Former British Colony in Downward Spiral of Ethnic Violence, State Security Impunity

[ReluctantSamurai]

making a saint and a martyr out of a hardened criminal is another extermity many people indulge in

This statement is just another example of arrogant profiling, so prevalent in today's society. If this 'once a criminal, always a criminal' attitude were true, then many of today's professional athlete's could easily be lumped into that category. There are many athletes who came from very rough neighborhoods who were gang-bangers, drug users & pushers, and have done time in some way, shape or form. Yet, these athletes learned from their mistakes and went on to become good fathers, husbands, and role models. This kind of story is, of course, not limited to athletes, but the premise is still the same...not letting one's past determine your present or future.

This 'saint out of a hardened criminal' is exactly the same rhetoric being used by the MPD:

https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/06/...iminal-record/

The June 1, 2020, letter by Kroll, whom Snopes could not reach for this report, inspired a wave of claims online about Floyd’s alleged arrests and incarcerations before his death — mostly among people who seemed to be searching for evidence that either the actions by the Minneapolis police officer who choked Floyd were justified, or memorials to honor him were unnecessary.

It fits into what psychologists have called the just-world hypothesis, which is a cognitive bias where people believe that the world is just and orderly, and people get what they deserve. It is difficult for people to believe that bad things can happen to good people or to people who don’t deserve it. This is because if people know that these things do happen, they have to decide whether they want to do something about it or sit by silently knowing that there is injustice happening around them.

I don’t trust the motivations of the folks bringing this forward. … Of course they’re asking, ‘Why isn’t [Floyd’s criminal history] covered in the major media?’ And it’s because it’s not relevant to this kind of story. What happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis has nothing to do with what happened to him, what he did, in 2007.

We shouldn’t conflate the complexity of a person’s life with an event that ended with their life being lost — those moments and that time is relevant, but not a criminal conviction from years prior because this is supposedly a country where, when you’ve served your sentence, you’re now able to go rebuild your life, as what he was trying to do.

In January 2013, after Floyd was paroled for the aggravated robbery, people who knew him said he returned to Houston’s Third Ward “with his head on right.” He organized events with local pastors, served as a mentor for people living in his public housing complex, and was affectionately called “Big Floyd” or “the O.G.” (original gangster) as a title of respect for someone who’d learned from his experiences. Then in 2014, Floyd, a father of five, decided to move to Minneapolis to find a new job and start a new chapter.

Dying with your face pinned to a street pavement, because you supposedly tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, is a really shitty way to die, and what you did 13yrs ago should have no bearing on the manner of your death. But all too often, the color of one's skin does have a bearing on these types of police brutality, one more death in a long trail stretching back decades. Enough is enough, which is the point about the BLM movement you continually gloss over. Stop bitching that the 'poster child' of this movement has a criminal past.