THE GEORGE FLOYD FEW KNEW

THE GEORGE FLOYD FEW KNEW

George was the 3rd of 5 kids, all born without a father,sired by various men. He grew up in the Third Ward, a poor, mostly Black neighborhood of Houston. He was a good athlete, 6'6" and 225 lbs, he played both football and basketball in HS. He became the first in his family to graduate from HS. He received an athletic scholarship, but quit school as he did not like attending classes.
His first arrest was in 1997 when he was busted for selling drugs on the street. For the next decade, he bounced in and out of jail and prison with 2 theft cases, three drug charges and criminal trespass. In between prison stints, he had various jobs, but none of the 9 - 5 variety and seldom stayed more than a month, either because of arrests or drug abuse.
In 2007, he was convicted of aggravated armed robbery. He was part of a home robbery by a gang of 6 men who also pistol whipped a woman in front of her infant. He pleaded guilty. Despite multiple previous felony convictions, he only served 4 years in a minimum security facility in Texas. After prison, he sired his 3rd child with a 3rd woman.
Floyd continued using and selling drugs to pay for his addiction. But he also found religion and was involved with his local church. Contrary to most media stories, he did NOT "move to Minneapolis for work"'; rather, he went there to a drug rehab center, paid for by his Houston church. The same center that treated his mother for addiction, and numerous other family and friends. The Turning Point is a Black owned, live in substance abuse center and after completion, they assist 'graduates' to move to halfway houses and receive job training. That was in 2017, in contrast to MSM claims he 'recently moved to Minneapolis seeking employment."
He was enrolled in a Commercial Truck Drivers school, but dropped out. Other jobs included receptionist at a Salvation Army store, manual labor at a steel yard and security at a restaurant. He reverted back to drug abuse and when he died, he had traces of cocaine, marijuana, Meth and PCP.
He did graduate from HS, perhaps the high point of his life; thereafter, he dropped out of college on a scholarship, was convicted numerous times for drug dealing, robbery, assault and burglary; never held a full time job and was a drug addict all of his adult life. His last arrest was for passing counterfeit currency and was murdered by a rogue cop.
His life was was not unlike many Black men - crime, failure to take advantage of opportunities, multiple children with multiple women, several stints in prison, drug dealing and addiction and eventually confrontation with police. But he will not be remembered for any of these mundane episodes; rather, his death is being memorialized by protests, riots, looting and arson.
A sad ending to a sad life....