# Resolved: That the Real Issue concerning the death of George Floyd is not who gets to be president. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 3, 2020, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-that-the-real-issue-concerning-the-death-of-george-floyd-is-not-who-gets-to-be-president/854966 "2020-06-03T08:25:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-that-the-real-issue-concerning-the-death-of-george-floyd-is-not-who-gets-to-be-president/854966/21 "2020-06-06T22:19:51Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > But like most complaints against Trump, clearing out the area for security reasons is par for the course. > > Bill Clinton came to my hometown in 1997. He was landing at the airport, making a speech, travelling to a local high school 5 miles away, making another speech, then returning to the airport to leave. Oddly I don’t recall teargas and rubber bullets being used to clear Clinton’s path. You think something like that would have been covered in the news. Damn liberal media. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-that-the-real-issue-concerning-the-death-of-george-floyd-is-not-who-gets-to-be-president/854966/22 "2020-06-06T22:29:11Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > But like most complaints against Trump, clearing out the area for security reasons is par for the course. > > Bill Clinton came to my hometown in 1997. He was landing at the airport, making a speech, travelling to a local high school 5 miles away, making another speech, then returning to the airport to leave. > > In the days prior, the advance team showed up and checked the entire route for possible danger zones. They removed trash cans and mailboxes and anything else that could cause an issue. > > The day of the visit, once the kids were at school, the entire roadway (which was the main street for two different towns) was closed down and no vehicles were allowed and no businesses were allowed to open. It was that way from 7am to about 4pm. > > And just like what Trump was doing was a photo op, this was completely unnecessary to talk to a bunch of kids at a school in West Virginia. > > If me or anyone else had been on that street we would have been rapidly told to move out of there and arrested if we did not. And if there were a bunch of people in the way engaging in peaceful protest, say of the Serbia bombings, do you think they would/should have just cancelled the event? > > My issue is that if you do start cancelling things because of protests, then you invite more obstructive protests. Could/should the right have been able to stop any Bill Clinton appearance by simply showing up en masse and blocking the entrance? Or should people have to obey the law and if they don’t be forcibly removed, and by wholly non-lethal means? > > I know, this is Trump, we hate him, so everything he does is wrong, but how is removing these protestors any different that removing everyone in my community from the public streets? Yes, they have a right to protest and I have a right to use the streets and sidewalks of my community and definitely have a right to have business and commerce. > > Unless you have a cite that the government just fired tear gas into these protesters with no warning, they were disobeying a secret service directive by not dispersing. I further disagree that protestors who are blocking traffic are “peaceful.” It is against the law to obstruct traffic. > > An important part of free speech is the right of the listener of that speech to ignore it and continue on his way. When there are hundreds or thousands of people in front of me not allowing me to drive to work, I don’t consider that peaceful. So, what you are saying that is if Trump wants to do a photo-op at your local church, then you invite him to drive out the parishioners and the clergy with tear gas. You know, for security reasons. And some people were worked up about not being able to attend church services because of Covid. I can only assume that there is no overlap between the groups of people who would justify using force to drive people away from a church and those who protest the lockdown’s interference with their worship, 'cause that would be quite the cognitive dissonance. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-that-the-real-issue-concerning-the-death-of-george-floyd-is-not-who-gets-to-be-president/854966/23 "2020-06-06T23:39:35Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Not mentioned: The lack of tear gas/pepper spray and rubber bullets to clear the way. The lack of an attack on peaceful protestors with no warning. The lack of the violent invasion of a church and the forced expulsion of the clergy. And also the fact that the photo op was a direct reaction to the protestors. Trump did not use force to do a pre-planned event in the face of protests. Trump had an event as a response to the protests, as a show of force. Just to further underscore the false equivalence between this incident and conventional security measures. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-that-the-real-issue-concerning-the-death-of-george-floyd-is-not-who-gets-to-be-president/854966/24 "2020-06-07T00:28:27Z")
I think people rushed out into the streets because of a lot of pinned-up frustration, all of it coalescing around inequality, unfairness, and corrupt leadership. For the whole past three months, the American public has been jerked around over this COVID thing. We’ve watched the president fling feces in real time every evening while we worry about our jobs, our education, and our health. And remember that just a couple of months prior to all of this craziness, we watched the most crooked American president in living memory dodge removal from office. We were a powderkeg back in November. We just didn’t have a spark. We all know he’s a crook. Yet he’s got the law and order folks on his side. We all know he is immoral and perverted. But he’s got the sanctimonious on his side. We all know he’s stupid and intellectually incurious. But he’s got a significant portion of the American electorate convinced he’s smart. We put up with the bullshit when people weren’t dying. But then the bodies started stacking up. Right on cue, he starts trying to sell us on the idea that 100,000 dead Americans under his watch is a success story. And then right after that, we watch George Floyd be murdered in front of our eyes in cold blood. George Floyd, a guy who wasn’t perfect. But being a regular person, he was held accountable for his crimes and served his time and was killed because he gave a cashier a forged $20 bill–something that many of us have unknowningly done before. This guy was killed for merely being suspected of a petty crime. Meanwhile, the most powerful man in the world is a guy who has been accused of hundreds of crimes and scandals. This man’s incompetence may have cost us thousands of American lives, and yet here he is, still the president of the United States. Still patting himself on the back for doing a good job. Still trying to get himself another term so he can try to kill more of us. To me, it’s the juxataposition of Floyd and Trump that caused the protests. Trump represents all of the “bad apple” cops and “bad apple” police chiefs and “bad apple” DA’s. He represents every bully and wannabe tough guy. His success reminds people of the slanted playing field and how incompetence is allowed to rise the top as long as its white, rich, and male. I do not think the protests would have happened under Obama. I don’t even think they would have happened under Hillary. I think having lived through 3.5 years of Trump has made a lot of people–especially young people–realize just how unfair our society is. George Floyd’s murder was the right spark at the right time. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-that-the-real-issue-concerning-the-death-of-george-floyd-is-not-who-gets-to-be-president/854966/25 "2020-06-07T00:29:55Z")
Anti-thesis: Local elections and local actions are not independent events divorced from actions and speech by the president and by the DOJ under his direction. What gets done locally is impacted by the DOJ. Also votes against Trump and his takes on these issues will have coattail effects for more local candidates. However in support of your thesis - anyone who cares about these issues needs to be informed locally and to vote in midterm years as much as they do this November against Trump. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-that-the-real-issue-concerning-the-death-of-george-floyd-is-not-who-gets-to-be-president/854966/26 "2020-06-07T15:42:45Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Anti-thesis: > > Local elections and local actions are not independent events divorced from actions and speech by the president and by the DOJ under his direction. What gets done locally is impacted by the DOJ. Also votes against Trump and his takes on these issues will have coattail effects for more local candidates. > > However in support of your thesis - anyone who cares about these issues needs to be informed locally and to vote in midterm years as much as they do this November against Trump. I do believe that one of the greatest dangers to our democracy is the large and growing number of people who think that voting is a once every 4 year thing. People who then get to the ballot booth, choose their president, then have no idea what the rest of this gobbledygook is all about. I’ve said it a million times here and elsewhere. Politics is local. Go vote for your local offices, as they have more impact over you, and you have more influence over them. While you are there, go ahead and vote on the national scale stuff, too. It won’t hurt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-that-the-real-issue-concerning-the-death-of-george-floyd-is-not-who-gets-to-be-president/854966.md?page=1)