Another Tragedy, Another Missed Opportunity

Scenes from America’s latest racial outrage:

A police officer, surrounded by his fellow officers and a watching crowd, kneels on the neck of a black man named George Floyd until he passes out. By the time the ambulance arrives, it’s too late. George pleads with the officers to stop the pressure on his neck, as does the crowd. But it falls on deaf ears.

George Floyd was being arrested for a non-violent offence. George Floyd was handcuffed and secured. George Floyd did not deserve to die. Let’s get that straight, right away.

These cops fucked up. They had a duty of care to an arrested person, as solemn as that of a parent to a child. Trust me, I know. I’ve made something like 200 plus arrests. Nothing I say in the following paragraphs should be interpreted as excusing their failure to exercise that duty to care.

As are all such issues in modern America, hell, modern anywhere, this incident will, of course, never be seen for what it is. It will be seen as black versus white. The truth will never be exposed, nor even looked for. Now, the podium has been passed to buck-passing politicians and race-baiting celebrities, crowd sourcing the next assassination attempt on police officers.

This is, after all, a police department whose last cross-racial outrage was a black cop shooting an unarmed white woman. But enough on that. That was a failure of training and doctrine too, just like that shooting. It was not racism.

There is something rotten in Minneapolis, I am certain of it. And I’d be willing to bet it’s a question of constant political pressure, combined with limited budgets for training, and a general corrosion of morale.

Yes, I’d bet on it. After seventeen years in law enforcement, I’d definitely bet on it.

You see, the officers in the video were sure they were doing the right thing. They knew people were filming them, so why would they risk life in prison and loss of their houses and pensions, if they knew the cameras were there? Come on. Cops are humans, not devils brought to earth with a racist agenda and the power to enforce it. Don’t listen to Kaepernick and company. Listen to people who know.

I remember being told early in my training: DO NOT kneel on a suspect’s neck. Period. Why?

Remember the grossly controversial “choke hold?” Yes, we were taught that, too, but only as a last-ditch, lethal force maneuver. Why was it last ditch? Because it is not a choke hold. It is a vascular neck restraint, which closes off the blood supply to the brain, that’s why. Acceptable if you’re on your back in an alley, fighting for control of your gun. Not acceptable if you have a secured suspect on the ground, pleading for his life. This is not rocket science, as my dad would say. Not even close.

But during arrests, under pressure, cops, being humans, can forget stuff. They can, as we say, “Lose situational awareness.” And if your training hours, under budget pressure, and the constant demands for more training on this, that, and the other hot button issue of the time, do not address the issue of how not to kill a prone and compliant suspect; then you are in serious trouble.

Sometimes, it’s a brain fart under pressure. I remember having to be told, by a veteran officer early in my career, “Get your knee off his neck” after a particularly stressful arrest. I knew I needed to; but my adrenaline was up. You see, this is one part of what should have been that was missing in this video. Partners looking out for each other. That doesn’t just mean thumping somebody who’s coming up on you or covering for each other’s fuckups. No, that means spotting each other’s fuckups before they happen.

One must also understand, not merely what to do; but also, why it works. This can help officers understand the difference between mere pressure points and potentially lethal constraints. Did Officer Chauvin understand that the part of George Floyd’s neck he was kneeling on was the same part we close off when we apply a vascular neck restraint? I bet he didn’t. But that’s a few extra hours of training for a force already desperately short of asses in cars, a department already weighed down with so many conflicting demands that nobody knows what fucking day it is anymore.

The point I am trying, probably futilely, to make is that cops typically do not go out of their way to kill people, particularly people of another race, if they can help it. We know the media-fuelled shitstorm that always ensues. I have no doubt that every cop at that scene was just trying to make an arrest, process the suspect, and go for coffee.

But now, they are the executioners of a man who did not deserve his fate. 300 years of American racism will be pressed on their chests, like Officer Chauvin’s knee pressed on George Floyd’s carotid artery.

As certain as I am that this death was an avoidable, if unforgiveable, fuckup, I am also certain of this.

Our obsession with viewing everything through the lens of race will prevent us from every addressing the real issue: Our police departments are understaffed, undertrained, overpolitcized, and completely demoralized. And no amount of shrieking celebrities and looted Targets will do a single fucking thing to solve this.

Go ahead and burn, America. If flames and looting were solutions, you’d be paradise by now.

Grant Patterson is a seventeen-year veteran of the Canada Border Services Agency, and the author of nine novels. His most recent book is “A Life on the Line,” a memoir of his time in law enforcement, currently serialized on Wattpad. His opinions are his own.