Watched Trump’s threat filled speech tonight. It was shocking and beyond the bounds. Its aim was to intimidate and paralyze millions seeking justice. Its intent was to force us to withdraw into private life.

What Trump doesn’t realize is the genie is out of the bottle. No one is going to shrink at this moment. Our demands are just, our mode of struggle is non violent and mass in character, our coalition is broad in scope and diverse in composition, our terrain of struggle is in the voting booth and the corridors of political power as well as on the streets, and, like the old civil rights leaders, our eyes are on the prize and ain’t nobody going to turn us around.

Trump and Barr conveniently make no mention of white supremacist organizations in their condemnation of violence.

Amid the national conversation surrounding the events of the past week, what should be at its center, and remain there, is the cruel, senseless, and racially inspired murder of one Black Live — George Floyd — by 4 “officers of the law” and the systemic practices that make it a reoccurring trauma in the African American community and other communities of color — not provocations, not looting, not burning cars, not the extremists of the right and left, not media coverage, not even the rhetorical and incendiary distractions of the present occupant in the White House.

The latter have a place, as do the peaceful and nationwide marches in cities across the country, the failure of law and order appeals to command center stage, and the new stakes in the November elections. But none of them should crowd out the brutal execution of George Floyd, if we hope to find a way out of this crisis and reoccurring tragedy.

Time will tell, and nothing is guaranteed, but the police killing of George Floyd could be, finally, a turning point in the struggle to radically change the criminal justice system and policing across the country. The response to this ghastly murder is of such a magnitude that it is realistic to think that there won’t be a return to the status quo. Trump and his Republican cronies in Washington and elsewhere will surely attempt to block such changes, but we will usher them out of Washington on the first Tuesday in November.

Here is a recent article by President Obama.