Three police officers stood and watched as a fourth, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Floyd’s neck.
Floyd’s murder sparked peaceful demonstrations in cities across the country, demonstrations that, in Minneapolis and a few other places, turned toward riots.
In the last years of the Obama administration, peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrations occurred in cities across the country.
Last October, Bob Kroll, the president of the Minneapolis Police Union, appeared at a Trump rally to celebrate the president for freeing the police from the mild reforms of the Obama years.
What America has failed to hear – decade after decade – is the demand for equal justice under the law, the demand for equal opportunity, the call for basic rights – not only for African Americans but for all – the rights to a livable wage, decent housing, health care, a safe environment, a protective, not a dangerous police force.
