Rocker Bruce Springsteen proclaimed this week that the United States needs “systemic changes” in its “law enforcement departments” in the wake of the police involved death of George Floyd.
“We need systemic changes in our law enforcement departments and the political will of our national citizenry to once again move forward the kind of changes that will bring the ideals of the civil rights movement once again to life and into this moment,” said Springsteen on his satellite radio channel.
“Eight minutes,” said Springsteen of his song, “American Skin (41 Shots)” — which is about the 1999 shooting of Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo. “That song is almost eight minutes long, and that’s how long it took George Floyd to die with a Minneapolis officer’s knee buried into his neck, and that’s a long time.”
“That’s how long he begged for help and said he couldn’t breathe,” Springsteen continued. “The arresting officer’s response was nothing but silence and wait. Then he had no pulse and still it went on.”
The singer went on to say that “systemic changes” need to be made to police departments in response to the anecdote, before going on to blame fallout from the Chinese coronavirus on President Donald Trump.
“As we speak, 40 million people are unemployed, 100,000 plus citizens have died from COVID-19 with only the most tepid and unfeeling response from our White House,” said Springsteen, who failed to mention that 100,000 was doctor Anthony Fauci’s low-end estimate of coronavirus deaths — with the maximum measures put in place to prevent it.
“As of today, our black citizens continue to be killed unnecessarily by our police on the streets of America,” segued Springsteen during his monologue. “And as of this broadcast, the country was on fire and in chaos.”
Fire and chaos, indeed.
On Tuesday, a black retired St. Louis police captain, David Dorn, was killed after protests over the death of George Floyd turned violent. And last week in California, a black federal officer, Patrick Underwood, was shot and killed as he attempted to keep the peace amid violent riots.
Meanwhile, the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House in Washington, D.C. was set on fire, while more violence, vandalism, looting, beatings, and killings ensued in cities across the country.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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