The ugliness of ‘crowd mentality’ as illustrated by the George Floyd case

Minnesota was in the white-hot spotlight of the media last week. It wasn’t for the beauty of, or bountiful fishing in, our 10,000-plus lakes, or the loveliness of the North Shore drive along Lake Superior, or many other scenic vistas that draw tourists by the thousands every year. No, we were in the spotlight for a horrific crime — yet another police-involved killing of a civilian (in this case, a black man named George Floyd) — and then the ensuing demonstrations and riots.

On the surface, this case was just another in a very long line of what appears to be racially-motivated violence against non-white people, and it is likely that it is. Presumably the violence and hatred that spewed forth last week came about from the long-burning fires of racism, injustice, and resentment between the races for their mistreatment of the others. I can’t say truthfully that I disagree with people of color being angry about how they have been treated by white people historically, because my heart is genuinely sad about all this shit.

As we all know, there have been a large number of similar high-profile officer-involved killings of men, in most cases white officer(s) against a black man. Some of these cases have occurred in my state, which prides itself on so-called “Minnesota Nice,” a phrase that is basically a tourist slogan. Because of these killings, millions upon millions of dollars have been paid out in settlements (such as in Minneapolis) and now many police departments…