On Monday, 25th May 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man from Minneapolis, Minnesota, after being handcuffed, was incapacitated by officer Derek Chauvin using a “choke hold” (his knee on Floyd’s neck) for almost eight minutes. Floyd repeatedly pleaded that he could not breathe and died of asphyxiation. News of the murder of George Floyd, which was captured by onlookers on video, quickly spread on national news and social media.

Protests erupted in Minneapolis and right across the United States. 

But almost as soon as the protests began, they turned from peaceful protests into riots involving the destruction of property, looting, burning buildings, beatings, and attacks on both civilians and police resulting in injuries to hundreds and the murders of both civilians and police.

The murder of George Floyd quickly made international news. It received a great deal of media coverage and sparked protests (and some riots) in many countries, including Australia. Night after night, and week after week the “protests” were covered by the Australian media. The police in America were portrayed as racist and brutal, the laws of the United States as endemically racist, the “protestors” as generally peaceful and justified, the organisations Black Lives Matter and Antifa as powerful movements fighting for racial equality, and Trump as a provocateur.

Most of the media in the United States, and indeed in Australia, has provided a highly distorted account of what has actually taken place to the point that it has stirred up protest and dissention in Australia.

This article will provide some information that the mainstream media has concealed or ignored.

What started the protests?

The protests began with the brutal murder of George Floyd captured by onlookers showing Floyd pleading with police officers that he couldn’t breathe as one of them pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck over a period of eight minutes, which resulted in his death.

How did Americans respond?

All Americans, regardless of race, responded with feelings of revulsion. In addition, the nation was united in the judgement that Americans had the right to protest the killing of Floyd. In the United States freedom to express views through public protest is a fundamental right that citizens enjoy under the constitution.

How did President Trump respond?

Shortly after Floyd’s death President Trump said, “At my request, the FBI and the Department of Justice are already well into an investigation as to the very sad and tragic death in Minnesota of George Floyd….” He added, “My heart goes out to George’s family and friends. Justice will be served!”

How did Attorney General Barr respond?

Attorney General William Barr said:

It is the job of the Department of Justice to meet out justice fairly and even handedly in that particular case …

I understand an event like Minneapolis [the murder of George Floyd] and why it struck such a chord in the African-American community there. There has been longstanding distrust of law enforcement and that partly comes out of the fact that for much of our history our laws were explicitly discriminatory. And for the past decades we have been reforming our institutions to make sure they reflect our values and the police have been engaged in that.

Was George Floyd a good man?

This question, is of course, irrelevant to the matter of his murder. It should be underscored that whether or not George Floyd was a good man, he should not have been murdered. However, the media presented him as a good man, but was he? The media glossed over the fact that he resisted arrest after committing a crime while he was high on drugs, and instead portrayed him as family man, a loving father, even as a Christian.

Candace Owens, a courageous outspoken young black American woman, believes that Floyd was anything but a good man. She does not think that he should be remembered as a hero and martyr. She said:

George Floyd at the time of his arrest was high on fentanyl and he was high on methamphetamines. … In 1998 he spent 10 months in prison for theft with a firearm. … In 2002 he spent 8 months in prison for a cocaine offence. In 2004 he spent another 10 months in prison for a cocaine offence. In 2005 he spent another 10 months in prison for having less than 1 gram of cocaine on him.

Candace then explained the event that led her to conclude that George Floyd was a “horrible” man who she would refuse to “pretend” was a good person. She said:

In 2005 a woman who was pregnant received a knock on the door … [Five men, including George Floyd,] forced their way inside of her home. At that point George Floyd took out a gun and pressed it to her stomach as she was screaming for her life. … He was sentenced to five years in prison for that incident. …

George Floyd was a criminal. … He had a rap sheet that was long and dangerous … He was an example of a violent criminal his entire life up until the last moment. Now again, I want to be clear, this is not a defence of Derek Chauvin [the police officer who killed Floyd]—no one that I have spoken to, no one in the news is defending Derek Chauvin, he is getting what is coming to him … but why are we pretending that this criminal should be upheld as a citizen, as a martyr in black America?

What lessons can be learned from the death of George Floyd?

1.   Occasionally police do commit heinous crimes against black Americans, including murder.

2.   This is an extremely rare event, unrepresentative of police on the whole.

3.   The surest way to fall foul of the police is to participate in illegal activity, and then to resist arrest.

4.   People like George Floyd, who have lived a life of crime and who resist arrest, are at infinitely higher risk of harm from police.

5.   The best way to avoid any possibility of police brutality is to respect the police and obey the law.

Is there systemic racism in the police force and broader institutions?

Candace Owens claims that racially motivated police brutality is a myth. She said:

First and foremost, you have a 25 per cent higher chance of a violent white criminal dying at the hands of police officers than you do as a black criminal. Last year a total of 9 unarmed black men were killed by police officers and 19 white men were killed by police officers. …

[U]nfortunately the black community commits a disproportionate amount of crime compared to the white community. … 6 per cent of the population, black men, account for 44 per cent of all murders in this country according to 2018 statistics. … we [black people] commit 50 per cent of all violent offences … and we are only 13 per cent of the population. So we have a lot more encounters with police officers. …

The police officers have way more to be fearful of in the black community than the other way around. A police officer is 18 ½ times more likely to be killed by a black person than the other way around. So this entire narrative is complete smoke and mirrors. It’s all made up.

Speaking on institutional racism in the US police and broader institutions, Attorney General William Barr said:

We shouldn’t let this incident [Floyd’s killing] and the actions of a bad few obscure the fact that the police have made a lot of progress. Instances of police shooting black unarmed males has been dropping. It was 38 five years ago [during Obama’s presidency]. Last year it was 10 [during Trump’s presidency]. Ten in the nation, and 6 of those were involved in attacking the police officers at the time, and they were shot. So, while any death is too many, the fact is that in proportion it is relatively small. I mean, there are 8,000, roughly 8,000 homicides of African Americans in our country every year. 8,000. Ten last year were due to [police] shooting an unarmed black male. So we have to keep that in perspective.

Addressing this same topic in an interview with Lou Dobbs on US Fox News, Larry Elder, a conservative black commentator, responded to recent violence on the streets of American cities, supposedly resulting from endemic racism within the police force. He said:

If systemic racism is not the primary problem, then what is?

Candace Owen, addressing the Congressional Joint Subcommittee Hearing on Confronting Violence identified the major problems confronting black Americans. She claimed that the biggest problem is “father absence.” She said:

When are we going to call a hearing on the 74 per cent of single-motherhood rate in black America today? … Democrats are the author of that [fatherlessness] epidemic which leaves us, black Americans, 20 times more likely to end up in prison, 9 times more likely to drop out of high school and 5 times more likely to lead a life in poverty and to commit crime.

Owens mentioned other significant problems facing the black community, including the poor education system, the illiteracy rate, illegal immigration and abortion. Black women represent less than 7 per cent of the population in the US and yet they account for almost 40 per cent of all abortions performed. According to Candace, abortion

… has resulted in the slaughter of 18 million black Americans since 1973 … in major cities like New York we have more black babies that are being aborted than born alive. If we are talking about preserving lives … we should probably have a talk about that.

In another presentation to Students for Life, Candace made this salient point:

[W]hy does it seem to you that progressive policies always lead to regressive results in the black community? … A hard hitting truth is that the most unsafe place for a black child is not on the streets, it is not when they see a police officer, it is in their mother’s womb.

Who participated in the protests that followed Floyd’s death?

One group consisted of Americans of all colours who were dismayed at Floyd’s brutal murder. Even if the concerns of these people were misconceived in some way, they were genuinely concerned about police brutality, particularly against black Americans. 

But soon the protests were hijacked by groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Demonstrators set cars and buildings on fire, attacked and seriously injured (and in some cases beat to death) store owners, hurled bricks and faeces at police, wounding hundreds and killing some, tore down statues (including the statues of men who fought against slavery) and set churches ablaze.

What does Black Lives Matter stand for?

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a militant Marxist movement that is determined to remake the United States. BLM will not tolerate any criticism. People are being fired from their jobs for merely making balanced comments. The Principal of a public school in Windsor, Vermont was fired for posting the following comment on her Facebook page: “While I understand the urgency to feel compelled to advocate for black lives, what about our fellow law enforcement? Just because I don’t walk around with a BLM sign, should not mean I’m a racist.” The Superintendent of the school disagreed and described the quote as “outright racist.”

It is now considered dangerous to say that “all lives matter”. Jessica Doty Whitaker, 24, was shot dead on 5 July after she said, “All lives matter” to a group of Black Lives Matter supporters while walking with her fiancé, Jose Ramirez, in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana.

Her Facebook page has been inundated with hateful messages from trolls. Several comments suggested that more people should be killed. One person wrote, “Good riddance to another racist. PLZ let there be more.” A man warned, “Black lives matter. The rest of you are next.”

And yet all lives do matter. We are all human beings. We all have eternal souls regardless of our skin colour. Until recently declaring that all lives matter was considered obvious and virtuous. All human beings have been created by God in His image and likeness, and therefore every human life is precisely as valuable as every other human life. This truth forms the basis of the Christian faith. It is reflected by Thomas Jefferson, one of the US founders who eloquently stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But now, thanks to BLM, we can no longer say “all lives matter” out loud without being accused of being racist, or worse.  That is now considered to be hate speech. You can be fired or even killed for saying that.

What is Black Lives Matter demanding?

The following are just two quotes from BLM’s home page (blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/):

• We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.
• We foster a queer affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).

Note that these statements have nothing to do with being black or with the welfare of black communities. Rather, they promote a socialist agenda to undermine the family and to advance the LGBTQ “community”.

In addition, BLM is demanding open borders, the repeal of all immigration restrictions, the legalisation of sex work and prostitution, the destruction of the nuclear family, the forced reallocation of farm land, race based reparations “in the form of a guaranteed liveable income for all black people”, and the defunding of the police.

What are the consequences of the Black Lives Matter protests and propaganda?

Huge parts of America’s urban landscape have been destroyed in the past months, with few being held to account for it. The cost of rebuilding, if it ever takes place, will amount to billions of dollars. Cities with Democrat mayors instructed police to stand down while rioting and burning and looting took place night after night and week after week.

As police vacated their precincts, rioters took over a six block area in downtown Seattle, Washington, which they named CHOP (Capital Hill Ongoing Protest), prohibiting entry with roadblocks and guarding it with their guns. The inept Democrat mayor of Seattle said the takeover could lead to “a summer of love.” But instead it resulted in squalor, rape, drug abuse and violence, including the murder of two young black men.

Nineteen-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr was shot and died in Seattle’s encampment which the police had been ordered to vacate by Democrat officials. BLM liberators displayed their indifference for Anderson’s black life by blockading   paramedics who were attempting to reach him as he bled to death. After his death, Anderson’s father grieved that his son’s black life mattered, too. 

In St Louis, Missouri, every rioter arrested was subsequently released by Democrat officials without charges. In August 2014 riots took place in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St Louis. Years later Ferguson continues to look like an abandoned war zone. Burnings and lootings do not result in utopias. In New York and Washington, DC, hundreds of arrested rioters and looters were released by Democrat officials without bail.

The standing down of police in the face of protests and riots has resulted in crime and murder rates soaring in American cities. For example, in Chicago on the weekend of 4th July at least 17 people, including a 7-year-old black girl, were murdered and at least 72 others were wounded in shootings. Twelve of the victims were minors and two of them died from their injuries, according to police.

Natalia Wallace was the name of the 7-year-old girl who was fatally shot at a weekend party in her grandmother’s backyard. Her father later spoke of his grief at seeing “my daughter on the table with a gunshot wound to the forehead”. Did BLM mourn the death of this little black girl?  Did they show outrage that such an event could take place?  No, not even a whisper.

Franklin Graham lamented all of the deaths, particularly those of the children. Referring to the death of 7-year-old Natalia Wallace in Chicago, he wrote, “That is just shocking. What was supposed to be a holiday weekend turned into a weekend of heartbreak for many as violence was the headline in many cities across the country.” Graham continued:

Atlanta had their share too. Eight–year-old Secoriea Turner was tragically shot and killed while riding in the car with her mother. I’m glad Atlanta’s Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms sees this for what it is. She said the increase in protests correlates directly with the increase in violence. “These are members of the [black] community shooting each other. Enough is enough. You can’t blame this on a police officer. You can’t say this is about criminal justice reform” …

Following her death, Secoriea’s father lamented, “They say, ‘black lives matter’. You killed your own. You killed your own this time just because of a barrier. They killed my baby.”

On Sunday night, 12th July, a toddler, Davell Gardner Jr, died after being shot in the stomach while sitting in his stroller during a barbecue near a playground in New York. Davell’s grandmother Samantha Gardner lamented, “You all are ranting and raving about black lives. But you take a [black] life that was only a year and half old. And it’s not fair.”

Over the previous weekend (4th July) in New York City more than 60 people were shot across the five boroughs. At least 10 people died. As in the other cities, the police were responsible for none of these shootings.

While BLM has organised riots in many cities over many weeks in protest of the murder of George Floyd, it has shown no concern about black-on-black shootings and murders, including the murders of children.

Why are churches and Christians being targeted by Black Lives Matter?

Over recent weeks, Christian churches and Christian monuments have been desecrated and destroyed. In Florida a man drove his car into a church as preparations were being made for Sunday mass. He then poured petrol in the entry way and set the building alight. In California an historic church preparing to celebrate its 250th anniversary was set on fire and destroyed.

Speaking about attacks on Christian people and Christian churches Dinesh D’Souza, an Indian-born Christian conservative American author, said:

This contemporary crisis is now taking a very disturbing and dangerous new turn. It started with statues and monuments — “Let’s attack those.” But now the left has gone from attacking those things to attacking us—attacking us in the process of living our normal lives and exercising our basic constitutional liberties. I am talking about our ability to speak freely, our ability to practice our religion as we see fit.

D’Souza was referring to two video clips. The first shows agitators from BLM intimidating a young mother taking her small children to Grace Baptist Church in Troy, New York.  As she is leading her three small children into the church the mob is chanting at her, “This is no house of God”. One person screams out, “I’m calling CPS [Child Protection Services] on you”, while others chant, “Save those kids, save those kids.”

 In the second video, BLM rioters enter the church, shouting at the congregants. One member of the mob shouts, “I’m a Christian preacher, you dumb ****!”, “I’ll knock your ****, boy!”, “Get the **** out of my face. Jesus don’t love you.” There is no telling what the mob would have done if it were not for the fact that the church had police officers present.

D’Souza continues:

This is not a case where they [BLM protesters] are in the public space making a point—they are not protestors, they are terrorists in the very literal sense that they are trying to terrorize us into submission.

Now it makes no sense to say things like, “They hate America!” They don’t hate America. It begs the question, “Which America?” They like the America of abortion on demand. They like the America where anything goes. They like the America of transgender bathrooms and racial unrest. They don’t like our America. They don’t like property rights. They don’t like religious freedom. So it is those things they are targeting for assault. …

It is very important for us to start fighting back against all of this, and what this might mean is that churches need to start hiring armed security, in a sense creating our own militias to protect us in the exercise of our basic rights. We can’t allow this to go on and if the government will not protect us, well, we are just going to have to.

Former Democratic Party Leader Howard Dean tweeted the following message: “Unfortunately Christians don’t have much [sic] a reputation for anything but hate these days thanks to Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell and other Trump friends.” In response to Dean’s comment, Tucker Carlson, a commentator on Fox News observed, “Here you have the former head of the DNC [Democratic National Committee] attacking Christianity as a religion of hate and its disciples as haters.”

Eric Metaxas, a Christian American author, speaker, and conservative radio host addressed the reasons behind the destruction of monuments and the burning of churches. He said:

When you start to scapegoat Christians and you say it’s because of them that these things are happening, unfortunately you fall into the trap of being like the emperor Nero when Rome burned. … He blamed the Christians. It is very convenient, it is happening now. I think a lot of the nastiness that is being directed at the statues [of Christ and Mary] really has to do with something deeper … I hate to say it, but there is something very dark. You saw this in the French revolution, there was a hatred at the bottom of it of God, of any kind of authority … and these [BLM] people are drunk with the idea that they can somehow be an authority themselves, that they can seize power, and if you really want to cut to the chase, you forget about statues of generals and things, you go right for God… you go for churches.

I’ll tell you why [Christian leaders seem to passively accept the burnings of churches, etc, unlike Muslim leaders who would not tolerate the burnings of mosques]: There are many Christian leaders who don’t understand the Bible. When David killed Goliath, it wasn’t like before he became a Christian and then he became a Christian and repented. No, we celebrate David killing Goliath. There are many instances in Scripture where people fight [and understanding of this] has been lost. There are many people, they’ve got a watered down kind of Christianity … they seem to think that being nice is what it means to be a Christian. …

Bonhoeffer understood that the most Christian thing he could do was to participate in a plot to kill Hitler because he understood that there were victims. When you know that there are people suffering if you don’t do something about it you are to blame.

These [rioters in US cities] are not just political mobs. There is something deeper and darker … There is a rage and a sense of envy. I don’t like to use the word too lightly, but there is something satanic about it. [There is] something about it that is an unbridled, roaring fury … If you don’t deal with it with some force, really then you are allowing other people to be harmed. … Christian leader[s should] understand that this [BLM] is a Marxist, violent organisation—this has nothing to do anymore with George Floyd. … They want to burn down everything that has been built by good people over centuries, most of whom of course, were Christians.

What are President Trump’s thoughts on the riots and America’s future?

Speaking for the 4th of July Independence Day celebrations at Mt Rushmore, President Donald Trump spoke about the current problems facing America and a response to them.  He began by speaking about the authors of the Declaration of Independence, and said:

They enshrined a divine truth that changed the world forever when they said that all men are created equal. These immortal words set in motion the unstoppable march of freedom. Our founders boldly declared that we are all endowed with the same rights given us by our Creator in Heaven, and that which God has given us we will allow no one ever to take away. Ever!

And yet, as we meet here tonight, there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for … Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children. Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities. Many of these people have no idea why they’re doing this, but some know what they are doing. …

One of their political weapons is cancel culture, driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and to our values and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America.

This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty must be stopped and it will be stopped very quickly. We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children from this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life. In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished. …

Make no mistake. This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress. To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage.

Our people have a great memory. They will never forget the destruction of statues and monuments to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, abolitionists and many others. The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets and cities that are run by liberal Democrats in every case is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions. Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that they were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies, all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition. …

We are proud of the fact that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and we understand that these values have dramatically advanced the cause of peace and justice throughout the world. We know that the American family is the bedrock of American life. … We believe in equal opportunity, equal justice, and equal treatment for citizens of every race, background, religion and creed. Every child of every colour, born and unborn, is made in the holy image of God.

We want free and open debate, not speech codes and cancel culture. We embrace tolerance, not prejudice. We support the courageous men and women of law enforcement. … We believe that our children should be taught to love their country, honour their history, and respect our great American flag. We stand tall, we stand proud, and we only kneel to Almighty God. …

My fellow Americans, it is time to speak up loudly and strongly and powerfully and defend the integrity of our country.

What of the future?

Although our Sovereign Lord is in charge of human history and is not dependent on human beings to achieve his purposes, it is, humanly speaking, difficult to see a good future for the United States apart from President Donald Trump. What will happen if he loses the election in November? This is not just a question that concerns the US.  For as we have seen from the recent protests in Australia and elsewhere in the West, what happens in America dramatically affects what will happen throughout the free world.