Nothing brings out the self-righteous hypocrites like the cold-blooded murder of a Black man. According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, 11.7% of American adults use illegal drugs, and 19.4% have used illegal drugs or misused prescription medication in the last year (NCDAS). That means that almost every American is affected by or knows someone who abuses drugs. Further, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 25.8% of adults binge drink (NIH). And yet, an incredible amount of white men and women have emerged to publicly ridicule George Floyd for his drug use.

It was Memorial Day when George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin. I assume, based on the statistics, that a quarter of Americans were drunk or on their way to it, and 12% of us were smoking weed, snorting lines of coke, popping pills or using some other method of getting high on illegal substances. I assume further, that these numbers go way up on Memorial Day weekend, but I cannot find any hard evidence — beyond my own experiences — to support it.

George Floyd, a man who was unemployed due to the Covid 19 pandemic, was doing what Americans do when they are not working: hanging out with friends and getting fucked up. If you observe his behavior that was captured on camera at the now famous Cup Foods store and take into account witness testimony, George was feeling good, even speaking a little slowly. However, he was described by store employees as friendly. The last thing that he appeared to be was violent, which is no surprise to me given that most drug addicts I know are kind, laid back people, even to the point of passivity.

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But George tried to pass off a fake $20, and because of that error in judgement, a psycho-killer cop was dispatched to the scene to not only ruin the fun, but to end a beautiful life.

Let me be the first to admit that when I was in school, my friends and I partied in excess— drugs, alcohol and debauchery — all of the time. It is absolutely amazing that I survived it. But, luckily for me, we were doing our illegal activities in upper middle-class neighborhoods and college campuses, so the police were hardly a problem. Passing off a fake 20-dollar bill is child’s play compared to some of the dangerous things that we were doing, and yet there were very few legal consequences.

We were not the only ones. When we got together with other groups of people, most of them were doing the same. And, there was one thing we all had in common, besides the fact that we all abused drugs and alcohol: None of us were ever murdered by the police. In fact, often the police laughed with us. I could tell you 100 stories that you would not believe involving the cops and myself, but I will save most of them for other essays. I will just say that the police have gone easy on me more than once.

But now that we are all grown, many of us apparently forgot how we acted in the past, or how we still act, and we gave ourselves a pass. Is it because we partied on the white side of the train tracks? Or, is it something else: Maybe some of us want a reason to justify the killing of a black man. Is that why George Floyd’s drug use is different than our own?

If so, it disgusts me — though I am not shocked in the least. If not, people need to get off their damn high horses and have some compassion for one of their own.

Works Cited

NCDAS. https://drugabusestatistics.org. April 11, 2021.

NIH. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sheets/alcohol-facts-and-statistics. April 11, 2021.

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