Changing the narrative: How Trump 2.0 is reframing George Floyd and the 2020 protests
Hubert Rodell startled his 2-year-old bernedoodle when he leapt from his couch to give Donald Trump a standing ovation during his joint address to Congress this month.
The president had touted to lawmakers an executive order seeking the death penalty for anyone who kills a police officer, which he asked House and Senate members to put, "into permanent law."
Rodell, 69, knows how difficult a job it is keeping a community safe. For nearly two decades his father served as mayor of his hometown, Jonesboro, Arkansas.
"I know that dad tried his best to give the police as much money as they could get," he said.
But Rodell, a registered Democrat, who supported Trump last fall and would "vote for him 100 more times, too," he said, isn't as enthusiastic about a push by conservative activists to pardon a white Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old Black man, almost five years ago.
The Bear State native, who retired from the lumber business, remains torn about what unfolded during the May 25, 2020, incident which reminded the country of its racial wounds.
"It's a two sorted blade," Rodell, who is white, told Paste BN in an interview. "(Floyd) shouldn't have played so stupid and the police should have stood back and said, 'well, let's listen.' But everybody just got stupid at the same time and they killed the man, then all of a sudden, our cities are burning up everywhere."
Part of Trump's campaign last year focused on retribution, and since returning to power, some of the president's allies have tried to recast the 2020 protests in support of Floyd. Millions of people demonstrated in the streets amid a global pandemic to speak out against police violence.
Whether it's congressional Republicans pressuring the mayor of D.C. to remove a Black Lives Matter mural down the street from the White House or tech billionaire Elon Musk voicing support to free former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of killing Floyd, some of the president's supporters are looking for symbolic and substantive ways to change the narrative about the movement that engulfed the nation in 2020.
As the face of that movement, Floyd's character and actions have long been a focal point of BLM critics, who regularly call out the violence of left-wing groups while seeking to strengthen law enforcement's hand.
Paste BN spoke with several voters about these moves, and what it could mean for future police reform propoposals that failed during the Biden administration and what's changed about their thinking over time.
Trump applies push for 2020 revenge
In the aftermath of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes 29 seconds, which gripped the nation's attention in a viral video, some pundits on the right expressed dismay at the officer's actions.
Among them was Ben Shapiro, founder of the Daily Wire, who at time said "everyone should be on the same side" of the issue and that Chauvin should "go to jail for assault." But this month he launched an online petition, arguing the officer had received an unfair trial fueled by protests that led to millions in property damage in some cities and divided the nation.
Trump said he wasn't considering a pardon for Chauvin, who was sentenced to 21 years for depriving Floyd of his federal civil rights in addition to being sentenced to 22 years in prison for second- and third-degree murder in Minnesota.
The fact that Musk, who works closely with Trump, quickly embraced the idea on X has some of the president's supporters thinking it's worth considering.
"I don't believe that (Chauvin) should be able to be in a place of authority amongst his peers and his community, but I do believe that he should not have his life stripped away based off of one mistake," said Jordyn Joyce, a registered Republican who hails from Ocala, Florida.
Joyce, a physician's assistant, who is white, said what happened to Floyd was tragic. However, she believes Chauvin did what his training called for and she points out that traces of fentanyl were found in Floyd's system.
Expert witnesses said the amount wasn't enough to be considered fatal, but the 28-year-old physician's assistant said it should matter in the context of discussing a potential pardon because drug abuse affects a person's ability to think clearly.
"It should absolutely play a role to their decision," on pardoning Chauvin, she said.
Other voters of different political stripes, however, said the president should think twice about getting involved.
Floyd's background was no reason for him to be killed, said Chris Carson, 52, a former corrections officer who now works as an insurance claims adjuster in Byram, Mississippi.
"When we handcuffed a person, once you subdue them, you back up off of them, you give them an opportunity," said Carson, a Democrat, who is Black.
"That's the cockiness of some of our law enforcement," he added. "You're not gonna let anybody tell you what to do while you're doing your job, and in this case that particular officer was completely in the wrong."
Eden Kassa, 37, a government contract from Alexandria, Virginia, said Chauvin's actions were "irresponsible" and pardoning him would say you can get away with killing if a powerful person, such as a president or governor, thinks you should.
"They can exonerate you just because they want to, that's the message that would send to me," Kassa, who is Black and a registered Democrat, said.
Trump hasn't shied away from using his executive pen to give out controversial pardons since returning to the White House.
Days after his inauguration, for instance, he pardoned two D.C. police officers who were each convicted and sentenced to multiple years in prison, following their fatal pursuit of Karon Hylton-Brown, a 20-year-old Black man, in 2020 – five months after the murder of Floyd.
'Remember how we got here' BLM mural removal conjures up reflection, dismissal of 2020 protests
52-year-old independent Jedd Smith echoed that Trump shouldn't interfere in the Chauvin case because the officer "went too far," but he is equally critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, which he believes was "radicalized" by left-leaning groups.
"It lost its effectiveness," he said.
But Smith, an engineer who lives in Allegan, Michigan, admits he looks at the issue of police violence a bit differently as a result of Black friends and co-workers who were outspoken about their experiences as the BLM-led demonstrations intensified.
"I didn't realize how real it was for a Black person that when they see the cops, they're afraid, they're nervous and they're afraid they're going to get hassled," said Smith, who voted for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last fall. "I grew up in white. I didn't realize that it's a very real thing for them, a fear of police, and my growing up, I didn't fear the police."
As jackhammers continue to pound away at removing of the Black Lives Matter mural in Washington, those who hold a negative view of the grassroots groups associated with the mass protests launched in multiple cities during the summer of 2020 say it is about time.
James Helin, 30, a Navy veteran who lives in Rockingham, North Carolina, said Floyd's death remains a touchy situation, but that he dislikes the BLM movement for "taking advantage of race relations" in the country.
Helin said he finds it hard time to believe that racism was as big an issue as it was being made out to be given his personal experience in the military. He said a person's skin color doesn't matter as much as trust, adding he believes many BLM activists tried to "enrich themselves" as a result of the racial division.
"So getting rid of that mural, to me, means trying to put that in the past, and say we don't need people trying to stoke fires. We need people trying to put fires out," Helin, a registered independent, who is white, said in an interview.
Among those who were supportive of the BLM movement there is a slight split, with some arguing the symbols were an empty gesture by Democrats to co-opt its grassroots message for political gain.
Jecorey Arthur, a former city councilman in Louisville, Ky., where Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by police weeks before Floyd in 2020, said that he doesn't regret the BLM movement, but thinks it failed to keep momentum after raking in real policy wins locally during that time period.
"We had demonstration, we had legislation, but I think we lacked organization following those two phases," he said. "We should have been able to sustain those people and go deeper or higher up the ladder of engagement, but that kind of fell apart the further we got away from 2020."
Arthur, who changed his party registration from Democrat to independent while in office, said removing the mural is largely a symbolic act eclipsed by larger policy attacks, such as targeting diversity and equity programs.
But for others the mural's public prominence was asserting the value Black life that some activists said was an important demonstration of the country's values.
"The right has been up in arms for years having conniption fits because Confederate statues were coming down," Christi Rangel, 51, a legal secretary and registered independent in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, said. "So symbols do mean things to people."
As tourists stopped at the intersection of 16th and H in Washington, D.C., where the mural was prominently featured, a couple took a selfie with the White House in the background. One pointed in front of them: "That’s the Black Lives Matter mural."
Jeremy Ives, a 39-year-old commercial photographer, was also outside documenting the ongoing destruction with his camera. As part of his job, he said he works with a nonprofit teaching kids photography, using images from the Civil Rights Movement.
“So, when I see stuff like this, it reminds me how impactful it is to capture what we see," he said.
Even more impactful was the chalked graffiti on the sidewalks running alongside the mural with iterations of the chants and phrases used during the protests covering the pavement in various colors. In yellow chalk, someone wrote: "Remember how we got here."
Ives, who moved to D.C. in 2019, remembers watching fellow artists, some friends of his, paint the thoroughfare in large, bright yellow block letters spelling out "Black Lives Matter." He said the removal, five years later, is not surprising to him but that no one will forget that historic summer.
"You can cut a nose off a Sphinx, you can deface art, you can rewrite history, but I think this reminds me that everybody is watching it happen,” Ives said.
Contributing: Joey Garrison