Essay on Current Events
George Floyd has become the face of a global movement. His story has exposed a big part of what has been wrong with American society: racism and police brutality. Recent movements have been led by, according to the New York Times, a combined total of about 15 million to 26 million people participating in protests across all of the United States, making it one of the largest movements in all of American history.
This all began on May 25, 2020 when George Floyd, a 46 year old black man, supposedly was using a counterfeit bill and while he was getting arrested, was killed by the arresting police officer, Derek Chauvin, after he put his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly 8 minutes. The horrendous part of all this being that, while Floyd was stuck under Chauvin’s knee, he was pleading for his life and uttering the words that lead the protests we know of today: “I can’t breathe”. Floyd’s death consequently led to the protests against police brutality, racism, and questions over public safety, especially for minorities and African Americans.
This has all led to the events we see today. Even under the conditions that Americans are going through, due to the COVID-19 virus and mandatory quarantine, people are still going out into the streets and participating in these protests. This continuous support for George Floyd and his family during these turbulent times has been very motivating and shows that we should still have faith in humanity. Although police and other forms of law enforcement have some overlying problems that this movement has exposed, it does NOT make all law enforcement bad and toxic like the officers involved in the incident. We should still trust our police officers and not alienate or antagonize them, because that will just make it worse for everyone involved. Police are those who protect us and put their lives on the line day after day and should continue to protect us without our continuous discrimination. This is not to say that law enforcement officers that abuse their power are exempt from the law, but we should support the police as a whole and trust that they will get rid of those officers that go against a cop’s moral code and participate in police brutality against others. All we should do now is contribute our part in protecting our fellow people: practicing social distancing, staying indoors, and staying up to date with what is happening.
Past civilizations and our current situations show that human efforts have not been able to bring world peace. We see that everyone is imperfect and one person can never really govern another without prejudice and discrimination. The Bible says in Jeremiah 10:23, “It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step”. This makes it clear that humans were not made to govern one another. What would be the solution? Revelation 21:3,4 says: And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” Although this may seem idealistic, it seems like it could be the only solution left to mankind’s woes.
