Re: Some possible extra info about the George Floyd incident?
Lest we go into total cop-hating mode here, I want to point out that the fair majority of cops are not bad at all. Many of them are in over their heads and do not know what to do when shit like this happens. It's drilled into them to protect their fellow officers, and a lot of the time that makes sense. But this results in things being spun badly and even covered up when they shouldn't be. Then you have some police officers out there who really do an excellent job, who are disgusted by these sorts of actions and have found a way to do what they can to help, or to fight back.
Obviously I can't give numbers here, but I'd bet you that 5-15% of cops are so-called "bad cops", another 5-15% are very good cops, and the group in between are largely the product of a broken system, spotty training, and worse. Two of the cops during George Floyd's arrest were very new to the force, and acted somewhat badly (though perhaps not as badly as Chauvin). I'd put them in the middle category, because officers like that can often learn from their mistakes. And honest mistakes do happen. Being an officer of the law is by no means an easy job, even for the good ones. You often find yourself in really tense situations, hoping you can go home to your family at the end of your shift and sorta doubting you're going to get out of this next scrape with your skin intact. Of course, not all altercations are this way, and many police officers draw a lot of paperwork, desk duty and dispatch, but it's still a stressful job.
This doesn't justify what happened to George Floyd, or any other person who has been the subject of police brutality. I just wanted to point out that sometimes, folks caught in those situations are swept along by forces larger than they are, especially if they're new and overwhelmed and still can't assert themselves. I don't want anyone in the Floyd case to escape culpability, but I do hope the rookies are treated a bit more lightly than Chauvin is. Chauvin killed Floyd. The others may have made the situation worse, but one of them tried to recognize where things were going wrong and set them right, and I think that counts for something.
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