or lexicon of well-known British words which are Indian in origin.” I guess what he means is that the ‘dirty dhoby’ of our disgraceful racist colonial past of obscene exploitation doesn’t need cleansing in the bright truthful sunlight of reflective awareness honesty. I find this nationalist flag waving fetish a truly sickening development of ‘divide and rule’ in the UK, with heavy jingoistic overtones in readiness for another unnecessary foreign intervention of distraction. Fxxk the Butcher’s Apron; I will remain a committed ‘Peaceful Patriot of the Planet!
The unchallenged result of the Covert 2019 Rigged Election gifted us far-right Tory bigots in Government, desperately defending the brutal excesses of their privileged elite ancestors who gained their wealth by plundering former colonies subjugated during imperial expansion. They want to deny the past to hang on to their current privilege, power and wealth while engineering a new wave of intense exploitation of the working poor here as they advance their greed under a banner of ‘Global Britain’ overseas. The debt they owe reversed to maintain a massive disparity of access to funds and resources, where former colonies rich in minerals remain indebted to the British crown in perpetuity. Our determination to control the patents of desperately needed vaccines will fuel even greater poverty and inequality as the profiteers continue their limitless plunder of the most vulnerable. Greatly reduced Foreign Aid is a pittance in comparison to our relentless plundering and the damage inflicted with our bombs: ill-gotten gains not yet repaid!
In the London Economic Article entitled “Race report caps off a ‘big week for marking your own homework” Jack Peat remarks that “In the Netherlands there is a marketing expression. ‘We, the people at Toilet Duck, recommend Toilet Duck’. A landmark report commissioned by Downing Street has today dismissed that institutional racism might exist in the UK concluding that the country should, instead, be seen as an exemplar of racial equality. The report, which was presided over by two people who denied the existence of institutional racism from the outset, found that there is some evidence of overt racism, but denied it was structural. Commission chairman Tony Sewell had previously claimed that evidence of the existence of institutional racism was ‘flimsy’ while Munira Mirza, who heads up the Number 10 policy unit, has also hit out at a ‘culture of grievance’ among anti-racism campaigners in the past.” But ominously, on the day of the Sewell Report’s full release the only BAME Special Advisor at Number 10 just quit.
Peat notes that “The findings come the day after the Met Police was commended for how it handled a vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham Common. A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found that officers at the event did their best to peacefully disperse the crowd, remained calm and professional when subjected to abuse, and did not act inappropriately or in a heavy-handed manner. That is despite footage appearing to show police grabbing and dragging several women away as the peacefully mourned Everard’s death.” Remaining in denial over the excessive use of force will result in a fatality. “Posting on social media, Jamie Johnson said this has been a ‘big week for marking your own homework’, citing Number 10 defences over the Jennifer Arcuri allegations as another case in point. He referenced a marketing slogan from the Netherlands which read ‘Wij van Wc-eend adviseren Wc-eend’, or ‘We, the people at Toilet Duck, recommend Toilet Duck’.”
Peat reports that “The slogan remains used today as a general saying to dispute the independence of ‘expert’ statements when they align with self-interest.” However, the recent attention on the Arcuri affair is hardly the most egregious abuse of power or rabid Tory self-interest. Beyond the copious bucketloads of whitewash chucked at the public in the form of bogus reports to insist ‘black is the new white’ the single most grotesque Tory Government corruption after the endless squandering of public funds was the stolen vote that shoe-horned this regime into power. The UK started down a slippery slope towards zero accountability political totalitarianism after the Covert 2019 Rigged Election, when we decided that scrutiny was unnecessary as an unfathomable result could go unchallenged. However, it is not too late to demand a full Investigation especially in light of the huge volume of continuing corruption. In a functioning democracy Tories would be in jail not trusted with high office: end the Tory Sovereign dictatorship now! I HAVE NOT MOVED ON!