Thread by @katjeankelly, I don’t care what kind of person George Floyd was, or what [...]

Kat Kelly

katjeankelly

I don’t care what kind of person George Floyd was, or what his resume looked like.

I don’t care if he was guilty of literally any crime ever.

I don’t care if he was resisting arrest.

I don’t need to know anything about him that didn’t come from images I’ve seen online. 1/

I don’t need to know anything about George Floyd to know that those police officers had no right to be his judge, jury, and executioner.

In truth, I don’t know what happened leading up to the videos/images posted online, and it doesn’t really matter. 2/

Either way, it boils down to two problems with this situation:

1. If there are FOUR police officers and ONE *unarmed* man, it should NOT require death to de-escalate a situation or subdue a suspect - even if the man was raving wild. 3/

2. If the man was NOT totally raving wild, it should have been SUPER SIMPLE for the police to not escalate the situation, to get off of his neck, and to just not kill him. 4/

So basically, these officers either chose to kill this man intentionally OR internalized prejudices led them to see him (a black man) as so much of a threat that they killed him.

Neither option is good. And “unintentional” racism is just as dangerous as blatant racism. 5/

Remove the name George Floyd and much of what I said could apply to the murders of other black men at the hands of police. 6/

Sure, there are wonderful police officers out there - there are wonderful people in any group society could label!!

But this is not about the kind of person a police officer can be - because no one doubts that police officers can be many things, and that they’re all unique. 7/

This is about how many white people view the personhood of black men, and how so many of us perceive them as this singular entity of threat rather than just as people (whether we mean to or not).

Black men are people, and they should be treated like people. Full stop. 8/

So, no, it doesn’t matter what someone did in the past or what kind of personality they have or how they dress or whatever. Regardless of those things, black men should be treated like people.

We can search for reasons and justification for feeling threatened all we want. 9/

But the reality is that many black men are dying and there is no justification.

Black men should be treated like people, whether they’re the worst criminal or kindest soul or anywhere in between.

That’s how we expect the justice system to treat anyone. 10/

And I know there are a lot of issues with our justice system, but that’s another rant. 11/

Anyway, I’m mad. You should be mad. Black men are people. Racism is deadly. Go read a book. End thread. End tweet.

#BlackLivesMatter

https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt="">
#BlackLivesMatter

https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt="">

/12

You can follow @katjeankelly.

Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: