The real George Floyd

The article below appeared in the Brisbane Courier Mail newspaper written by veteran reporter Mike O’Connor.

 

WITH a gun held at her stomach, the pregnant woman very likely thought that she and her unborn child were about to die.

She watched, terrified, as the gunman’s five accomplices ransacked her home looking for money and drugs. Finding neither, they fled, taking her mobile phone and wallet.

The man with the gun was George Floyd. He was later arrested and sentenced to five years in jail, adding another chapter to a lengthy criminal history, which included drug offences and armed theft.

This is the man now being hailed as a martyr to the cause of civil rights, a low-life drug-using criminal with scant regard for the lives of others, who when he died, was high on fentanyl and methamphetamine.

There is no excuse for the manner of his death, but before the hordes of local virtue signallers start organising another illegal protest march, a little perspective as provided by American black activist Candace Owens might be helpful.

“We are the only community that fights and screams and demands justice for the people in our community that are up to no good,” she says in an online posting.

“It has become fashionable for us to turn criminals into heroes. George Floyd was not an amazing person. Everyone is saying that this man lived a heroic lifestyle and he didn’t.

“I will not be part of the broken black culture that wants to martyr black criminals and make them out to be outstanding human beings.”

Owens maintains that racially motivated police brutality in the United States is a myth, saying that a violent white criminal has a 25 per cent higher chance of dying at the hands of a police officer than do violent black criminals.

“Last year a total of nine unarmed black men were killed by police officers while 19 white men were killed by police. White people represent 60 per cent of the population and black people only 13 per cent, but it doesn’t matter what percentage of the population you represent, it matters what percentage of the violent criminal community you represent and unfortunately the black community commits a disproportionate amount of crime compared to the white community.

“The 6 per cent of the population who are black men commit 44 per cent of the murders in this country, according to 2018 statistics. We commit 50 per cent of all violent offences and we are 13 per cent of the population,” Owens says.

She says that police officers have more to fear from the black community than the other way around with a police officer being 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black person than a black person is to be killed by a police officer.

Owens dismisses the entire narrative of racially motivated violence by police as “complete smoke and mirrors”.

“It’s all made up. It’s white versus black because it’s an election year and not because black Americans are suffering at the hands of police officers more than white Americans.

“Do some police officers do the wrong things? Yes, but I am not going to stand for this bottom-feeding narrative of martyring people who have had five, six or seven stints in prison. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of having to pretend. It’s embarrassing,” she says.

Owens takes aim at what she describes as a toxic culture permeating the black community.

“That’s because nobody wants to tell the truth in black America. It’s so easy to be a victim. It’s so easy to ask white people to bow down and apologise to us. It’s crap, it’s a fake, it’s a farce. Our biggest problem is us. It’s why we don’t talk about it when black-on-black violence happens.

“We don’t talk about it when black people are being slaughtered by blacks because that would mean we’d have to be accountable. That would mean personal responsibility and we don’t do personal responsibility. We blame white people. We only point a camera at white people when they do something, even though we do it at a far higher rate to ourselves.

“How difficult is it not to spend multiple times in prison? Is that too difficult for us?” she asks.

“We have to do better. We have to teach our kids to do better,” she says.

This is not what the people who demonstrated in King George Square on the weekend want to hear.

They want to embrace the “white versus black” narrative, march and chant and then go back home and tell themselves what a great job they’ve done striking a blow for equality.

Here’s a thought. How about having a march next weekend protesting at the violence and sexual assaults perpetrated on Aboriginal children by other indigenous people?

Let’s protest about the poor or non-existent parenting in indigenous communities that sees kids fail to attend school and so get a chance at a better life. Hold that protest and I’ll march with you, but I’m not holding my breath.

That’s because nobody wants to tell the truth in black America. It’s so easy to be a victim.