This is an extra issue and a special issue about the death of George
Floyd and the protests that it has provoked. I decided to make and
release this issue because I felt weird about not covering this issue
on Friday. The main reason I did not mention George Floyd in the
comic released Friday is that the comic has a terrible lead time. I
made the comic for last week on Sunday, before all this blew up. I am
also very close to being on vacation and I feel exhausted from
working in retail in the midst of a pandemic so I was not quite on
the ball enough this week to make an extra issue before now. I wanted
to post an issue about this topic this weekend because I felt like
next Friday would be too late. There will of course, be a regular
issue of Rick this week. I found this issue to be incredibly hard to
write. I toyed with making it an entirely serious issue to match my
angst. I also struggled with finding the right tone and making the
right arguments. Anyway, I made it a special issue because police
brutality perfectly matches my criteria for making something a
special issue. It is an important topic and one I do not cover
enough. It has been many years since I have mentioned police
brutality against people of color. My brother posted a meme to
Facebook which had the headline about things you need to know about
George Floyd. The meme continued to list many admirable qualities and
traits of Floyd. This list reinforces the fact that Minneapolis and
Floyd’s friends and loved ones have suffered a terrible loss, but
there is only one thing I personally need to know about George Floyd:
he was a human being. No one deserves to die that way. No one should
be bound in handcuffs and have their airway obstructed by the knee of
another person. My anger is not directed towards all police officers.
I know that it is not all cops, but it is far too many of them.
Police brutality happens enough that it merits a response form all of
the law enforcement institution in the United States. I also wish
police officers, the decent police officers, would be more willing to
speak out against the bad ones. It seems to me that police officers
tend to get automatically defensive and I wish they would be more
willing to speak out against their brethren who act in bad faith. I
wish they were willing to speak out against their brethren that
besmirch the reputation of police everywhere. If police officers and
politicians around the country would respond to minorities with
empathy and take steps to discipline the truly bad police officers, I
think it would go a long way to making things right. I also think
that police officers should be trained differently in how they
approach these kinds of situations.
Sunday, May 31, 2020
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