Hello, world. I figured for anyone who wanted a quick history on what has been happening these last few weeks/ this past month, I would provide an update as to what’s going on right now since there really is a lot. Starting with the world at large, COVID-19 is still here in the United States and in the world. Currently in the US, as a result of the rapid opening of the country and states, there has been a huge spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in comparison to the rest of the world. According to multiple articles, a potential epicenter of the virus now in Florida, with other states like Texas starting to pick up a number of new cases as well. Prior to this, it seemed that a wide belief among the public was that because the states were reopening, COVID was no longer a threat; however, that is now proving to be false. The United States' death toll has reached almost 110 thousand deaths, which is a little under ¼ of the total number of deaths in the world. The number of confirmed cases also continues to tower over the other countries in the world with nearly 2.3 million confirmed cases. Although testing is still occurring, it seems to be slowing down, and the number of people who are wearing masks when they go out is slowly starting to decrease.
With that, it seemed as if COVID would continue to take the American spotlight for this next month, however, as of recently, another pandemic has but been brought back into the spotlight; that being police brutality, systematic racism, and racial inequality for the most part towards black people. Unfortunately, in late May, a man by the name of George Floyd was murdered by a cop named Derek Chauvin. Although Floyd had prior medical conditions, the ultimate cause of his death was asphyxiation at the hands, or more accurately, the knee of Mr. Chauvin. Chauvin’s knee remained on Mr. Floyd’s neck for over 8 minutes and Mr. Floyd died shortly afterward.
The riots and protests in his name were not only a result of the public being disgusted at his murder and maltreatment, but were calls to action for justice and the arrest and charge of Mr. Chauvin and the three other cops that stood there, did nothing, and watched Mr. Floyd die. Politicians and news networks had an absolute field day with the looters taking advantage of the protests and riots, with Republicans quick to assume that the looters were just rioters and protesters with no civil or moral will to do the right thing. This unfortunate generalization, however, actually ended up being a step in the right direction as riots began to shift more and more into peaceful protests not only around the nation but around the world. Some recent metrics/statistics have shown that there has been some form of protests in all 50 of the United States and a number of other European and Asian countries.
These peaceful protests, however, were still met with the disgust of our unruly president who saw these protests as apparently some sort of ill-intentioned organization. Although I am not 100% sure on whether our president was referring to the riots or the protests, I have the unfortunate pleasure of saying that it is not out of his moral code to condemn and go after peaceful protesters given prior comments about the protesters on twitter and his reactions to the black lives matter movement. The president did initially give a somber message on the note of Mr. Floyd’s death saying, “I feel very very badly” referencing Mr. Floyd’s death on the day of, however, he also went out of his way to mock and show disgust towards the protests for change. The public, in this case, was quick to point out that a few weeks earlier, the president showed support for the people protesting the “institution of Stay Home” with the attempt to flatten the number of COVID-19 cases in the states (also it showed up on the news today that New Zealand has completely wiped out COVID-19 since the last person who had contracted it recovered, so some good news there) but then was quick to judge and call the rioters “Thugs” soon after. All of this has pushed Mr. Floyd’s death to be more political than I personally believe it should be (to me the push for change should transcend traditional politics as the concern is more about human and social rights that all people, in this case, African-Americans, deserve). Regardless of that, the president also made it very clear that the police would be sent in to control the riots (now turned protests) and were to use both tear gas and rubber bullets for crowd control of these protests. Within the last week, there has been a huge rise in injuries due to the police not using discretion with their shooting and instead of aiming for the head, neck, and other critical areas which have caused permanent damage for some people while others simply needed to be sent to the hospital for treatment and medication. There was even a case of a girl dying due to the tear gas at a protest triggering her Asthma and not allowing her to breathe. Curfews were also put in place in multiple cities such as LA, Minneapolis, and Louisville, to name a few. Even still, it somehow seems that the president believes that the best way to combat police brutality and racial inequality towards blacks is to impart police brutality to all during these peaceful protests.
I can’t say in full that nothing goes wrong at these protests, because some people see these protests as an opportunity to rob stores and cause chaos regardless of repercussion. It’s also saddening to see videos at times of police officers destroying and vandalizing property to make it look like the black and protesting community is responsible. I also have not really mentioned it but these protests being monitored and controlled by the police, doing whatever “needs” to be done to control the protests could lead to cops or people who are already racists towards POC (people of color) to take advantage of the situation and specifically target POC with little to no reason. It seems as if one black person steps even one inch out of line, some cops see that as some sort of warrant for them to fire, and therefore proceed to “control” a situation that lacks the need to be controlled in the first place. Protests are still going on today, all around the country, and especially in my hometown of Houston, TX (which is where Mr. Floyd was born and raised, which makes this community here especially more upset).
Most if not all social media platforms have been consumed with petitions, links, phone numbers and awareness posts in light of all these recent events with not just calls for justice for George Floyd, but for Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubrey, and so many others whose lives were taken by way of police brutality and racial discrimination and bias. Although “trends” such as #blackouttuesday may not have been the most effective way of helping the cause, the positives of this current state are that the vast majority of US citizens seem on board to pushing, protesting, and fighting for a brighter future.
Update (June 30th) - Protests are continuing, but it seems as if Black Lives Matter is moving away from the main newsreel as COVID-19 returns in a lot of southern states including Florida and Texas, with both of those states showing the potential to be the new epicenter. Although none of the states have re-entered Stay Home, it is possible that it’s reinstitution is on the horizon. Many states are seeing the resurgence of COVID-19 and starting to close back down somewhat and demand that the public wear masks.
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