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<\/a>Chauvin, 3 ex-cops charged in Floyd death to appear in court. New York Post<\/p><\/div>\n
When any of the dozen onlookers stepped onto the street toward Chauvin, a fourth officer, Tou Thao, reached for his mace can and ordered them back onto the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
When Floyd ceased crying out, the bystanders became even more alarmed. None of them knew the man\u2014this was profound (and quite normal) human empathy for a stranger in peril. Darnella Frazier, the teenager who recorded the incident on her phone, asked, \u201cHow long y\u2019all got to hold him down?\u201d She and several others cried, \u201cGet off him!\u201d<\/p>\n
An off-duty firefighter named Genevieve Hansen repeatedly demanded that the officers check Floyd\u2019s pulse.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not even moving,\u201d Williams repeatedly shouted. \u201cHe\u2019s not responsive right now, bro.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shouts and pleas and camera phones didn\u2019t work. Thao was only concerned with \u201ccrowd control.\u201d Chauvin was intractable, hands in pockets, face emotionless, answering to nobody. He pressed his knee into his victim\u2019s neck, restricting blood and oxygen flow, for almost ten minutes. He only let up after a paramedics arrived to take away the corpse of George Floyd.<\/p>\n
Questioned by prosecutors, Williams, Hansen, Frazier, and another teenager, Alyssa Funari, all tearfully said they wanted to do more but felt threatened by Chauvin and Thao.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was controlled on the curb,\u201d Williams testified. \u201cI did as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hansen recalled that she felt \u201ctotally distressed\u201d and was \u201cdesperate to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wouldn\u2019t even let us get close,\u201d Frazier said. \u201cThey were quick to pull out mace. And we all backed back.\u201d She was left with regret and guilt. \u201cIt has been nights I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funari recalled feeling like she was \u201cfailing.\u201d \u201cTechnically I could have did something,\u201d she testified, \u201cbut I couldn\u2019t really do anything physically what I wanted to because the highest power was there.\u201d By \u201chighest power,\u201d she meant police authority.<\/p>\n
What more could they have done?<\/strong><\/p>\nThird party nonviolent interposition means placing your body between parties in conflict to deter them from harming each other. A nonviolent intervenor must be willing to suffer harm yet unwilling to cause harm to anyone else. This requires great compassion, which literally means \u201cto suffer with.\u201d It also requires physical courage.<\/p>\n
Donald Williams has great physical courage. He works as a bouncer and competes in mixed martial arts. As one of the first observers on the scene, Williams might have spun past Thao and rolled himself onto the ground next to Floyd. \u201cI know you are angry, officer,\u201d he might have offered. \u201cPut your knee on my<\/em> neck instead.\u201d<\/p>\nGenevieve Hansen has great physical courage and professional confidence. As a firefighter, she enters burning buildings. Arriving from across the street, she calmly walked up behind Chauvin and Thao without them noticing. Right then, she had a chance to lie down alongside Floyd, check his pulse, maybe slide her body under Chauvin\u2019s thigh. \u201cI\u2019ve got him,\u201d she might have calmly told Chauvin, \u201cyou can let up now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such nonviolent actions by Williams and\/or Hansen might have inspired the three teenage girls\u2014who wanted to intervene but felt constrained\u2014to join them on the ground next to Floyd.<\/p>\n
What would such compassion have accomplished? How can nonviolent interposition reduce violence?<\/p>\n
First,<\/strong> the parties in conflict may see the intervenor as innocent, not the enemy, not deserving harm. They might halt their violent actions simply because the intervening party is in the way.<\/p>\nSecond,<\/strong> nonviolent interposition rehumanizes. A nonviolent intervenor demonstrates the humanity in the victim by trying to help, and acknowledges the humanity in the victimizer by refusing to use violence against him. Subconsciously, the victimizer might realize, \u201cWow, if she\u2019s willing to suffer to help my enemy, perhaps my enemy is human after all.\u201d<\/p>\nThird,<\/strong> nonviolent intervention can bring calming energy to a hostile situation. A person who emanates a loving, fearless presence can reduce the fear dynamic in ways which cannot be measured. Such an intervenor has a certain moral authority and integrative power, and others are likely to follow her lead.<\/p>\nChauvin and Thao probably wouldn\u2019t have been concerned about the well-being of an \u201cinnocent\u201d intervenor. Police officers are quick to interpret civilian intervention as \u201cobstruction of justice\u201d and a threat to officer safety. The humanity of a nonviolent intervenor probably wouldn\u2019t have been sufficient to awaken and rehumanize Chauvin, a deeply dehumanized man,<\/p>\n
But a display of compassion might have influenced the two officers on Floyd\u2019s legs. An energy shift, from fear to love\u2014perhaps Hansen placing a gentle hand on Chauvin\u2019s shoulder and speaking quietly\u2014might have been enough to roust him from his aggressive-defensive trance, to give his ego a way out.<\/p>\n
If nothing else, the combination of nonviolent obstruction, empathy, and calm fearlessness would have confused and distracted Chauvin and Thao. The inexperienced officers might have felt empowered to question Chauvin\u2019s instructions. In adjusting to the new dynamics, Chauvin might have stood up, giving Floyd a chance to live.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no guarantee that third party nonviolent interposition would have saved Floyd\u2019s life. But the empathy and desire were there\u2014why didn\u2019t anyone try?<\/p>\n
The onlookers were afraid to challenge the armed, aggressive men wearing uniforms of state authority. There are legal penalties for interfering with police activity, and Williams was aware of the added danger for him\u2014a male with dark skin. In fact, the onlookers at times restrained each other, not wanting anyone else to get hurt.<\/p>\n
But these caring people are not to be blamed for inaction. They didn\u2019t know what to do or how to do it.<\/p>\n
This is speculation but a safe bet: the onlookers didn\u2019t have nonviolent training. They hadn\u2019t studied the history and science of nonviolence. They hadn\u2019t engaged in nonviolent role-playing. Most important, they hadn\u2019t done the meditative and contemplative work necessary to cultivate inner calm, heighten empathy for all, and decrease fear. (Readers of the Bible, or Gandhi, will recall that \u201cPerfect love casts out fear.\u201d)<\/p>\n
If the hypothetical interventions posited above seem fanciful or ridiculous, you might study the Birmingham Children\u2019s March. In 1963, after brief nonviolent training, thousands of Alabama schoolchildren stood up to police dogs and firehoses without striking back or fleeing. The children celebrated in jail; the racist police and firemen went home shaken because, as one officer said of the children, \u201cThe fear was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
When nonviolence classes are standard in our K-12 schools\u2014not just in specialized programs in prohibitively expensive colleges and universities\u2014the USA will become a much safer and more humane place to live. More people will understand the message of Christian nonviolent civil rights leader John Lewis:<\/p>\n
\u201cNever, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n________________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\nTimothy Braatz is a playwright, novelist, and professor of history and nonviolence at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California (www.saddleback.edu\/tbraatz<\/a>).\u00a0 His most recent nonfiction book is <\/em>Peace Lessons. His publications include <\/em>Surviving Conquest: A History of the Yavapai Peoples; From Ghetto to Death Camp: A Memoir of Privilege and Luck; and<\/em> Grisham\u2019s Juror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s no guarantee that third party nonviolent interposition would have saved Floyd\u2019s life. But the empathy and desire were there\u2014why didn\u2019t anyone try? The onlookers were afraid to challenge the armed, aggressive men wearing uniforms of state authority. There are legal penalties for interfering with police activity. In fact, the onlookers at times restrained each other, not wanting anyone else to get hurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":182405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[101,725,100,1978,444,1243,1779,1281,616,99],"class_list":["post-182404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-cultural-violence","tag-culture-of-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-militarized-police","tag-nonviolence","tag-nonviolent-action","tag-nonviolent-communication","tag-police-brutality","tag-social-violence","tag-structural-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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