Phillip Wong Productions

Editorial/Opinion

A City Reacts: After The Murder Of George Floyd

          I knew, after the murder of George Floyd, that there would be reaction.

          In a world of seven billion people and a nation of 330 million, we often feel that our voice doesn’t matter. And if you are around thousands of other people, and hearing the same refrain over and over and over – you realize that there is a schism between what people see, hear, feel and experience – and what cloistered people in isolated offices understand.

          It is like stepping in something, and experiencing the smell. You only can relate, if you’ve been there.

          As I toured the city, in these groups of people, in the middle of a pandemic, with tension between police and people who were both irate, and trying to goad for reaction, there were officers, and civilians pushing to hold the line.

          Maintain discipline, control tempers.

          Officers were talking up discipline to cops, March Organizers were pushing back on marchers. Cops took off helmets to talk and hear complaints. I was struck by how many police were women and minorities. I wondered if they emptied out their academy and suspended off-days to display the diversity of their police force.

          These were the people who have been there, seen it, heard it, experienced it – and their reactions.