Protesters denounce Executive Order 14288 on fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder

CHICAGO—The evening of May 25, 2020, was when many first saw the video that has since cemented itself in American history. A Black man who looks as though he’s on the verge of death is forced to the ground near the rear wheel of a police cruiser, crying out the all too familiar words: “I can’t breathe.” On top of him is an officer kneeling on his neck, hands in his pockets, looking directly at the camera as if to taunt the viewer: “What are you going to do about it?”

And indeed, many may be asking themselves that very question. 

The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis—which followed the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and the no-knock police killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville—set off worldwide protests against police brutality and racism, and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. It sparked initiatives for police reform and raised awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. But fast forward to now, Donald Trump is again the president, and many of those reforms and initiatives are under attack, leaving many wondering what to make of the last five years.

On Sunday, demonstrations were held in cities across the United States in remembrance of George Floyd, including at Federal Plaza in Chicago. 

“We’re protesting in honor of five years since George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department,” said Faayani Mijana, press secretary for the Chicago Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression. “It bears mentioning that the main reason Chauvin is behind bars is because of the people power that put him there, and it’s people power that’s going to keep him there.”

Along with commemorating George Floyd and the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, Mijana also denounced President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14288, which seeks to eliminate federal consent decrees; increase resources and legal protections for law enforcement officers; enhance sentences for crimes against police; increase investment in prisons, and more.

“Ultimately, this means the further criminalization of our people, and we reject it,” Mijana said. “In response to these attacks, the Chicago Alliance pledges to continue and intensify its fight for community control of the police. Because it shouldn’t be those racist politicians in Washington deciding how our communities are run, it’s us, working and oppressed people.”

Community control of police isn’t a new concept, but one that first arose out of the Reconstruction period in the southern United States, as noted by Dante, an organizer with the Communist Party, USA’s African American Equality Commission. 

“Community control is not only a demand but a political struggle for state power, by putting the policy of public safety directly into the hands of the communities that are impacted by police crimes, and gun violence,” he said in a May 24 statement sent to People’s World. “Tax-paying residents, particularly those neighborhoods and families who have lost loved ones to police crimes and gun violence, should have the first say on police who are hired, in addition to firing power, and the police budget. This is the primary step forward in dealing with accountability for the police.”

The CPUSA highlighted the Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance in Chicago as a potential model for other U.S. cities to follow. The ordinance led to the creation of a commission that has increased oversight of Chicago Police operations, including the selection of police leadership. The effort to pass the ordinance was led in part by Frank Chapman, a longtime activist and field secretary for the Chicago Alliance. 

Chapman said it is important to commemorate the 2020 BLM movement, which he described as the “largest rebellion in U.S. history,” as the country is currently “morphing into a police state.”

“We need to commemorate that, and we need to remind this government that that rebellion took place and the stern warning that it issued. They have not heeded that,” Chapman told People’s World. “They have not passed the George Floyd bill. In fact, they’re going in the opposite direction. The recent executive orders coming down [from] Trump, he’s making the police immune from prosecution. He’s trying to extend the police’s power so that the police will not be held accountable by the people of this country.”

People’s World also spoke with David Stovall, PhD, a professor of Black Studies and Criminology at the University of Illinois, Chicago, to reflect on the last five years and the second Trump administration. 

Stovall highlighted the importance of diverting resources from prisons and police, and toward job creation, education, healthcare access, and so on, in order to address the root causes of crime. He also said the 2020 protests helped to raise awareness that racism in the U.S is a structural issue, something the MAGA movement seeks to distract from by focusing on how white Americans have been put at a “disadvantage.” 

“There’s no evidence of fewer white males being employed, fewer white males being denied access. But this is the rhetoric that they want to stoke in the general populace,” Stovall said in a May 23 interview. “The Trump administration’s job is to shape this narrative to really deny the existence of structural racism.” 

Stovall also compared the video of George Floyd’s murder to that of the beating of Rodney King, which was filmed when Stovall was a freshman in college.

“One of the things that I was saying to folks then is, ‘Now the world knows what Black people know every day. The only difference is now somebody caught it on tape,’” Stovall said. “I just saw George Floyd as part of that continuum. This is something that Black people know every day, that now the rest of the world will know because somebody caught it on tape.”

Also present at the May 25 rally was Marquinn McDonald, 2nd District Councilman of the Community Commission for Public Safety & Accountability. McDonald said he first heard of George Floyd’s murder through someone he knew who was a friend of Floyd’s.

“I was on Facebook, and he put up a live stream, and was just in tears,” McDonald said. “He was talking about how George would come into his store [and] he would have great conversations. George was a beautiful soul; a beautiful human being.” 

McDonald described the video of Floyd’s murder as “atrocious” and “disgusting.”

“The fact of the matter is we need the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act because we need barriers of protection,” McDonald said. “We are not protected.”

He also described Trump’s Executive Order 14288 as “absolutely ridiculous.” 

“I think it’s a clear indicator of who the quote, unquote, ‘leadership’ is inside the office of the president of the United States,” McDonald said. “I think Donald Trump is definitely creating a fascist regime and is trying to take us back to 1930. And if it was up to him, he would probably reinstill Jim Crow.”

“I think Donald Trump needs to be removed out of office. And if the people don’t wake up and get together and organize now, we are in serious trouble, and unfortunately, we’re going to be in some serious dark times. We are all we have.”

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