George Floyd’s killing: Will this death finally bring change?

Will this time be different?

Will the knee on George Floyd’s neck bring change?

Will a weekend of protest and pain matter, or will time and indifference eventually muffle demonstrators, same as what happened after Eric Garner, Philando Castille, Michael Brown?

A wave of anguish swept over the United States Friday and Saturday, with violent and destructive demonstrations prompting curfews in more than two dozen cities. It was a fuller and fiercer display of anger, perhaps, than previous protests over police. Will the aftermath be different this time?

Maybe so. There have been encouraging signs in the days following Floyd’s death. Police chiefs across the country, including in North Carolina, have joined public figures to condemn the killing. Police unions, which often jump to the defense of officers, have largely and quietly seemed to recognize that this killing was indefensible.

We also are not hearing the usual loud chorus of defenders, the ones who minimize the history of these killings as a “few bad apples” or wonder why the victim didn’t just do as officers asked. And while we are again seeing some who try to shift the conversation to the lawlessness of some demonstrators, those deflections are being met with more voices from more people — leaders and celebrities and athletes and coaches — expressing horror about George Floyd and hope that his death will finally open hearts and minds.

That’s what it has often taken for change to happen, whether it’s the horror of a church bombing or tragedy of a political assassination. But as people from Sandy Hook to Orlando to Las Vegas know, horror sometimes is not enough. It will take more to make George Floyd’s death different than all the police killings before it.

It will take a recognition that while police nobly serve each day, the mistrust the black community has of law enforcement is rooted in some uncomfortable realities. It will take a true accounting of racial bias in police forces, whether that comes from implicit bias or, as the FBI warned about more than a decade ago, the continuing threat of white nationalists and sympathizers infiltrating local and state law enforcement.

Change also will take an acknowledgment of the poisonous culture of protectionism among police, a reluctance of too many officers and leaders to criticize or question their own, especially at the moment when those questions most need to be asked. George Floyd did not die only because of one police officer’s knee. Three other officers did nothing to stop the killing, including one who impassively ignored the pleadings of bystanders.

Finally, change will happen only when our leaders are willing to do the hard work of changing laws to raise the low bar police have to justify using deadly force. California passed one such law last year that raised the threshold for deadly force from “reasonable” to “necessary” and allowed prosecutors to consider whether an officer failed to use deescalation tactics or escalated the situation to a violent encounter. North Carolina, like many states, uses a similar “reasonable” threshold.

Meanwhile, members of Congress should address a little-known legal doctrine called qualified immunity, which was meant to protect government employees against frivolous lawsuits but has instead provided police a shield from legitimate lawsuits from victims’ families. Want change to come more rapidly? Let bad cops and the people who employ them be sued.

All of which will only be a start. Cities and states must also address the structural inequities that leave minority communities more vulnerable to financial and health ruin. Our leaders talk about those disparities at the height of demonstrations like those this weekend. Many are doing the hard work to close gaps and bring change.

Will more people join them now? Will last week’s horror and this weekend’s pain finally bring change? Will this time be different?

This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 11:42 AM.