George Floyd murder and subsequent unrest

Here are my reactions to the recent murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, and yes it was a murder not an accident

1. This was once again another case of a Black man dying due to police brutality.

2. Police officer who did this needs to be at absolute minimum charged with manslaughter. This was not an accident, it was gross negligence that led to the death of a Black man.

3. Racism is a serious problem in the US and also elsewhere too. While not as bad in Canada as US, it is still an issue here. It won’t be solved overnight but we must all do our part to reduce it.

4. The violence is unnecessary and unhelpful and is not the way to solve this. One can protest against this without use of violence; that just hurts the cause.

5. Protesting is a fundamental right, but so is right to live. With lack of social distancing I fear we will see a spike in COVID-19 cases. Most protesters are young so will likely recover but any elderly or immune compromised people they come in contact with may not be so lucky.

6. To maintain social distancing while still respecting the right of protest there are two options: 1. Make it clear anyone who attends must self isolate for 14 days after the protest. This would mean only those who can work from home can come. 2. Hold a protest in a park and ensure all participants are spaced out 6 feet apart thus protesting this injustice while still respecting social distancing.

7. National guard may need to be called in, in some cities, but Trump calling out the military is a clear abuse of power and just shows why he must be defeated this November.

8. This whole episode shows why the US is a failing country in so many ways and why as Canada we must take a different path. It is sad the way a country that has achieved so much and still has much potential has turned to this; but we as Canadians can take a different path. Hopefully as in past crisis, US can come out stronger, but won’t be easy.

5 thoughts on “George Floyd murder and subsequent unrest

  1. racism should not be a problem in 2020 but sadly it is. I support the protest but oppose the violence and Trump is just making things worse,he’s coming off like a dictator threatening to call in the military,i hope everyone that can vote,fire him in November

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  2. If there is any good news, polls right now show Biden up by 6 to 12 points. That is much higher than what Clinton was up at this point in 2016, or even Obama was up in 2008 or 2012. There’s no way Trump can milk the electoral college with a high single digit deficit, and a double digit deficit could put a landslide in play – threatening the down-ballot GOP as well.

    A narrow loss by Trump and he won’t go away lightly, that is for sure. He’d probably continue to hold the GOP hostage by tweeting attacks on Biden as effectively the unofficial Leader of the Opposition, have a big say in 2022 midterm candidates and possibly run again in a rematch in 2024 against then-President Biden. But a convincing, and especially a landslide defeat would likely create shock waves among the Republican establishment (that would almost certainly come with losing the Senate and falling further behind in the House as well and many state house seats, even if it doesn’t really affect Governors as few are up right now), probably threatening an intra-party civil war as they will want to exterminate all traces of Trump.

    If I rated the Electoral College right now, I’d say it leans Biden, simply because there is NO margin for error for Trump. It appears Michigan and Pennsylvania are in the Biden side right now (polls consistently showing leads beyond the margin of error), which puts him at 268. What is more concerning is that the playing field keeps expanding (I’m skeptical about the polls in Missouri and Utah but those may be early warnings) – and if he has to spend money in Texas (which is very expensive), that is money not available to defend Michigan or Pennsylvania, or try to play offense in Minnesota or New Hampshire.

    The choice of running mate will be a tough one as five different groups have to be considered: trying to pare back among working class white voters (but Klobuchar is poison now among progressives and black voters), mobilizing the hardline base (but that is too dangerous as a lot of that is in states already solidly blue), win back the Obama black voters (would likely seal North Carolina and make Georgia a tossup), expanding among suburban moderates that swung their way in 2018 but were traditionally GOP voters (a bit of a risk too) and building up the Hispanic vote (sealing Arizona and making Texas a tossup). However, all of those have risks attached too.

    How I would rank the states right now:

    Safe Trump – AL, AK, AR, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MS, MO, MT, NE(+1,3), ND, OK, SC, SD, TN, UT, WV, WY (125)
    Likely Trump (0)
    Leaning Trump – GA, IA, ME(2), NE(2), OH, TX (80)
    Tossup – AZ, FL, NC, WI (65)
    Leaning Biden – ME(overall), MN, MI, NH, NV, PA (58)
    Likely Biden – CO, NM, VA (27)
    Safe Biden – CA, CT, DE, DC, HI, IL, MD, MA, ME(1), NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT, WA (183)

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    1. Generally concur although I think with instability at this point still lots can happen, but Trump has a steep hill to climb. Main thing that could help him is a second wave occurs in the fall or US unable to get COVID-19 infections down enough. Since many GOP governors will restrict or ban mail in ballots that helps GOP as GOP supporters more likely to think COVID-19 is no big deal vs. Democrats who take it seriously. So if Mail in ballots restricted could tilt some towards GOP that wouldn’t otherwise.

      I would love to see GOP expunge Trumpism and a big enough loss might do that. 2019 British election led to Labour expunging Corbynism even though for a while it looked like Corbynites controlled the party and there was no way to expunge them.

      That being said US is so polarized that even in worse case scenario I still expect Trump to put up a decent showing. Either way he is a very divisive figure and even once he goes, he has poisoned the chalice so much the impacts of Trumpism will linger on far beyond election.

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      1. a big Trump loss would cause civil war for gop,no doubt the gop establishment would try to throw him out of party

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        1. At this point hard to say as Trump supporters quite powerful and they won’t go down without a fight. Since many believe in fake news, many will make some excuse how it was rigged or blame the media. But yes establishment will try to push the Trump element out.

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