The video of the gasping George Floyd in Minneapolis is so horrific

I need to be careful because there could be prosecutions involved in the death of the 46-year-old black security man George Floyd on the street in Minneapolis. But the horrific video of the scene shortly after Floyd had been arrested is so disturbing that I cannot avoid commenting on it. The deaths of black men arrested by white officers in the US have occurred on so many occasions over the years that it is impossible not to conclude that racism lies at the heart of these fatal incidents. It's not just racism, it's a sense that one type of human being has no worth or value while others do. I say that in this latest case because of the video. The arresting officer, weighing I guess about 250 pounds, is kneeling on Floyd's neck with his face pressed down hard on the ground. It is obvious that the poor man is struggling to breathe. Indeed he says so in short gasps. What is deeply upsetting is that the officer appears unaware of the suffering of the man beneath his knee. There is an almost casual look on the officer's face, as if he is saying to himself, "well I've got this under control, this guy is not going to cause any problem". Floyd later died. It's the routine casualness that is most shocking about the incident. How can this still be happening in the US today, how is it possible for a police officer to make an arrest for an alleged forged cheque in a grocery store and end up pinning the arrested man lying full stretch on the pavement and his face ground into the concrete like he didn't need air to breathe? Andrew Cuomo, New York governor, put it most succinctly when he asked how it was possible that lessons from other similar incidents had not been learned. I fear the answer is that racism, simple unadulterated racism, is here for all to see, and lessons are never learned when racism is the trigger that leads to an incident of this horrifying nature. I wish I hadn't seen the video but it is everywhere.