Thursday, May 28, 2020

Words can hurt, incite or they can heal, lets go with the healing part

Gov. Pritzker calls George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis ‘a call of action’ for all: ‘People deserve to breathe’, one would hope that the governor carefully choose his words (least his words be construed as a call to arms)

The Democratic governor said something must be done to “change that reality to make it so that men like George Floyd are not killed on a street corner gasping for air in broad daylight, one moment alive, and the next moment, gone.”


By Tina Sfondeles May 27, 2020, 6:19pm CDT


Gov. JB Pritzker answers questions from the media during his daily briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday in Springfield. Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register via AP

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday spoke out against the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, saying “being black in America cannot be a death sentence.”

“As a white elected official, I feel a special responsibility to speak out today and to own that obligation that I have to shape public policy in a more equitable direction,” Pritzker said at a COVID-19 briefing in East St. Louis in downstate Illinois. “Being black in America cannot be a death sentence. But it is. And it’s dangerous to pretend otherwise.”

Floyd died Monday after a police officer had his knee on the 46-year-old African American man’s neck. Captured on video, the incident prompted protests and the firings of four officers.

Pritzker said he felt compelled to address Floyd’s death, as well as the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot and killed in February while jogging near his home in Georgia, and Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police officers in her home in Kentucky in March. Pritzker also made reference to Christian Cooper, whose video of a woman calling the police on him as he was bird watching in Central Park has become viral. Protesters gather in Minneapolis in response to the death the day before of George Floyd in police custody. Four Minneapolis officers involved in the arrest of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody, were fired Tuesday, hours after a bystander’s video showed an officer kneeling on the handcuffed man’s neck, even after he pleaded that he could not breathe and stopped moving. Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP

Pritzker said the four incidents represent events that have happened too many times.

“Yet we as people have not yet found the humanity to stop these vile horrid acts from happening, to truly contend with the racism that permeates our society. and then to root it out,” he said.

The Democratic governor said something must be done to “change that reality to make it so that men like George Floyd are not killed on a street corner gasping for air in broad daylight, one moment alive, and the next moment, gone.

“People deserve to breathe,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker noted the events have happened in the midst of a pandemic that has already disproportionately impacted people of color.

“This moment must become a call of action to Illinoisans, for Americans, to see the humanity in every person, no matter their race, their religion, their socio-economic status, or their sexual orientation,” Pritzker said. “To George Floyd, to his family, may his memory be for a blessing.”

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous5/28/2020

    The most disgusting political panderer forever.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5/28/2020

    As and older American I find it harder the breathe with a mask on.......

    ReplyDelete
  3. What about Blacks murdered by Blacks? Don't their Black Lives Matter?

    What about Whites murdered by Blacks? Hispanics on Hispanics?

    πŸ˜©πŸ€•☹️

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't care about any of them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous5/28/2020

    George Floyd was a convicted felon who was resisting arrest. Floyd's victims in Texas can breathe better knowing he is dead won't rob anyone ever again!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous5/28/2020

    People deserve to work too fatboy!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous5/28/2020

    What about Floyd's vile act in Texas that landed him jail for 5yrs?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't know that, until I just looked it up. πŸ˜‘

      Delete
  8. Anonymous5/28/2020

    A white police officer is 40 times more likely to be murdered by a male black than vice versa. It is also illegal to resist arrest. Even an unlawful arrest. I'm not sure about this situation, but virtually all male blacks shot by police are not only non compliant, but actually resisting arrest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The same is true for a Black murdering a White, but the media hides it. ☹️πŸ’€

      Delete
  9. When Jay Bob was in East Saint Louis, he had bodyguards and guns. ☠️

    People deserve to live in safe communities too, which is a human
    right. πŸ˜‘

    More areas would be integrated, if they were safe. πŸ˜‘

    ReplyDelete