On the twenty-fifth of May George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, MN. His assailant was a Minneapolis policeman. In the weeks since, his murder has created near anarchy in many American cities. It has sparked outraged protests against our law enforcement personnel, and led to many nights of violence, arson and looting, all promoted and condoned by radical groups like Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA. George Floyd has been portrayed as a “Gentle Giant” and raised to almost the status of a national hero, just below a deity. But does he deserve that?
We don’t have access to his records as a juvenile. Those were expunged at age eighteen. As an adult however, this man was anything but a pillar of society in the vein of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He had multiple drug related felony convictions, and the last involved a real window into the character of George Floyd. It wasn’t pretty.
He was part of a group of men who were engaged in a home invasion. During that event, Floyd held a gun to the stomach of the resident of the dwelling. She was visibly pregnant at the time, and obviously terrified for herself and her unborn child. She was also black. All that was apparently lost on the “Gentle Giant”. After serving jail time for that crime, Floyd left his home in Huston, and moved to Minneapolis, where he held several jobs, including as a bouncer at a local nightclub. There are no known arrests after the home invasion in Huston, so it has been theorized that Floyd had turned his life around, and was now on the straight and narrow.
Perhaps that is true, but one fact is undeniable. He had traces of both fentanyl and methamphetamines in his blood when he died. Obviously, both of those are illegal drugs, so Floyd wasn’t exactly on the path of righteousness at the time. Did that excuse the awful way he died? Of course not, but it does bring into question whether he should be raised to the status of a martyr for the black race, and a role model for young black men. There are many other black men who deserve that honor.