THE LEGACY OF AHMAUD ARBERY, BREONNA TAYLOR, AND GEORGE FLOYD
Zoë Wallace
Head of Political and Global Impacts
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Secretary and Outreach Officer
Police brutality is not new to the United States, by any means, but recently protests against this cruelty have gained traction in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. Although many US media sources are currently focused on the rioting that has occurred due to various escalating tensions or the looting done by opportunists taking advantage of the upheaval, these sources should not overshadow the much more common peaceful protests.
Black people in the US are three times more likely than white people to be killed by a police officer. Although Black people make up only thirteen percent of the US population, they made up twenty four percent of all those killed by police in the US in 2019. Black people in the US are also one point three times more likely than white people to be killed by a police officer while unarmed.
Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor:
In the months before George Floyd was killed, two other innocent Black people’s lives were taken unjustly. In February, Ahmaud Arbery was jogging through his neighborhood when he was chased down by Gregory and Travis McMichael (father and son) in a car. Arbery had been spotted inside a construction site in the neighborhood a few times, but he had never stolen anything and at least four other trespassers had been recorded on the security cameras. After the McMichaels tried to cut Arbery off from his jogging route with their car, Arbery backtracked and attempted to outrun the pursuers for about four minutes. Finally, the car stopped, and as Arbery tried to run around it, Travis McMichael fired a shot at him. Arbery tried to wrestle the gun from McMichael’s hands, but he was shot twice more. He tried to run away but fell to the ground and eventually bled to death. He was unarmed. For over two months, no arrests were made. Then, a video of the event surfaced and went viral, prompting further investigation. Until this time, the sheriff took the word of the white assailants.
On March 13th, Breonna Taylor, a 27-year-old EMT nurse, was killed in her apartment in the middle of the night while officers executed a “no knock” warrant (they were not required to identify themselves before entering the house). The apartment was under suspicion for carrying drugs (no drugs were found), and the story told by the police officers does not match the account given by Breonna’s boyfriend after the event. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, stated that he tried to defend himself and Breonna when (from his perspective) the apartment was stormed while they were asleep. He said that the police did not identify themselves before entering, although the officers claim otherwise. When the officers entered, Walker shot at them, hitting one officer in the leg. When the police returned fire, Breonna was shot at least eight times and killed. Just after the incident, Walker called 911 and stated, “somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.” In the aftermath of this incident, a reduction or abolition of "no-knock" warrants has been considered.
Both of these crimes sparked outrage all over the country as Black people once again were facing unprovoked violence, inadequate investigation into the death of a Black man, and lethal police brutality against a Black woman. Unfortunately, news of the coronavirus overshadowed this outrage and stifled protest attempts. When former police officer, Derek Chauvin, was shown in a viral video kneeling on George Floyd’s neck in order to subdue him during arrest, frustrations centering around police brutality finally boiled over.
The Protests:
Protests began to take place in Minneapolis, the city where George Floyd was killed, and soon spread to all 50 states and over 1,017 individual places across the US.
These protests have not been limited to the US, however. Countries all over the world have observed protests against American police brutality. These places include, but are not limited to: Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, England, France, Finland, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Israel, Palestine, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, India, and the Philippines.
The European Union spoke out against American police, stating that their actions (taken in the George Floyd incident) constituted an “abuse of power.” The African Union has also strongly condemned the killing of George Floyd.
The protests have continued every day since Floyd’s death, and as of this writing do not show signs of stopping. The Minneapolis police department is in the process of being defunded and dismantled in the wake of extreme public backlash. The City Council has published a statement explaining that they have “committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe.”
Many protesters have called for the complete abolition of police forces in the US, but this is an unrealistic goal, since the police serve a necessary function of keeping US communities safe. There has been intense discussion regarding the services police should provide and ways to reduce the scope of these services. Redirecting some funding away from the police (which will allow other departments to take over some police functions, such as social workers helping with certain types of conflict resolution) and placing harsher restrictions on their conduct seem to be the most common requests from the protesters. Numerous countries and all of the American states seem to be united against the abuse of police power, and given the current situation, it is probably safe to say that permanent change will come from the recent call for reforms.
Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and so many other Black people that have been killed by racially-motivated violence will never be able to see the change they have created in the world, but hopefully we can find justice for them and prevent anything like this from happening again. Until then, the protests march on.
Sources:
Haseman, Janie, et al. “Tracking Protests across the USA in the Wake of George Floyd's Death.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 6 June 2020, www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2020/06/03/map-protests-wake-george-floyds-death/5310149002/.
Image: Zanger. “Agencies Must Get Off the Sidelines and Respond to Racism.” Adweek, Adweek, 1 June 2020, www.adweek.com/agencies/agencies-responsibility-racism-staff-clients/.
Oppel, Richard A. “Here's What You Need to Know About Breonna Taylor's Death.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 May 2020, www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html.
Fausset, Richard. “What We Know About the Shooting Death of Ahmaud Arbery.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-georgia.html.
“Mapping Anti-Racism Solidarity Protests around the World.” George Floyd Death | Al Jazeera, www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2020/06/mapping-anti-racism-solidarity-protests-world-200603092149904.html.
Mapping Police Violence, www.mappingpoliceviolence.org/.
Maxouris, Christina. “Protesters Have Been Marching for Nearly Two Weeks and Crowds Have Only Gotten Bigger.” CNN, Cable News Network, 7 June 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/06/07/us/george-floyd-protests-sunday/index.html.
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