George Floyd lived, died
and was set to rest on national television. CNN and MSNBC carried yesterday’s
service live. It was heartbreaking but it was a call to action.
A fond hope: the trials
of the four cops charged in the murder will not be televised. There
aren’t many of us ink and electron-stained wretches who think live court
sessions are a deterrent to justice.
This idea started with
the circus trial of OJ Simpson in the mid-1990s. The judge’s lack of control,
the celebrity power of the defendant and his legal team and its hair-splitting
shenanigans showed us why this kind of show trial should never be broadcast.
The camera, trained on
that jury of men and women who may have routinely convicted Simpson, could not
vote “guilty” and returned to their Los Angeles area homes without fearing for
their lives. And by the time the endless trial ended, every face of every
juror was known to the people in their communities.
This anti-camera-ism was
underscored later by the trials of accused baby killer Casey Anthony and
accused boyfriend murderer Jodi Arias.
What would have happened at Nuremberg in some early day if Nancy Grace did live play-by-play the proceedings?
So, they sent George
Floyd to his final rest in Minneapolis, as they had earlier of Eric Garner in
New York. Garner died under similar circumstances, not all that long ago. His
crime? Selling “loosies” individual cigarettes, on an uptown
streetcorner.
Has anything changed
following Garner’s takedown? No. You still can buy a pack of Marlboros for $13
in New York, and sell the loosies at a buck and a half each. That’s a better
margin than Wal-mart makes on a pound of chopped beef or a couple of pounds of
tomatoes.
More important, will
anything change in Minneapolis? Maybe. Temporarily. But the underlying problems
will persist.
Tribalism seems to run
deep in the human hardwiring. But it can be overcome if we’d stop listening to
our cerebral cortexes and just leave each other alone. Or -- the call to action?
-- give the people we don’t like or whom we fear the hand up to which our laws
and values have been telling us should be theirs.
NOTES FROM ALL OVER:
(MINNEAPOLIS) -- George
Floyd tested positive for COVID-19. Both autopsies say that had nothing to do
with his death.
(NEW YORK) -- The NYPD
crashed its reputation for a kinder gentler way of handling protesters. A
Police Dept. SUV plowed through a metal barricade and into a group of
demonstrators.
I’m Wes Richards. My
opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them.
Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2020
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