In the last 48 hours news of the death of George Floyd has spread like wildfire across the nation. Floyd was a black man living in Minnesota who was murdered when four police officers apprehended him on allegations of forgery, restraining him while one of them knelt on his neck. His death was caught in a 10-minute video filmed by onlookers who were calling for police to let him breathe when he so clearly could not. The video showed perhaps the most blatant disregard for human life that has shown up in footage of this kind to date. Although officers have attempted to spin what happened as related to Floyd resisting arrest, additional footage released on Wednesday shows a man who was largely cooperating. Regardless, there is no possible excuse - and certainly not resistance - that could possibly justify that to which so many of us have now born witness.

And, Taylor's death was only a matter of weeks after the much publicized shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery who was murdered by two white men (a father and son) in Georgia who claimed he looked suspicious when he was out for a jog. Realistically, we have to know that there is so much other violence and loss we're not hearing about because it wasn't seen as quite "sensational" enough, or wasn't caught on film. Not to mention those moments when violence was threatened against a black or brown person, and luck led things down a different path. This includes the also recently well-publicized incident during which a white woman in New York City's Central Park lied to police that her life was being threatened by a black man - Christian Cooper - who had simply asked her to keep her dog on a leash as required by law.