I am George Floyd; you know, the guy in Minneapolis, Minnesota who was being held down by two officers while a third officer had his hands in his pocket while having his KNEE ON MY NECK
A fourth officer made the conscious choice to assess the situation a few times and yet somehow made the unconscionable decision to ignore the voices of witnesses who pleaded with the officers to remove the KNEE FROM MY NECK
Though I just died, I cant help but wish that one or perhaps all of the officers had listened when I told them I couldn’t breathe; instead, they held their deadly position for almost three minutes after I died with his KNEE STILL ON MY NECK
As I felt what I now know to be the life leaving my body, I begged them to please allow me to breathe before calling out for my momma who had passed away two years ago to the day; the officer still did not remove his KNEE FROM MY NECK
Though my life was filled with an abundance of blessings, I am left with a lot of unanswered questions; the main one is, why the hell didn’t the officer take his KNEE OFF MY NECK
At first there was a rumor that I was passing bad checks and that is the reason the police were called and I was subsequently placed under arrest; allegedly, that led to the KNEE BEING PLACED ON MY NECK
In reality, I am only guilty of trying to buy cigarettes from the store without realizing the currency I used was counterfeit. I never knew that was punishable by death by having a KNEE ON MY NECK
If I were trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at a store that I am known to frequent, I certainly would not at all be sitting outside the store in my vehicle after the police were called waiting for the them to put a KNEE ON MY NECK
The officers actually tried to justify their actions by filing a report saying, I resisted arrest despite the fact that by the grace of God and a few witnesses, the video shows I was face down, handcuffed and never resisted arrest. Thus, no need for the KNEE ON MY NECK
I really don’t know why the powers that be choose not to see that racism, which is an embryo for hate in our society inevitably leads to an abuse of power in our police force; I believe that’s why I died with a KNEE ON MY NECK
Perhaps if we all understood that the existence of hate in any form is like early signs of cancer. Hate towards some is in serious need of a biopsy; perhaps then I wouldn’t be waiting on my second autopsy simply because the officer had a KNEE ON MY NECK
I say second autopsy because the local medical examiner who performed the first one didn’t acknowledge until after the second one was done by an independent Forensic Medical Examiner, that I was in fact murdered by constant pressure on my back combined with the KNEE ON MY NECK
And so as my body lay here on this cold slab, I’m left to wonder if the world that my soul just left is learning or are cities just burning in vain in my name because he wouldn’t take his KNEE OFF MY NECK
So yeah, after two postmortems, I’m lying in the morgue waiting to be embalmed while others hope and pray for those who protest my murder to be calm; all because a police officer refused to take his KNEE OFF MY DAMN NECK!!!
Written by Emerson Welch
