Opinion Would George Floyd be alive today, if Derek Chauvin didn't pin his knee to his neck?

Would George Floyd be alive today, if Derek Chauvin didn't pin his knee to his neck?


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Two things can be true at the same time. Yes. It was a police officer murdering a man. However, this man was made out to be some kind of hero - there are murals of George in every major US city. George Floyd was not a hero. He was a bad person who got murdered by a worse person.
no one thinks he’s a hero lmao google “george floyd is a hero” and you’ll get one result, from some personal website of an obscure branch of the NAACP.

he’s a martyr, not a hero.
 
no one thinks he’s a hero lmao google “george floyd is a hero” and you’ll get one result, from some personal website of an obscure branch of the NAACP.

he’s a martyr, not a hero.

Nope, not even that. A martyr dies for a cause. What cause did George Floyd die for? What did George believe in other than getting high and driving a car?

You were just telling me that you knew almost nothing about George Floyd, and now you know that nobody thinks he's a hero? He has murals everywhere. Famous athletes wear his face on their pregame shirts. He is absolutely regarded as a hero to a segment of the population.
 
Nope, not even that. A martyr dies for a cause. What cause did George Floyd die for?
<WhatIsThis>

uhhhh police brutality and racial bias in police killings? i didn’t realize you didn’t know that, my fault.
You were just telling me that you knew almost nothing about George Floyd, and now you know that nobody thinks he's a hero? He has murals everywhere. Famous athletes wear his face on their pregame shirts. He is absolutely regarded as a hero to a segment of the population.
again, hero =/= martyr. his death is one of many representations of an issue that affects the black community directly. of course black athletes are going to spread awareness.
 
<WhatIsThis>

uhhhh police brutality and racial bias in police killings? i didn’t realize you didn’t know that, my fault.

again, hero =/= martyr. his death is one of many representations of an issue that affects the black community directly. of course black athletes are going to spread awareness.

You're just showing that you don't know what a martyr is. George Floyd did not die while protesting police brutality. He didn't die standing up for what he believed in. He died because he was high as shit, drove a car, didn't comply, and ran into a psychopath police officer. That is not martyrdom, it is happenstance.
 
Knows nothing about guy.

Tells me how everyone feels about guy he knows nothing about.

Defines guy he knows nothing about as martyr.

Still wants to be taken seriously.
plenty of martyrs who have been given the title posthumously when their death spurred change for an important cause.

plenty of people remembered as martyrs who died from poor treatment due to their battle with AIDS. there are plenty of victims of hate crimes who became martyrs for civil rights causes. i’m not surprised this is news to you.
 
Probably, yes. But that doesn't make George Floyd some kind of saint, and that doesn't make Chauvin a monster for using an approved technique. People are treating Floyd like a martyr, but the only thing he really died doing was being a complete idiot, putting other people's lives in danger, and running into the wrong cop who wasn't having it. Sad situation all around, but I don't think you can hold Chauvin criminally accountable.
The initial knee wasn't the problem. It was the suspect stating that he couldn't breathe, a crowd of bystanders reinforcing Floyd's need, yet there was no help administered. Chauvin is the type of person we don't need as a cop no matter how shitty a person Floyd was.
 
Nope, not even that. A martyr dies for a cause. What cause did George Floyd die for? What did George believe in other than getting high and driving a car?

You were just telling me that you knew almost nothing about George Floyd, and now you know that nobody thinks he's a hero? He has murals everywhere. Famous athletes wear his face on their pregame shirts. He is absolutely regarded as a hero to a segment of the population.
He's not a hero he's a martyr. He's the face of police brutality not of any stance he took in life.
 
What did you guys do, private message each other and agree you'd all call him a martyr?
he’s a martyr just like brandon teena, oscar grant, matthew shepard, david kirby, etc. and even to a more convoluted degree, anne frank. the shit you’re thinking of; catholic priests who were murdered for practicing their religion due to 1500’s protestant persecution are martyrs too.
 
he’s a martyr just like brandon teena, oscar grant, matthew shepard, david kirby, etc. and even to a more convoluted degree, anne frank. the shit you’re thinking of; catholic priests who were murdered for practicing their religion due to 1500’s protestant persecution are martyrs too.
What belief of his do you think he died for? What was he standing up for?
 
What belief of his do you think he died for? What was he standing up for?
that’s not the only definition of martyr, mate.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyr

In the martyrdom narrative of the remembering community, this refusal to comply with the presented demands results in the punishment or execution of an actor by an alleged oppressor. Accordingly, the status of the 'martyr' can be considered a posthumous title as a reward for those who are considered worthy of the concept of martyrdom by the living, regardless of any attempts by the deceased to control how they will be remembered in advance.[1] Insofar, the martyr is a relational figure of a society's boundary work that is produced by collective memory.[2] Originally applied only to those who suffered for their religious beliefs, the term has come to be used in connection with people killed for a political cause.
 
What belief of his do you think he died for? What was he standing up for?

Floyd was hoping to raise money for BLM and allow rioters... I mean protestors... to acquire free merchandise from stores all across the country.
 
Floyd was hoping to raise money for BLM and allow rioters... I mean protestors... to acquire free merchandise from stores all across the country.
I mean, really, that kind of seems to be it. His name has been used by people to excuse shitty behavior. I mean, how is this guy a martyr? What behavior was he fighting for, what is his name being invoked for? He was a violent criminal, who poisoned his community who happened to die while committing more crimes because of a stupid police officer. Thats our martyr?
 
OK, what was the political cause that he was killed for?
this isn’t the Bobby Fischer chess move you think it is. of course you know i’m going to tell you police brutality (in his personal case) and pervasive disproportionate murder of unarmed black people by police.

your response is going to be that somehow, that isn’t a political cause, though it has spurred changes in policy and to this day, separates the left and right politically. furthermore, there’s a dozen posts in this thread alone where you chastise “the left” on this exact case.
 
this isn’t the Bobby Fischer chess move you think it is. of course you know i’m going to tell you police brutality (in his personal case) and pervasive disproportionate murder of unarmed black people by police.

your response is going to be that somehow, that isn’t a political cause, though it has spurred changes in policy and to this day, separates the left and right politically.
I think you've made a flimsy case for your argument. Its OK to just say the guy was a waste of flesh and tell your kids thats not someone you want to consider a hero or martyr. If there was a photo of everything wrong with society, it'd be George Floyd.
 
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