I knew it was just a matter of time before attempts were made to attack George Floyd's personal history.
There's a pattern with these things that anyone paying the slightest amount of attention would have noticed by now.
Botham Jean, for example, was a reputable Black individual who was respected in his community. In 2018, he was gunned down in his own apartment when a supposedly "elite" white female officer skillfully managed to "accidentally" walk into the wrong flat, thinking it was hers. Naturally, her first instinct was to promptly blow him away in "self-defence" after "mistaking" him for a scary burglar. Before very long, efforts to smear the role model citizen's reputation began.
I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised to see the attempt to assassinate Floyd's character come from someone like Candace Owens. The conservative commentator once mused how everything would have been all good if Hitler had only wanted to keep his little delusional dreams of grandeur within his own borders, and that basically the only problem was the Reich's expansionist aspirations of global empire. You know, didn't have anything to do with murdering Jews, political opponents, and all other "undesirables."
Now, the right-wing pundit seems more preoccupied with attacking a dead man's character than she is concerned about rampant police brutality.
The arguments Owens raises in her video are fabricated to pander to people's prejudices and elicit a knee-jerk response against the demonstrators and undermine their message.
She disconcertingly seems far less worried about the egregious abuse of police power and excessive force, and more eager to attack and condemn a man who died begging to breathe while surrounded by a crowd of people pleading the officer to remove his knee.
She also claims to refuse to accept the narrative that Floyd was the best the black community has to offer.
Except no one, that I've seen at least, has said anything even remotely close to that.
Right-wing pundits like Owens apparently really love to attack a fabricated narrative that literally no one is arguing.
Absolutely nobody is declaring that "Floyd was Christ reborn!"
All anyone's saying is, "Did the cop really have to kneel for nearly nine minutes into Floyd's neck like a big game hunter on safari proudly posturing over felled prey until he died begging to breathe?"
And no one — again, that I know of — is attempting to "turn criminals into heroes overnight," as Owens claims.
She probably pays passing mention of the need to reform police. Full disclosure, I heard enough of her nonsense to not bother justify subjecting myself to more ridiculous rhetoric.
But from what I could stomach, she did say something about how what happened to Floyd was "unjust...BUT."
Ahh, the goold ol' but. Big ol' boot licking "but."
The same people who claim the Second Amendment is a critical right to safeguard the lifeblood of democracy so US citizens can rise up against an unjust police state, seem to be the first ones eagerly running to the front of the line to defend and kiss the boots of oppressive, unaccountable authorities.
Owens' arguments are either intellectually disingenuous at best, or intentionally misleading at worst. I would lean towards the latter, as driving down divisive wedges is the right-wing outrage machine's bread and butter.
Frankly, this has nothing to do with Floyd's character or personality or past, but rather everything to do with a corrupt and entitled police institution that enables and even shields officers who "serve and protect" the way Chauvin and his colleagues did.
If there are 1,000 good cops who fail to hold accountable the "few" bad apples, then they — and especially the entire system in which they work — might as well all be bad. Rotten to the core, even.
To my understanding, people are upset, to put it mildly, at the egregious abuse of power, lack of due process, and near complete and total absence of accountability, dating back decades.
I wonder how many other unfortunate souls did not have a crowd recording their grizzly, unmerciful deaths, resulting in a public outcry to push for justice instead of becoming another forgotten statistic.
Citizens should not be the ones responsible for policing the police with smartphones.
But Owens, and apparently her substantial fan base, is more worried about Floyd's history, as well as spinning falsehoods that he's been deified as a patron saint or something, than an oppressive police state.
The talking head pundit is doing her own community no favours by supporting a president who calls an accomplished, Black peacefully kneeling football player a "son of a bitch," and heavily armed white goons occupying government buildings while screaming in police officers' faces "very good people."
A president who has peacefully demonstrating protestors tear gassed, flash banged and cleared out, all for a bad photo op in front of church that was promptly condemned by the local clergy, who weren't even contacted or forewarned. Even military figures are dissociating from such actions in unprecedented moves from generally apolitical figures in US affairs.
Sadly, despite all reason, Owens' message seems to resonate with many people, judging by the number of positive reactions and comments section on the Youtube video.
Which makes it all the more important not only to challenge such slanderous and deflective drivel, but especially to deconstruct it so anyone capable of a modicum of critical thought can clearly see through the spin.
So, don't let anyone suggest Floyd had it coming, and ask anyone who claims as much why they're more worried about his personal history than cold blooded murder at the hands of an honourless cop.