Unless you live in a cave in some obsolete or primitive environment, you must be aware of the gruesome murder of George Floyd. An unarmed black person, Floyd was killed by a policeman in Minneapolis, United States. The aftermath was equally frightening.
COVID-19 has rattled the United States and in such times of social distancing and staying indoors; the nation is dealing a new situation with widespread violent protests against the police brutality against Floyd who ended up losing his life.
The cynics have begun gloating, and many from the subcontinent are following the protests and feeling home. Yes, mobs ransacking properties, looting shops and other arsonous acts have been witnessed.
“Yeh to bilkul apne Jaisa hi ho raha hai.. Bahut khud ko superpower samajte hai na? (They are just like us, they think they are a superpower, don’t they?),” one of the posts I read on social media. There are plenty of posts targeted towards the perceived mindlessness in the era of social distancing.
I don’t blame those who think this way.
Fear and adversity act as great equalisers, and humans are conditioned to feel happy when they get this sailing in the same boat feeling. That is so homo sapiens. The people who rejoice over the state of affairs in the US, starting from its choice of President argue that as a nation, the country has always shown a condescending big brotherly attitude towards others. I am reminded of Barack Obama’s visit to India where he had mentioned of India’s rising intolerance.
It is just that due to the advent of social media and the transformation of traditional media as mere entertainment industry which believes in spreading negative and hateful content to generate TRP, the humanity as a whole suddenly appears more intolerant than ever. But anyway, let’s analyse what happened differently.
A word of caution here. Please proceed only if you won’t get triggered. In his time as a police officer, Derek Chauvin, the person who knelt on George Floyd’s neck for close to nine minutes was the subject of 18 previous complaints, with two being “closed with discipline”.
So, it means that a person in power who probably had problems dealing with anger and managing his emotions killed/inadvertently killed another unarmed person. Chauvin’s past record is proof of the fact that he wasn’t in the right person to be dealing with unarmed people. It also shows the lapse the system, and it’s not very difficult in most countries, especially the US, to become a police officer.
These people are then also given guns after a short training period. But what should ideally be done is a thorough psychological assessment before being appointed as police officers and they should be offered support and counselling when any complaint against them is lodged. The majority of the policemen are always exposed to the underbelly of society.
When one is continuously faced with such crimes, it gradually begins to affect them. In police forces, instead of addressing the issue, the juniors are merely told to be strong. Emotions get bottled up this way. There is no release mechanism. Now if we analyse the specific event which led to George Floyd’s death, the act of kneeling on the neck. The Minneapolis Policy and Procedure manual describe two types of neck restraint police officers can deploy: Conscious neck restraint (putting light pressure on the subject’s neck with an arm or leg without cutting off their airway) and unconscious neck restraint (applying enough pressure on a subject to make them lose consciousness without killing them).
According to NBC News, Minneapolis police officers have used neck restraints at least 237 times and rendered people unconscious 44 times since 2015. It is thus important to realise that the incidence which led to the death of George Floyd could have been avoided if appropriate steps were taken earlier. The world expects a country like the USA to take the lead in adopting such measures.
It’s not all black and white as it appears. The stories can always be retold and repainted with whatever propaganda you choose to. You could accuse me of oversimplifying this but believe me over generalising this hasn’t helped either with the US finding itself between the riots and a pandemic.
The bottom line is, an unarmed person died. And justice must be done. As a mental health professional, I just wish the authorities start adopting mental health measures. Disturbed police officials need access to competent mental health professionals in dealing with his emotions.
(Dr Devasish Palkar is currently working as a second-year MD resident in the Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College, Surat.)
