The killing of George Floyd and the meaning of kneeling
When we see a white police officer kneeling on a black body, squeezing the breath of life out of that body, we are witnessing an act of worship.
Kneeling, in most of the world’s religions, is an act of worship and veneration for a deity or its mythic representatives. On May 25 in Minneapolis, a white police officer kneeled on the neck of a black man named George Floyd, who was already handcuffed, for as many as nine minutes. The officer kneeled on his neck as Floyd pleaded, “I can’t breathe!” The officer knelt there until EMTs arrived and took Floyd, now unresponsive, away.
A ten-minute video of the police killing went viral, and by the end of the day the four police officers who were at the scene, including the primary perpetrator, Derek Chauvin, had been fired. The FBI has been called in to investigate.
The video of Floyd’s killing is excruciating to watch. Witnesses can be heard pleading with the officers to allow him to breathe. The officer ignores the crowd’s entreaties, continuing to kneel nonchalantly on the man’s neck with his hands in his pockets. He does not move until the ambulance arrives.
