Six years ago a man was murdered in broad daylight, throttled to death while pleading for his life from a gang of armed and violent thugs, all for the dastardly crime of being suspected of selling individual cigarettes to willing customers. I am, of course, talking about the execution of Eric Garner in broad daylight by Officer Daniel Pantaleo of the New York Police Department and his cohort.
Eric’s last words? I can’t breathe. He said it eleven times and not once did the police let up. A father of six children on the ground pleading for his life, begging simply for air and not once did these barbarians let up enough so that he could breathe. They choked him to death as he plead for his life from brutal, hardened, uncaring men. You can watch a video of it here if you wish to see the tragedy itself. Though I warn you, it is not entertainment. It is, in essence, a snuff film.
So, what happened to these murderers? Nothing. The accessories to the crime -the gang members in black holding Eric down- were never held accountable for any crime while the actual murderer simply lost his job. You read that correctly. Officer Daniel Pantaleo throttled a father to death in the streets in broad daylight and what were the results? A slap on the wrist. If we committed a similar crime we would be facing life in prison without parole. But when a police officer does it? Quite often the the worse punishment they face is losing their job. And why? Because, and I quote from the link above:
[United States attorney in Brooklyn, Richard P. Donoghue] went over the arrest step by step, maintaining the government could not prove Officer Pantaleo willfully used excessive force to violate Mr. Garner’s rights.
The government could not prove that a police officer who throttled a man to death while begging to simply be able to breathe used “excessive force.” A grand jury said it “saw no reasonable cause” to convict Pantaleo of murdering Eric despite the fact that the city’s chief medical officer and an independent forensic pathologist both agreed that it was Pantaleo’s choke hold that killed Eric. Oh, and Pantaleo’s firing? It only came five years after he murdered Eric on the sidewalks of New York City as he cried for the simple gift of one gulp of air. Eric was murdered in 2014 and Pantaleo was fired in 2019.
Why did it take so long for a known murderer to lose his job? Why isn’t he and his entire cadre of murderous thugs behind prison bars right now? It is quite simple. The cops believe they have the right to murder you and get away with it. Just read the response of Patrick Lynch, President of the New York police union. He explains quite well why they think the murder of Eric Garner was justified and why you should comply with every command from a police officer, even if it is unjust:
“We feel badly that there was a loss of life. But unfortunately Mr. Garner made a choice that day to resist arrest. You cannot resist arrest. Because resisting arrest leads to confrontation. Confrontation leads to tragedy.”
Did you understand the message there? Do what you’re told, even when what you’re told is wrong, illegal, or unjust because if you confront police in anyway they have the right to kill you. There is no crime so small, so petty, so meaningless that the police will not beat and murder you to enforce and, if they do, they will always be right and almost always be protected for doing so.
So, why do I bring this up, five years after the major events unfolded? Two reasons:
- First, this event, and the many others like it, reveals the true nature of the state in a raw and pure way that it otherwise tries to keep hidden behind flags, banners, songs, and other emotionally manipulative patriotic nonsense
- Secondly, because it has happened again. Meet George Floyd.
George Floyd
This is the George Floyd he undoubtedly wanted to be remembered for being. He was a man whose friends remembered him as loving, his co-workers remembered him as kind, and his family remembers him as a gentle giant. In the words of the owner of the bistro where George worked security, George was, “A friend that was always available to work, always helps, always helped with cleaning up, we loved him a lot.” Like Eric, George was the father of a 6 year old daughter. George also coached children’s football.
Tragically, this is how he will be remembered.
On Monday, May 25th, 2020, George Loyd was in the backseat of a pulled over SUV. Police, responding to a reported “forgery in process” (whatever that means in a situation where they obviously aren’t counterfeiting US dollars) pulled Lloyd out of the vehicle because he “matched a description of the suspect,” handcuffed him, and at some point, claiming he was resisting arrest, pinned Lloyd to the ground, and knelt on his neck for so long that it strangled him to death. Like Eric Garner, George Floyd died begging the jackboot kneeling on his neck for the basic human right to breath, to not die while pinned to the street like an animal. Like Eric Garner, the jackboot in question and his posse of thugs denied George that precious gift and basic human right. They strangled him to death while grinding his face into the hot tarmac of a Minneapolis street on a late Spring day. You can see the video of George, begging for his life, telling the officers that he couldn’t breath, pleading for them to please let up off his throat as he wheezes and cries in obvious agony here. But, again, be forewarned. It is essentially a snuff film.
The police department initially lied about George’s arrest. This from the New York Times:
The police said the man was found sitting on top of a blue car and “appeared to be under the influence.”
“He was ordered to step from his car,” the department’s statement said. “After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress.”
The statement said that officers had called for an ambulance.
Their initial report has been quickly proven false. Video has emerged of Floyd’s arrest that shows the police department lied. As you can see from this security camera footage, George was not sitting on top of a blue car, he did not resist arrest, and he was handcuffed without any serious difficulties. In fact it shows him sitting calmly handcuffed against a wall where police leave him alone for a moment. He doesn’t run, he doesn’t fight, he doesn’t resist. This video picks up where the security camera footage ends, showing George fall to the ground and then three different police pinning him to the ground. Again he is not fighting. He is not resisting. But he is being murdered in broad daylight with multiple witnesses.
In response to this murder, riots have erupted in the city of Minneapolis as angry people explode in anger at the injustice of everything they’ve suffered under the whip of the state. The four officers involved have been fired and Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis, is calling for Chauvin to be prosecuted. But the riots are about more than George’s murder. It is about the violence and oppression directed against the rioters again and again that they have not been able to defend themselves against nor seek justice for because the power of the state seems too great and powerful to confront. So their anger has festered, sitting deep in their bones, like a poison slowly leaking into all the parts of society. Finally all that fear, anger, and rage exploded, set off by the match of George’s murder. The people of Minneapolis have rose up, attacked the police, and set parts of the city are on fire. Both literally and metaphorically, Minneapolis burned.
The Nature of the State
These murders, and the many like them, reveal the true nature of the State in a way that nothing else does. They prove that Orwell was far more correct (and literally so) in his description of state power in 1984 than many wish to acknowledge:
As discussed on here before, the nature of the state is brutality, violence, and control. Statist (“state-ist”) governments rule through violence and the threat of it- do what you’re commanded to do or it will beat you, kidnap you, cage you, and kill you if you don’t. This why men like Chauvin are repeatedly protected by the system despite them repeatedly violating even its so-called “rules.” Whether he was breaking the “rules” or not, he was doing what he was meant to do, so he gets protected by it as much as it can. As Dr. Robert Higgs explains so succinctly and clearly, the government is not your friend and does not care about you:
If the government were on your side, if it really had your best interest at heart, why would it issue so many commands to you (and other innocent persons), with notice that your failure to comply will result in fines, imprisonment and, if need be, your death? Is this how a friend would treat you?
Indeed, is this not how a terrifying enemy would treat you?
To paraphrase Officer Lynch, do what you’re told by the government because resistance leads to confrontation and confrontation leads to tragedy- your death. This is the nature of the state and it is perfectly illustrated by the actions and powers of the police in a way that is undeniable.
The nature of policing is one of overwhelming, legally privileged and protected terrorism. Police are men and women with guns roaming around cities and towns, forcing people off the roads, extorting from them sums of money large and small under the threat of being kidnapped (arrested), sexually assaulted (pat downs, strip searches, and cavity searches), robbed (“civil asset forfeiture”), extorted (fines), and caged (jailed). The only difference between the police and the highwaymen of yore are that the police mostly don’t ride horses anymore. They’re robbers, rapists, and thugs- sharks looking for blood. No matter what you do, you have no right to life, liberty, or property according to the state when confronted with the commands of its enforcers. The laws are corrupt and enforcing such corruption makes you corrupt. The perpetuation of evil is evil.
And if you resist these corrupt laws, in any manner, the ending is the same. Remember, merely being a free thinking individual who wants to know why he or she is being arrested is a crime for which you -like Eric- can be murdered. It doesn’t matter if you’re violent or nonviolent. A violent resister will be summarily executed or beaten to death if possible. A nonviolent resister might try a tactic similar to what accidentally happened with George Floyd by simply falling to the ground and refusing to get up or assist in being lifted and carried to the police car. And just like George, the nonviolent resister could be murdered in broad daylight. This is not “police misconduct,” rather this is policing exactly how it is meant to function as the militarized local enforcement arm of the state.
While there is something to be said for how privatizing policing would positively effect change, the truth is that until we do something to change that reality of the state -of the nature of the government itself- then no matter how many protests or riots we have, no matter how many petitions we sign, no matter how many laws we change, no matter who we elect, our faces will never be far from the boot. This is because the root cause -the power of the state to do what it will to you- will not have changed. No matter how often you hack away at the corrupted branches until you strike the root of corruption nothing will change. Even the rare occasions that the individual villains who murder people are held accountable it will not matter unless we abandon the State itself. The spilt blood of those villains will merely become blood libations to pacify the rage drunken masses, the slain bodies of Pantaleo and Chauvin laid upon the altars of vengeance to the gods of Democracy nothing more than sacrifices that continue the power of the State. Until we realize that it is the system itself that is the problem and which needs to be abolished then all that will happen is more men and women will be murdered by the State and its operatives who will in turn be sacrificed as scapegoats taking all the blame, allowing the system of oppression that is the state to continue unabated.
This utopian project we have embarked on that says if we can get everything just right we can give a ruling elite the power to beat, cage, and kill whoever they want and those in power will only use that power for good must be abandoned for the delusion that it is, otherwise George Floyd will not be the last man murdered by the State and it’s enforcers. And next time it could be your husband, your wife, your son, or your daughter. It could be you.
The Better Way
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. (1 Kings 18:21)
Like the ancient Children of Israel we cannot long falter before the choices given us, do we serve the Lord or do we serve Baal? In the name of country and nation we can continue to feed our lives, children, and treasure to the false gods of the State and its idols of stone and steel in the name of protection, deliverance, safety, welfare, and provision -like the idolators of old who burned their children alive as sacrifices for Moloch and Baal for the assurance of protection against foreign enemies and ripe harvests- or we can put our faith in Christ and declare right now, right this minute, for something better. Our choice is between Zion and anything else, and the longer we falter by choosing anything other than Zion the longer we extend and deepen our own suffering.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. (Matthew 6:24)
It is telling that many translations render serve as slave, meaning you can either be a slave to Christ or you can be a slave to the world and its powers, but you cannot be both. So, who is your Master? If it be Christ than you can no longer choose to serve any other master- no President, no Prime Minister, no King, no country, no nation. Nor can you follow their ways and perpetuate their violence in the name of expanding their hegemony, securing their power, and promoting their causes and serve Christ. It is one or the other, never both.
The Apostle Paul taught:
What concord hath Christ with Belial? …And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:15-18)
If Christ is your Master you must come out of the ways of the world, you must come out of its halls of power and institutions of violence and control, you must come out of the world and come to Zion. Abandon the unclean idols of the state, abandon its unclean and savage ways, abandon Belial for Jesus Christ. As you do so you will be welcomed as the people and Children of God and begin to build His kingdom upon the Earth. Zion is not a mythical place. It is not a metaphor. It is not an ephemeral goal to one day be achieved. It can be a reality right here, right now if you but choose it.
The First Step
So, if Zion is possible right now for those who would abandon the brutality of the State and its idol lies of safety, wealth, and property -things only God can guarantee, where do we start? What is the first step on the path towards Zion that anyone can take? Here again, the Apostle Paul provides his insight:
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12: 10-21)
The Apostle Paul gives some sound advice here. If you wish to create Zion here is how you start. Love God, serve others, do not be arrogant, do not seek to get revenge by returning evil for evil, blow for blow, wound for wound, live peaceably with all, trust in God’s judgments instead of seeking to avenge yourself- to get what you think you deserve, feed, clothe, and care for your enemy. Finally, do not be overcome by evil and allow the passions and ideas of the world to drag you into its ways, instead overcome evil with good. When someone does something evil to you respond by doing good to them. Return love for hate, kindness for violence, mercy for malevolence.
In order to do this you must abandon the State. A merciful person who seeks to serve his or her enemy will not lash out violently against them, will not throttle the life out of someone for wanting to know why they are being attacked, will not kneel upon the throat of a man begging for his life and slowly strangle him to death. But it means more than that- it means abandoning the structure and means of the State itself.
As William Lloyd Garrison put it so eloquently over 200 years ago:
As every human government is upheld by physical strength, and its laws are enforced virtually at the point of the bayonet, we cannot hold any office which imposes upon its incumbent the obligation to compel men to do right, on pain of imprisonment or death. We therefore voluntarily exclude ourselves from every legislative and judicial body, and repudiate all human politics, worldly honors, and stations of authority. If we cannot occupy a seat in the legislature or on the bench, neither can we elect others to act as our substitutes in any such capacity.
It follows, that we cannot sue any man at law, to compel him by force to restore anything which he may have wrongfully taken from us or others; but if he has seized our coat, we shall surrender up our cloak, rather than subject him to punishment.
We believe that the penal code of the old covenant, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, has been abrogated by JESUS CHRIST; and that, under the new covenant, the forgiveness instead of the punishment of enemies has been enjoined upon all his disciples, in all cases whatsoever. To extort money from his enemies, or set them upon a pillory, or cast them into prison, or hang them upon a gallows, is obviously not to forgive, but to take retribution. Vengeance is mine—I will repay, saith the Lord.
The history of mankind is crowded with evidence proving that physical coercion is not adapted to moral regeneration; that the sinful disposition of men can be subdued only by love; that evil can be exterminated from earth only by goodness; that it is not safe to rely on an arm of flesh, upon a man whose breath is in his nostrils, to preserve us from harm; that there is great security in being gentle, harmless, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy; that it is only the meek who shall inherit the earth, for the violent who resort to the sword are destined to perish with the sword.
To come to Zion we must first come out of the State itself. We must abandon its police forces, its military forces, its welfare forces, its judicial forces, all of its institutions and systems for they are all established on oppression, repression, and brutality, on vengeance and not mercy, on hate and not love, on Moloch, Mammon, Belial, and Baal not Christ. In doing so we take from it the power and justification it derives from our supposed obedience. At the same time we create a parallel institution, a separate society in the world but not of it, that replaces the idols and lies of the State with the truth of God; without violence or revolution we will find the governments of the world supplemented and replaced by the Kingdom of Christ, by Zion.
Final Thoughts
We do not need to wait for the establishment of the City of Zion to create Zion herself. Nor do we need to wait for grand prophetic pronouncements that now is the time. We can start the great work today. This very moment. And in doing so we can take from the State the thing it needs most to maintain its power and to continue its pattern of violence and oppression; we can take from it the things it needs to justify its open slaughter of innocent men and women in the streets- our acquiescence. As we do so, and as we work to convert the many others around us to the cause of Christ that they also come out of Babylon and begin to live Zion, the State will not be overthrown as much as it will be dissolved. Along the way the powers that allow the State to rape, rob, beat cage, and kill people will also disappear. Perhaps then, finally, we can ensure that these kind of murders will never occur again and the blood of Eric Garner and George Floyd (and the millions like them) that, like Abel’s, cries out to God from the ground for justice, may finally know peace.