I agree with Candace on this one..

I have seen posts and videos where people say George Floyd’s past does not matter.

I disagree.

People not critically thinking and it shows. People don’t think for themselves. They don’t analyze anything. They base things off emotions and what other people think. Most people like yourself will disregard George Floyd’s past. Most people hopped on the bandwagon and got instantly upset after seeing,

“another black man killed by a white police officer.”

I was upset initially. But then I learned more facts about George — and through the grapevine, learned facts about his baby mama all in the news with their daughter talking about, “

she will grow up without a father.”

George left them in Texas. His daughter was already without a father for years because he was in and out of jail and prison instead of being a father.

People need to think about why he was stopped by the police

If George Floyd was not doing what he was doing — he’d be alive today. There would not have been a reason for the police to stop him. People assumed he was killed because he was black.

Why are blacks killed by white police officers constantly plastered all over the news? Especially when the majority of black murders are by other black people.

Why are so many black men killed by other black men?

Poverty.

Floyd had a history of crimes involving forgery and fraud. Along with his baby mama. People are too focused on the act of him being killed by a white police. People should focus on the underlying issues of why black men have to forge checks and do fraud. As long as black people live in poverty, they will have a higher chance of breaking laws to make ends meet. Which increases your chances of prison or death.

“Why does it matter who was under the knee of a cop?”

It matters because he wasn’t living right. He wasn’t some guy out here doing the right things. He pointed a gun at a pregnant woman’s stomach while a group of men robbed her home!

Karma works in mysterious ways.

He tortured that lady.

How long did she suffer?

I was robbed at gun point before. There were a lot of sleepless nights after that. This lady he robbed likely suffered trauma and paranoia after that for years.

Like Candace said,

“You do stupid things. You get stupid rewards”.

A YouTuber stated he would have killed Floyd if he after put a gun to a pregnant woman’s stomach of someone he knew.

George Floyd had no regard for human life. Yet the world wants to sweep his past under the rug as if he was out being a positive role model in the community.

Like you, Harper May when I saw “that excessive and unnecessary force were used on a man who was literally pleading for his life for over eight minutes”, I also thought no one deserved to be treated that way.

However, George Floyd wasn’t no one. He was someone who dressed up in utility clothing pretending to be the water company. He knocked on the door of a pregnant woman. She tried to close the door when she found out he was lying. George forced his way in her home and other men came in the home. They robbed the home while George pointed a gun at her stomach not knowing if she would be shot.

You say,

“I don’t care if he was the Pope or a drug dealer.”

George was neither. He was an armed robber who attempted to kill a woman and her baby. That was not a victimless crime. I can’t have compassion for someone like that. What if he raped kids? Would you still excuse his past?

Imagine how the woman felt at that moment being robbed.

Imagine how she felt the days and nights after.

Imagine how she feels now seeing George Floyd plastered across the news as if he is a hero.

She’s probably thinking — you get what you deserve.

I suggest that you read all the facts from his previous cases, then make a factual determination about George Floyd. Not a determination based on emotion and popular opinion.

You also say,

“A man is dead. He was senselessly murdered under the knee of a cop. His past offenses have no effect on that fact. And they surely have no effect on whether the movement afterward has meaning.”

A pregnant woman was robbed at gunpoint senselessly by George Floyd. His past caught up with him because what goes around comes around and he was continuing to live a life of crime. This movement is meaningless.

Black men should stop turning to crime when they need some money.

When people lack resources they turn to crime. I fell on hard times. I lost everything. I didn’t start robbing people at gunpoint or doing fraud. I went without. People have to learn to do without instead of turning to crime or hurting others for your basic survival. I would never rob anyone. I lived in my car for over a year. Some days I had nothing to eat. Some days I had enough to eat and that was it.

Black people need to stop feeling like victims and letting the media play with their emotions. Want to sell something? Appeal to the emotion. There’s a reason the video was edited in such a way to make people click on it. Why wasn’t the video’s thumbnail a picture of the sky or the sidewalk? People need to understand why this story was in the mainstream media to begin with. You must learn their tactics and how they appeal to emotions that make so many people outraged. It’s best to use logic and facts.

Racism will never end in America because,

“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs and the hardships of the Negro race before the public.”

You wouldn’t need civil rights attorneys and people like Al Sharpton if there wasn’t racism. Racism is a lucrative business. That’s how a lot of people eat — off the suffering of other people. Like George Floyd. He made ends meet off the suffering of his armed robbery and forgery victims. Rappers, actors, and influencers get paid to post about black lives matter and police brutality. This keeps the general masses attention.

This is how the world works. We are in the attention economy.