#Giants great Michael Strahan shares thoughts on George Floyd’s death

Former Giants great Michael Strahan and Fox Sports football analyst took to social media and gave his thoughts on the death of George Floyd and where we are as a country when it comes to race relations.

Strahan said he was upset about the deaths of Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and frustrated that the country has to once again have the same conversation over the issue of police brutality.

“I don’t get it. I don’t understand it,” Strahan said in the video. “Mad as hell about it. Because we continue to have these same conversations, and at the end of the day, there seems to be no resolution. No justice. No finish. I think that’s the frustrating thing.

“It’s very hard as a black man that the color of your skin makes people scared of you.”

Strahan — a Hall of Fame defensive end who won two Super Bowls with the Giants — said many cops do good work, but that these incidents taint the police.

“I hear it all the time, ‘not every cop is a bad cop’ ‘not every black person is a bad person.’ Plain and simple,” said Strahan, who is a co-host of “Good Morning America” and one of the hosts of the “Strahan, Sara & Keke” show. “I have a lot of cops who are my friends. I have cops who work for me. They’re incredible people … They’re amazing people, but there are always, always in everything, these situations especially, people who make one entire profession, one group of people look bad.”

Strahan said being a famous black person helps “in some ways,” but added that there have been numerous times throughout his life that he got pulled over while he was just driving.

“(A) week and a half ago, I’m in the car driving, nice car, just driving,” he said. “I get pulled over, a cop pulls over for nothing. I’m not speeding. I’m in traffic. I’m nothing, just doing nothing but driving while black.

“Comes up to my window. Looks in and goes, ‘Oh, Michael I’m such a big fan. When I was a kid, I would go trick-or-treating just to come by your house hoping to meet you.’ And what a way to meet me, by pulling me over for doing nothing.

Strahan said those little “agitating” things have happened to him “many, many” times over the years, but that it’s worse for black people who aren’t well known.

“Imagine if you’re not famous. Imagine if it happened to you all the time,” he said. “Imagine if you’re getting pushed around and disrespected and talked to in a way that makes you feel sub-human. And to see George Floyd die the way he died. Such a callous attitude towards his life. Disdain for the public whose begging you to let that man breathe. It angers me, angers me.

Strahan said these protests are an important part of the civic discussion, but that they must be peaceful.

“I get the protests. I understand the protests,” he said. “I do not agree with the looting and the rioting because that’s taking advantage of a situation and dishonoring George Floyd and all the others who we know of who have died senselessly at the hands of the police.”

Strahan also said his son was involved in a situation where the police did not treat him with respect.

“My son was put in the back of a cop car,” he said. “And they walked the person by to look in the back to see is that him or not because he looked like someone they said was Dominican who had robbed someone. It shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t happen, people.

Am I pissed? Absolutely. But as a black man, if I show too much anger, then you’re scared of me. It shouldn’t be the case. It shouldn’t be the case.”

Floyd, 46, died on May 25 in Minneapolis after police officer Derek Chauvin, 44, pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes after Floyd was suspected of spending a counterfeit $20 bill.

The charges against Chauvin were upgraded on Wednesday. He now faces the more serious charge of second-degree murder, in addition to the original charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence.

The other officers on the scene Thomas Lane, 37, J. Alexander Kueng, 26, and Tou Thao, 34, are now being charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Though Strahan said it isn’t easy, he’s holding onto hope for a better future, especially for his children.

“(I) hope my kids can grow up and be in a place where we’re better than we’re in right now,” he said. “It’s the only thing we can hope for. And if it doesn’t change now, I don’t know what it’s going to take to change it.

Strahan said the country can’t rely on politicians or “some grand speech” to solve the problem, and that it’s up to “people to make a change.”

“We need to stop depending, I feel, on others to change for us,” he said. “We gotta get together and we gotta make a change for ourselves. In a positive way, in a peaceful way, if possible.”

Strahan said it’s important for people to keep having these conversations and to continue to treat each other with respect, adding again that these incidents have made him “angry, upset, sad, scared.”

“Hopefully there is some change coming,” he said.