Looking Back On the BLM Summer

I’m thinking about another summer, back in 2020; the worst of my life. On top of Covid, which had me isolated from most of the world, there were the BLM protest/riots that were not just on TV constantly, but going on within hearing distance of my home in Richmond, Virginia. Week after week, police planes and helicopters flew over my head. Night after night, the often violent protesters hit the streets, ostensibly to express their outrage over George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police.

Floyd, who’d served a five-year prison sentence for a home invasion during which he put a gun against the abdomen of a female victim (some hero), was just the flashpoint, as Richmond, like any American city, had its share of discontents who were sick of being Covid shut-ins and wanted the release of the mask-free nightly ruckus in the streets. The media, normally a reliable echo of the government's often absurd masking directives, went silent on the mask issue in this instance. Apparently, we were witnessing some new social justice importance/risk calculus that hadn’t yet been articulated to the public.

The summer was handled reverently by the media, because the perception at the time was that white police officers were brutalizing black men across America. A handful of videos can have a powerful effect when spread over the Internet. Consumers of mass media accept, at this point, that convicted Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his windpipe on May 22, 2020.

However, there’s a counter-narrative in the dark places where no media oxygen is needed to keep it alive. Before examining that, let's look at the origins of the BLM movement, which sprang from the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Most people remember the “Hands up, don't shoot” “murder” that took the life of a young black man, but how many know that Brown never said that? That was a lie spread by bystanders that the media amplified without seeking corroboration, which is its usual practice, especially in racial matters. In fact, Michael Brown was the aggressor. He tried to take away the arresting officer's gun after the cop told him not to walk in the middle of the street, which is a sure way to end one's life.

The grand jury declined to indict the  officer—Wilson—who pulled the trigger, and then, on March 4, 2015, the Obama DOJ issued an exhaustive, 86-page investigative report that concluded “there is no credible evidence that Wilson willfully shot Brown as he was attempting to surrender or was otherwise not posing a threat.”

Black Lives Matter is based on a big lie the media propagated, and still does. That lie, repeated so many times, has now become axiomatic in progressive circles. That's “their truth.” In August 2019, the Associated Press ran a story about Brown's death, describing it like this: “Words were exchanged, the white officer confronted the 18-year-old Brown, who was black. The situation escalated, with the officer and Brown scuffling. The officer shot and killed Brown, who was unarmed.” That's a textbook example of how the media lies without actually telling a lie, and it happens all the time.

Nearly two years later, On May 24, 2021, six years after the DOJ report was released, PBS ran an interview of Michael Brown's father, conducted by Yamiche Alcindor, a journalist who’s also worked for The New York Times and NBC News. The interview was conducted as if the Obama DOJ report was never released. Alcindor described Michael Brown to his father as “a teenager walking down the street.” That's it. PBS correspondent Judy Woodruff introduced the bogus interview with this: “Nearly seven years ago, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.” Woodruff, who like Alcindor was aware of the DOJ report, neglected to mention the rest of the story because it doesn't fit the narrative.

False narratives like this one are spread by some prominent Democrats. On August 9, 2019, Kamala Harris tweeted: “Michael Brown’s murder forever changed Ferguson and America. His tragic death sparked a desperately needed conversation and a nationwide movement. We must fight for stronger accountability and racial equity in our justice system.” Michael Brown wasn’t murdered.

On the same day, Elizabeth Warren tweeted: “5 years ago Michael Brown was murdered by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael was unarmed yet he was shot 6 times. I stand with activists and organizers who continue the fight for justice for Michael. We must confront systemic racism and police violence head on. Brown was unarmed, but he was trying to arm himself with a cop’s gun. No “systemic racism” was involved in his death.

Fast forward to the George Floyd incident. After the twisting of the Michael Brown story to fit in with the “systemic racism” narrative, how reliable are the events of that day in May as the media has told them? The public heard from the media repeatedly that Floyd told the officers he couldn’t breathe while Derek Chauvin had his knee on his neck area, but they didn't hear that Floyd said the same thing when the police tried to put him in their car.

An autopsy Hennepin County coroner Andrew Baker conducted 12 hours after Floyd died found no evidence suggesting he died of asphyxiation, but a new coroner's report was issued two days later, after the Minnesota Attorney General, Keith Ellison, met with Baker. This one said Floyd died of asphyxiation. Floyd had pre-existing health conditions—coronary artery disease and hypertension. Dr. Baker told the Hennepin County Attorney’s office that Floyd had a fentanyl level of 11 ng/mL in his body, which he said was a fatal level; 3ng/mL could even be fatal, he added. Floyd’s level can cause pulmonary edema, and Floyd’s lungs were swollen to two to three times their normal size at the time of his death. One artery was 75 percent blocked. Moreover, there’s police body cam video footage from the time when Floyd was put into the ambulance (which police called before Derek Chauvin began kneeling on his neck) showing that the oxygen tubing was tied up, not even connected to the oxygen source. That might’ve been a fatal mistake.

The Minneapolis police chief said on the witness stand during officer Derek Chauvin’s trial that he didn't recognize the technique that Chauvin used to subdue Floyd—a “maximal restraint” technique—but three Minneapolis police officers stated on camera in the film, The Fall of Minneapolis, that they were trained in that particular “MRT,” which employs a knee on the side of the head. While Chauvin was wrong (and perhaps criminally wrong) to have kept his knee on Floyd’s neck area for so long, there's reasonable doubt he was guilty of murder.

A strong case could be made that George Floyd died of medical complications brought on by his panicked overreaction (both physical and verbal) to being arrested for passing a phony $20 bill, during which he appeared to be out of control, and high on something. Methamphetamine was also found in his blood. But Chauvin was tried in a heavily-fortified building surrounded by barbed wire. A mob was waiting outside, ready to do to that building what they'd already done to the third precinct police station—burn it and wreck it, with no resistance from the Minneapolis police department. The mob wouldn't have stopped there, however. They would’ve burned much of Minneapolis. One thing was clear. Only one verdict would do. The jurors knew their lives depended on it.

The lesson is that we're just one media-driven false narrative away from total mayhem again. It's time for the public to stop trusting that corrupt, dishonest media. That's the same media that gave us no inkling that Joe Biden’s too addled to be reelected until the evening of the President’s alarming debate with Donald Trump. Suddenly, they had to act shocked because their dishonesty and incompetence was revealed.