Choking Out Our Freedoms

I was perusing the internet for stories about the communist Chinese government’s brutal crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrators, who were protesting new national security laws and a measure criminalizing “disrespect” for the national anthem. There was a chilling video of police in riot gear firing rubber bullets at and spraying a chemical irritant on the generally peaceful crowd, but then I noticed the story’s dateline: Minneapolis.

Oops, these were scenes from a different brutal government. Several hundred U.S. protesters had taken to the streets after a video circulated of a Minnesota officer calmly kneeling for several minutes on the neck of an unarmed man named George Floyd. Meanwhile, three other officers helped subdue Floyd, who didn’t seem to be resisting arrest (the police claim he was), but could be heard groaning, “Please, please, please, I can’t breathe” and “Don’t kill me.”
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-WiscoDave

*****

My opinion on the incident? That man did not deserve to die and the cops involved need to be charged with homicide.
My opinion of the protests? They were warranted, but as usual they got out of hand and the focus has shifted from a legitimate demonstration of outrage to violence and looting. There was no justification in burning down businesses and rampaging through stores.