If only one police officer at the arrest of George Floyd had said, “Enough.” 
That’s all it would have taken to avert a tragedy — this time, anyway.
So many of us across the country are reeling with shock and anger and despair. Six year ago, we were aghast when Eric Garner struggled against getting arrested for a misdemeanor and ended up dead after a police officer used excessive force. But this time — this time, because God help us, I don’t believe this will be the last — with George Floyd, he didn’t even struggle. He was cuffed, lying on his belly, four of them to one of him even if he had managed to get up. There was no need to put a knee on his neck at any time.
If only one of the other officers standing nearby had said to his kneeling colleague, “Get up now. We got this.”
Overall, I’m a staunch defender of police. We ask them to do things we don’t have the training or courage to take on, and we pay them very little for walking into situations that might cost them their lives. And I believe most police officers do the right thing, even under extreme duress.
I feel betrayed when they let us down so egregiously, as they have done in recent weeks with Floyd and with Breonna Taylor, shot to death in her own home by police who burst in without identifying themselves as police.
And this comes on the heels of Ahmaud Arbery shot to death by white men as he jogged through a white neighborhood; and Chris Cooper who, while bird-watching in Central Park, asked a white woman to leash her dog as per city ordinance and she called 9-1-1, feigning panic and claiming she was being “attacked by an African American.”
In cities across the country, people are taking to the streets to say, “Enough.” I don’t condone the violence and destruction of property, even though I understand it. People have protested peacefully for years and have been ignored or punished. Think of pro football player Colin Kaepernick silently kneeling during the national anthem or Rev. William Barber leading orderly sit-ins outside N.C. Legislature meetings on a regular schedule. What changed, other than Kaepernick is deemed unemployable and Barber has a growing rap sheet.
And black men are going public, their own #MeToo movement, with their stories of frightening experiences at the hands of police that have left them understandably fearful whenever police approach, incidents they never reported because what good would it do? They would only have their credibility called into question.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump tweets hate-mongering from a bunker far from the protests, egging on more violence.
Enough. We don’t have to be heroes or eloquent speakers, or start movements or be wealthy enough to donate to causes. We just need to rise and stand together and say, “Enough.”
— Nancy Oates
