I can’t breathe!
PublishedJune 8, 2020

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Obadiah Mailafia



The brazen, daylight murder of the 46-year-old African-American, George Floyd, by police in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, will be the defining moment in American race relations. The riots and looting that followed the killing were on a scale only comparable to the race riots of the sixties.

It is an irony that for several decades, Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the home of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Ministries. Every Sunday, his radio broadcasts went to all the corners of the world. The Reverend Billy Graham (1918-2018), in his own quiet way, was a strong advocate for racial justice. He would never preach to any audience that was segregated in the United States of America or anywhere else in the world. He had in his entourage some important African-American Christian leaders. Some were also on his Board of Trustees.


Many people may not know that Graham was an associate of civil rights leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, to whose nonviolent movement for social change, he made substantial contributions. On several occasions when King was imprisoned, it was Graham who paid for his bail. It is indeed ironical that it is in Graham’s city that one of the most brazen cases of police murders took place in our 21st century.

The video clip of the murder scene has gone viral. The hapless handcuffed black man is thrown to the ground. The heavily built police officer by name of Derek Chauvin has his knee on his neck. The man groans and moans, pleading: “I can’t breathe… “It’s my face, man. I didn’t do nothing serious, man, please. Please. Please I can’t breathe….Please somebody…I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe…man can’t breathe, my face. Just get up. I can’t breathe, please…I can’t move. Mama. Mama… I’m through. I’m through… some water or something, please. Please. I can’t breathe officer. Don’t kill me. They are going to kill me, man. They going to kill me. They are going to kill me…Please sir. Please. Please. Please I can’t breathe”.
Then, his eyes shut and the pleas, moans and groans suddenly stop. George Floyd was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. George Floyd will become an iconic figure in the history of American race relations. It is a road to fame that nobody would have wished on himself or herself.
Over 17,000 National Guards troops were activated. President Donald Trump called on his military high command to move into action. The orders were flatly disobeyed. At least, 19 people have died in the riots, most of them from gunshots. From Minneapolis, the riots spread like a wildfire around American cities: Oakland, California; St. Louis, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska; Kettering, Ohio; New York City; Davenport, Iowa; Cicero, Illinois; Philadelphia; Seattle; Atlanta and several others. Supermarkets were looted. Public buildings went up in flames. The financial costs run into billions of dollars. For a moment, there was even fear of a looming civil war across the United States.[color=#000000][/color]