*66

I don’t usually comment on current events, but the cold blooded killing of George Floyd I have found disturbing enough to do so. There is more than one horrific aspect to this incident when you consider the thoughts and experiences of the people involved. To see the life being slowly squeezed out of a man is truly awful. I could hear bystanders in the video footage asking: “Are they killing him?” Some others tried to reason with the police, saying that Floyd had had enough. It makes me wonder how can anyone intervene in a situation that is so monstrously wrong? How do you stop bad police, who are armed, possibly hostile, and have their office on their side? We’re conditioned to obey police, it seems even when they are killing somebody. A tactical person might have attacked the police cruisers and spread the cops out, but that is beyond what most people would consider.

What if there was a way to bring speedy attention to this sort of abuse of power? What if those bystanders recording in Minneapolis could have quickly broadcast their footage to police headquarters, or someone with the authority to call off Derek Chauvin and his cohorts? I don’t know anything about code or the inner workings of phones, but how about a number you could punch, say *66, that would work nationwide to instantly deliver footage of a bad situation and give the location? Perhaps it could be part of the 911 network.

Law enforcement is difficult, most cops are alright, and I don’t relish more surveillance. I’m certain my suggestion would bring new problems, but it looks like a mechanism is needed to bring out of control cops back into line when their blood is up. Some concrete action is required here. Maybe at the very least, kneeling on someone’s neck could be banned as a tactic. That would be a start.