No Holds Barred

No doubt you remember

George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis in May 2020 sparked the largest racial justice protests in the United States since the Civil Rights Movement. But the movement went far beyond this nation's borders — it inspired a global reckoning with racism.

This time last year, countries across the globe had some of the largest Black Lives Matter protests in their history, all inspired by the video of Floyd brutal death in police custody on May 25, 2020. Crossing continents and cultures, Black activists saw Floyd's death as a symbol of the intolerance and injustice they face at home.

Some of these countries had their own George Floyd — a Black person whose death by police brutality or racial violence created national outrage. Everywhere, activists knew there was no going back to the way things were before they witnessed Floyd's final moments.

President Biden said that when he met with Floyd's young daughter Gianna, she told him, "Daddy changed the world." These worldwide protests show how right she was.

Chauvin was arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned, as he should have been. However, contrary to Biden's enthusiasm, the movement the crime spawned did not change the world, and it changed the nation in an unexpected way. Exactly one month before the 2024 elections, Chris Stein of The Guardian reported

Since Floyd’s death in May 2020, Republican-led states have enacted laws expanding the definition of rioting to encompass protesters who stayed peaceful when others did not, protecting drivers who run over demonstrators that block roads and enhancing penalties against protesters who target oil and gas infrastructure and deface monuments. The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), which tracks the legislation, has found that hundreds of proposals have been made by state and federal lawmakers nationwide, and more than two dozen signed into law.

The push comes as the GOP’s standard bearer, Donald Trump, campaigns for the presidency on a platform that includes suppressing protests. He has vowed to deploy the national guard “where there has been a complete breakdown of law and order”, while simultaneously promising pardons for people convicted over the January 6 insurrection. As president, Trump reportedly encouraged the military to shoot protesters, and, this year, allies such as the speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, have said the national guard should be used against college students demonstrating over Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

And then Donald Trump was elected President for a second time. Arguably, the Black Lives Matter protests were a miserable failure, having created relatively little change and sparking a major backlash. Inarguably, the rationale for the movement was grossly exaggerated.

While police overreach against black males no doubt has continued, nothing since has compared to the grotesque murder of George Floyd. None has been reported and in the age of Everyone a Photographer, we would know it if it had.  Ben Crump would have been at the scene of the crime, surrounded by the distraught family of the deceased. MSNBC, CNN, NewsNation, and possibly even Fox News would run video footage repeatedly. Social media, obviously, would be all over it.

Despite other incidents which shock the conscience and are emblazoned on our minds, other events of abuse have transpired which are not only much more common but cast a light on a very dark side of law enforcement, circa 2025. In a video released by U.S. Representative Herb Conaway (D-NJ)

A Ring camera recording appears to show masked federal immigration agents at the doorstep of a Burlington Township woman’s house. The jackets read “POLICE,” and one patch reads “ERO,” but they never identify which agency they represent. They present no badge and no warrant.

“Can I help you?,” the woman is heard asking the men at her door.

“Good morning, this is the police, can you come to the door? Is anyone home right now?,” one of them says.

The woman, who tells the officers she is out of town dealing with a family death, repeatedly tells them no one is inside. But the knocking intensifies. The officers insist they are looking for a man, his name redacted in the recording, and demand to know whether he lives there. The woman says she doesn’t know him. The questioning continues.

“Do you have a warrant? Show me a warrant,” she says. “What kind of problem are we going to have?,” one of the men says.

“No, there’s no one home … why do you have a mask on?,” she says. “It’s cold out here,” comes the response.

The woman, who tells the officers she is out of town dealing with a family death, repeatedly tells them no one is inside. But the knocking intensifies. The officers insist they are looking for a man, his name redacted in the recording, and demand to know whether he lives there. The woman says she doesn’t know him. The questioning continues.

“Do you have a warrant? Show me a warrant,” she says. “What kind of problem are we going to have?,” one of the men says.

Lacking a warrant but wearing a mask, they are what we once called "armed intruders," though presumably they are agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of course, that's not to suggest there aren't opportunists roaming neighborhoods while wearing a mask and sporting a jacket with a "POLICE" patch.

In a foreboding observation, Representative Conaway remarks "there was another incident around the same time. It appears they are stepping up operations here in New Jersey." They are in jurisdictions in the nation without the apparent approval or even knowledge of state or local authorities, in what in the past we'd call a national secret police force. Combine that with the the declaration by White House Deputy Chief of Staff that ICE agents have immunity from federal or state prosecution (of questionable legality) and the President Trump's assurance "they can do whatever the hell they want" and masked men can act with virtual impunity.

As far as anyone has noted, we've never had a situation in which local, state, or federal authorities have said law enforcement "can do whatever the hell they want" and would be protected from prosecution.  Yet, now we have the President and one of his top advisers saying what even the most inhumane and racist southern sheriff of the 20th century would have avoided saying about blacks. 

It's unlikely that a murder as unjustified as that of George Floyd will happen any time in the next several years. And if it does, we will hear of it, see it, and watch as the offender is prosecuted and probably severely punished. Meanwhile, stealth agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are on the move in much of the country, doing as they wish with no Brown Lives Matter movement on the horizon.

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