George Floyd's murder was not the result of institutionalised racism.

George Floyd's death was shocking. To witness David Chauvin, a man ostensibly employed to enforce the law and uphold the highest standards of conduct so publicly and brazenly do the opposite, choking a defenceless citizen whilst he begged for his life and, most disturbing of all, pleaded for some final gesture of maternal love and comfort during his dying moments, was indeed a profoundly grotesque and provocative experience. I felt both sickened and angry. 

The protests that followed were therefore understandable. America certainly seems to have a problem when it comes to police brutality. There were over a thousand victims of police shootings in 2019 alone. But the protesters - and later the rioters (criminals with whom I have little sympathy) - are not protesting against police brutality per se; they're protesting against what they perceive to be institutional racism within the US-wide police force - racism that, according to them, leads to African-Americans being disproportionately targeted and murdered. That's why the protest movement Black Lives Matter has played such a significant part in the demonstrations.

But are African-Americans disproportionately the victims of police brutality and, if so, is such disproportionality the result of endemic, institutionalised racism? Many seem to think so. From politicians to media luminaries, celebrities to ex-president Barack Obama himself: all subscribe to the pervasive and, in their eyes, incontestable view that racism is incubated within and secreted from the very institutions responsible for dispassionately and equitably upholding the law and with it, the constitutional rights of every American citizen, regardless of race. According to this perspective, that's why blacks are more likely to be shot and killed by the police. Obama even linked George Floyd's murder to 'slavery, Jim Crow, redlining and institutional racism'. He hastily concluded that Floyd's murderer was indeed motivated by racial hatred tolerated and encouraged by an institution that remains bedevilled by the legacy of Jim Crow.

But these charges don't stand up to scrutiny. First, we don't know what motivated the officer responsible for Floyd's death. It is therefore presumptuous and, I must say, knowing the possible repercussions of making such inflammatory claims, irresponsible and reckless to ascribe motive when it's far from clear what prompted the offender. Trump's not the only one stoking the fire here.

Secondly, let's not forget that whites are the victims of half of police shootings. Okay, they'll say, but blacks only represent 13 per cent of the population, therefore, proportionately, they’re more likely to get shot. But blacks are responsible for over 50 per cent of the nation’s homicides; they account for 40 per cent of the prison population; in short, they are more likely to commit violent crime. Bearing this in mind, they’re also more likely to find themselves confronted by an armed police officer, increasing the likelihood of getting shot and killed. Any sane, reasoned glance over the statistics reveals the charge of endemic racism unsustainable. That is not to say that racism doesn’t exist within the police force; nor that racism wasn’t the primary motivation for the murder of George Floyd - though, as I said, that hasn’t been proven yet. But these protests are motivated by spurious claims of endemic, institutionalised racial hatred. They’ve even led to nauseating mea culpas by white, privileged virtue-signallers. They must be challenged with the facts.

This will be no easy task. University educated opinion-formers, virtue-signalling celebrities, corporate CEOs and politically correct politicians - brainwashed by an anti-Western, self-loathing, anti-white and anti-democratic educational establishment and encouraged by an elite culture that values the public display of moral superiority above all else - are almost irredeemably invested in this lie. Antifa activists are their shock troops; members of Black Lives Matter their useful idiots. It really is incredibly disturbing to watch educated people gleefully report the looting of shops and destruction of businesses, especially when they belong to the very people they purport to champion.

It is also incredibly disturbing to watch people in this country who, just over a week ago, hysterically called for the head of one man accused of breaking the Government's lockdown rules, refuse to even question let alone condemn the Antifa-inspired protests gripping London - protests that clearly and flagrantly breach the Government's rules as thousands of people stand cheek by jowl, refusing to even pay lip service to the social-distancing strictures. The West is in a deep malaise.

Yes, the murder of George Floyd was more than a tragedy. It was an abhorrent display of police brutality that caused public revulsion and understandable demands for justice - demands that, let's not forget, have been met with David Chauvin's arrest and indictment. Moreover, it shone a light on the charged and highly sensitive issue of police brutality in America - though perhaps the prevalence of firearms can at least partially explain the nervous overreactions of some officers. But febrile charges of institutional racism - the accusations that sparked and sustain the protests - just don't stack up. The real story here appears to be the chattering class, bien-pensant willingness to perpetuate lies in an effort to sow division and further demoralise the Western democracies. We must not let them.