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For Many, George Floyd Death Not a Solitary Incident

Esha Sarai

   WASHINGTON - Gerald Davis, a 67-year-old small business owner in
   Washington, D.C., was driving to buy insect repellent at a local 7-11
   convenience store Friday night when a van began tailgating him with its
   high beams on.

   "I gave them the courtesy of going by me by pulling over, they stayed
   behind my truck and it really frightened me...it was clear that this
   was a harassment situation," Davis said.

   "And what just happened in Minnesota - that's running across my head."

   Davis saw a police car outside the 7-11 and pulled over - both to buy
   his bug spray and to speak with the officers about what he had
   experienced.

   "They were so dismissing. They were not even interested in what I was
   saying," Davis recounts.

   What happened in that moment mirrors what a multitude of black
   Americans and supporters are are feeling throughout the country today.

   "I remembered at 4 years old when I couldn't sit at a soda fountain in
   my hometown.

   That came up. Going to the all-white high school, being one of 12 black
   kids - the harassment and threats out there. That exploded. The many
   times I've been stopped by the cops harassing me," Davis said.

   "All that erupted in my gut ... I turned to the cops. I had no fear.
   And I just said, 'a black man's feelings are never regarded because
   white people have been trained, particularly police, to dehumanize
   them."

   For many who are defying a COVID-19 pandemic to protest around the
   United States today, the violent death of George Floyd -- who died with
   a Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee on his neck -- is not a
   solitary incident, but a tipping point.

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