The Patriot Post® · Floyd's Legacy: Burn, Loot, and Murder
In the year since George Floyd’s death, a question arises: What is the actual legacy of the career criminal-turned-martyr for the so-called Black Lives Matter movement? For one thing, data specifically related to law enforcement and crime shows a decided downturn in society writ large and, more tellingly, in Floyd’s home city of Minneapolis.
The protests that erupted in Minneapolis following Floyd’s death quickly devolved into rioting, looting, and massive amounts of property damage, costing the city and business owners hundreds of millions of dollars. However, worse than the property damage — the majority of which, ironically, was contained in black neighborhoods — has been the subsequent spike in violent crime and homicides. The killings have left the city branded with the moniker “Murderapolis.”
In 2020, Minneapolis experienced a 58% increase in murders over the previous year, with 185 people killed, surpassing the former record high of 183 set in 1995. Much if not all of this spiking crime can be laid at the feet of leftist city leaders, who responded to the bogus narrative of “systemic racism” by voting to defund and otherwise limit law enforcement, all in the name of promoting “social justice.”
Not surprisingly, active police presence throughout the city decreased significantly, resulting in a growing crime wave. As Just the News reports: “Carjackings increased 537% year-to-date in November 2020. More than 550 people were wounded by gunfire in 2020, exceeding a 100% increase over 2019, Minnesota Public Radio reported, while people shot more than 24,000 bullets in Minneapolis in 2020.”
Floyd’s legacy isn’t limited to Minneapolis. Major cities across the nation have witnessed similar escalations in violent crime. For example, in the nation’s capital, homicides are killing more people than COVID. Fox News notes, “The number of homicides in Washington D.C., surpassed coronavirus deaths in the city by a nearly 3-to-1 ratio in July as the nation’s capital continues to grapple with an uptick in murders.” Fox adds that DC “recorded 100 homicides by July 10 — the earliest the city has hit that number since 2003.”
The most unfortunate aspect is that most of the victims are black Americans — and black Americans are also the primary culprits. It would be more accurate to classify most of this dramatic rise in crime as black-on-black violence.
And it is this aspect of Floyd’s legacy that may be the most ironic. The face of BLM’s cry against supposed “racial injustice” has only served to ensure that more black Americans are left more vulnerable to crime, violence, and economic deprivation than they were before Floyd’s death.
Floyd’s true legacy is that his death has been used by devious and deceitful anti-American racist revolutionaries to attack law enforcement and the very core values of individual rights and liberty upon which this country was founded. It was those very values that served as the justification and motivation to end our nation’s dark legacies of slavery and Jim Crow. Legacies Americans rightfully lament. Yet it appears that Floyd’s legacy will be yet another chapter in U.S. history for which future generations should shake their heads in disbelief and shame.
(Edited.)