'Knee on the neck' or 'The portrait of societies'

A week ago, on May 25, 2020, George Floyd (46) was murdered in Minneapolis, United States. Who was Floyd? No one famous or even known. He was just another simple Black American man who ended up being executed by a white police officer. In the age of smartphones, "fortunately" the crime was clearly recorded, and the image that will remain in history is both disturbing and a portrait of certain societies around the world.

This is what happened: police approached Floyd after he was accused of buying food with a counterfeit $20 bill. Officer Derek Chauvin, later claiming that Floyd had resisted and refused to obey police orders, arrested him. It is unknown if the story unfolded exactly like this, but – even if it did – the officer's response was completely disproportionate to any action by the detainee. Chauvin laid Floyd on the ground and placed his knee on the victim's neck, who was clearly already subdued. For eight minutes and 46 seconds he remained in this forced position of complete control. In the video, it is possible to hear Floyd desperately repeating phrases such as "I can't breathe," "Don't kill me," and "Please." According to the authorities investigating the case, of those 8:46 minutes, during the last 2:53, Floyd was already unconscious.

Finally, an initial autopsy revealed that Floyd did not die from strangulation, but – by all indications – he had fragile health and heart problems, and all of this, combined with the terrible trauma he suffered from the police conduct, led to his death, probably as a result of cardiac arrest.

It appears Chauvin will be indicted for manslaughter. Will he be convicted? I wouldn't bet on it. The American justice system is often a tragedy. If we look at the case of Eric Garner (another African-American man killed by police violence in 2014), his killer, Daniel Pantaleo, was quickly acquitted. In other words, racism in the crime and racism in the impunity.

In Chauvin's case, specifically, it's easy to understand that his gratuitous and unnecessary violence has a clear purpose: to humiliate, to demonstrate dominance, to make it clear who is superior and who is inferior.

I am convinced that Trump is the most harmful American president in history. He is racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, classist, and so on. But it is necessary to note here that he was not the one who brought this problem of institutional racism to the US. Even when a Black president, the Democrat Barack Obama (2009-2016), was in the White House, the numbers of crimes of this nature were alarming. And before him, it was the same.

That being said, it is evident that Trump, Bolsonaro, Netanyahu, Johnson, among others, are the ultimate embodiments of the ills that have always existed in societies. Racism, prejudice, intolerance, and hatred are always lurking, waiting for a leader who represents them to rise to power and legitimize all that is worst in the intrinsic nature of the population.

And Brazil? How many poor people, whether black or white (or "almost white, almost black," as Caetano wrote), are murdered every day? Countless. In 2019, in the state of Rio de Janeiro alone, more than 1800 murders by police force were recorded, setting a new record (not counting the unreported cases that go "under the radar"). This is nothing new to anyone. The Brazilian police are among the most murderous in the world. Now, in the Bolsonaro era, new "freedoms" are being granted to them.

Floyd's death spurred large anti-racist demonstrations in the US and other parts of the world. In Brazil, the beautiful demonstration on May 31st on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo by football fans united the cry of anti-racism with all the other necessary "anti" slogans in this era of hatred spearheaded by the current president of the republic. Logically, the Brazilian police were there, acting disproportionately against the defenders of Democracy, firing dozens of smoke bombs at them. And they even detained some demonstrators, while – yes, that's what happened – protecting against demonstrators who defend Fascism.

I conclude by stating that Floyd lives. Garner lives. And so do all the other poor Black or white people, Americans, Brazilians, or of any other nationality, who were murdered by those who should have protected life instead of killing it. A knee on the neck is what Trump and Bolsonaro do to the people every day (including the fools who voted for them and don't realize it). That's why we need more and more demonstrations and protests. Until we remove the effigies from power and put in their place leaders who seek to cure the cancers of society, instead of acting as agents of metastasis.

Author's addendum: 'Hours after the publication of this article, the results of a new independent autopsy were released, contradicting the first. In this report, the doctors state that Floyd did in fact die from asphyxiation. The courts will now have to consider both versions.'