A world full of rubble

The death of George Floyd

I have lived on this planet for 54 years now and I have never witnessed scenes like those of the last week. I am sure everyone is aware of the disgraceful killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. I was as shocked as most other people around the globe by the horrific sight of the handcuffed Mr Floyd, being knelt on the neck by a Police Officer. The initial re-action of those in charge of the Police to simply dismiss the officers concerned rather than start proceedings against them rocked the whole world. It is understandable that many people in the US and much further afield were shocked at the situation and it was not surprising that people wanted to express their concerns and their solidarity with George Floyd, his family and friends. In my view, prejudice in any form is totally unacceptable. I try to be a rational human being, to behave well, to respect the dignity of every human being and to treat people as I expect to be treated myself. I recognise that my unconscious bias may have shown through in different situations, but I try my best.

I want to look back at Mr Floyd with the aim of doing two things. First of all, I want to look into his past. As I understand things from research on the internet Mr Floyd had been in prison at least five times for offences ranging from a violent home invasion, possession of various drugs and trespass. It appears that since leaving prison in 2014 Mr Floyd had turned things around considerably in comparison to his life prior to that point. To be clear, I would not describe him as having lived completely as a model citizen. Conversely, I do not believe that the fact he had not lived as a model citizen as justification for the way in which he was restrained during his arrest. Secondly, I want to consider the method of restraint used during Mr Floyd’s arrest. The restraint used during the arrest shocked many of us. I was even more shocked to learn that kneeling on someone’s neck to restrain them is in fact taught to some Police officers in a number of countries, it is not unique to the US. Many Police bodies around the world are distancing themselves from this method since Mr Floyd’s killing, but it is a known method of restraint. Indeed, the Minneapolis Policy and Procedure manual describes two types of neck restraint police officers can deploy: Conscious neck restraint (putting light pressure on the subject's neck with an arm or leg without cutting off their airway) and unconscious neck restraint (applying enough pressure on a subject to make them lose consciousness without killing them).

Initial responses and protests against Mr Floyd’s death, quite rightly led to the arrests and charging of the Police officers involved. People across the world were still sufficiently outraged to want to do more, this is understandable. However, we need to consider the reaction against being in the middle of the worst pandemic the world has witnessed in a century. Many say that racism is a much worse pandemic that usurps Coronavirus. I personally have mixed views and would have preferred people not to have joined mass gatherings during the pandemic. I do believe that racism remains a huge problem and the issue of George Floyd, whilst in itself is extreme, only scratches the surface of the overarching problem.

The pen is mightier than the sword

This phrase was written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 indicating that communication (particularly written language), or in some interpretations, administrative power or advocacy of an independent press, is a more effective tool than direct violence. I have mixed views on this statement because history tells me that some physical protests have been more successful than written protests, the suffragette movement being an example. We saw many pieces in the media and on social media expressing support for Black Lives Matter in the lead up to last weekend. In many Cities in the US physical protests developed and some unfortunately became violent, as we arrived at the weekend physical protests spread to other parts of the world, including the UK. Unfortunately, a small minority took this as an opportunity to vandalise statues and monuments. The Cenotaph in London was covered in graffiti and someone tried to set the Union flag alight, this is ironic given that the Cenotaph is a memorial to people involved in all conflicts since the first world war, irrespective of colour or creed. We have seen the Colston statue in Bristol pulled down and put into the harbour. On a personal level I had no comprehension of who Colston was or what he stood for. Much to my embarrassment I had not taken the opportunity to find out when visiting a building known as Colston Tower, which had offices in it that were rented by my employer. I usually do enquire about who buildings are named after.

Personal experiences

I read an article over the weekend about what the author described as White Privilege. It was basically about a white person sitting in a first-class carriage of a train. A black person embarked and sat in the same carriage. The train guard immediately came along to inspect the black person’s ticket and did not ask to see anyone else’s ticket. The white person described the fact that he had not been asked to show his ticket as white privilege. I had a similar experience a few years ago. I travelled to London on business in a first-class carriage, wearing a suit, shirt and tie. My ticket was inspected with everyone else’s, no issue, we were all treated equally. Prior to returning home the same evening, I met some friends for an early dinner and some drinks, I changed at work into jeans, shirt and leather jacket. As I boarded the train and before taking my seat, I was asked by a member of staff in the carriage if I had a first-class ticket. I answered in the affirmative and my ticket was checked at that point, no-one else had their ticket checked until after departure. I could only assume this was due to not wearing a suit for the return journey, I was quite angry being discriminated against because of my choice of clothing but kept it to myself. Can you imagine if this is your daily experience, being treated differently due to your ethnicity, I could imagine being really angry and wanting to complain or protest on a regular basis.

Erasing history

We are at the point where many people are calling for a wide range of statues, monuments and even war memorials to be pulled down or removed. Similar calls are being made for street names to be changed. On a personal level I struggle with these actions. We can look right back in time to the building of the Pyramids, slave trading around the world and far right or far left leaders in different parts of the world. I noted some calling for the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square to be removed, some people responded with ‘If you think Churchill was bad, what would you think of the man he beat in World War II?’ This is not helpful in trying to encourage a useful discourse to eradicate racism and encourage tolerance and understanding. You could think of anyone who has a statue, memorial or building named after them and another person will find a reason for them not to be remembered in that way.  I don’t believe that we can re-write history, Colston made his money from the slave trade, I don’t condone the slave trade in anyway but I do acknowledge that it was not totally out of step with the rest of society at the time, I also note that he endowed many charitable works in Bristol. It is important that we don’t simply remove everything we find offensive, we need to learn from our past, make sure that all sides of the story are accurately recorded and shared. We also need to recognise that what we find unacceptable today was not always unacceptable to society, for that reason I believe it should not be erased from history. If we do erase history we will be left living in a world full of rubble and have no idea why.