Paul Stanley Says ‘We Have to Be Better’ After George Floyd Death
Kiss frontman Paul Stanley tweeted his disgust at the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 that has led to street violence in the city.
Four police officers were fired after witnesses saw them ignoring Floyd’s cries for help as he suffocated on the ground with one cop’s knee on his neck for more than seven minutes. Floyd was accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill in a store.
Tensions increased after a video of the incident was shared online, leading to mass protests that were aggressively broken up by police. President Donald Trump was censored by Twitter after warning protesters that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” – a phrase that has connotations relating to the racial tensions of the ‘60s.
In a post titled “We have to be better,” Stanley wrote, “I’m disgusted and demoralized by the recent videos and incidents of blatant bigotry, racial profiling and what clearly appears to be the cold-blooded murder of a black man. The sense of fear, targeting and lack of justice for perpetrators that is a never ending part of daily life for black people is beyond my ability to imagine.”
He noted that "when an armed mob of white people can storm a government building without repercussions or consequences, it takes little imagination to foresee the outcome of that same scenario if the crowd had been black. Too many have lost focus on what is illegal and become completely blind to what is immoral. We have to be better than that.”
Stanley’s comments came after others in the rock community spoke out against what happened to Floyd. “Humanity was absent,” Sharon Osbourne posted. “Talk about George Floyd. Watch the video. Call the Minneapolis DA’s office 612-348-5550 and demand they press charges. Let’s not close our eyes and be complicit. Rest In Peace.”
“We need to demand full reformation of law enforcement training, protocol and psych screening," Adam Lambert said. "There are too many bullies working as police officers. We should demand accountability and legal recourse for breach of conduct. Serve and Protect not Search and Destroy.”
Billie Joe Armstrong posted an image of Malcolm X with the caption, “That’s not a chip on my shoulder. That’s your foot on my neck.”