May 25 marked the fourth anniversary of the death of George Floyd while in police custody. As expected, numerous politicians, activists and the corporate media have been actively beating the drums of outrage just in case anyone had forgotten the long summer of rioting over Floyd’s death in 2020.

The official narrative is that Floyd was murdered by a racist police officer named Derek Chauvin, simply for having the wrong skin color.

This narrative is furthered by self-serving “fact checks” from politicized outlets like PBS, USA Today, the New York Times and and NPR.

However, it’s a narrative that doesn’t stand up well to even modest scrutiny.

John LeFevre offers a reality-based alternative to the version of George Floyd as a sainted individual murdered by white supremacists.

LeFevre points out that, far from being an innocent bystander, singled out for his skin color, Floyd was a repeat offender who had been to prison 8 times for drugs and armed robbery.

What brought Minneapolis police in contact with Floyd on that fateful day was the suspicion that he had just committed multiple felonies including trying to pass a counterfeit 20 dollar bill.

Floyd’s original coroner’s report showed no evidence of suffocation or strangulation and his autopsy revealed a lethal amount of fentanyl in his system as well as clear evidence of heart disease.

Nevertheless, the myth persists that officer Chauvin deliberately killed the man by kneeling on his neck.

Floyd’s family graciously took a $27 million settlement from the city of Minneapolis before Chauvin’s trial had even concluded.

But the bigger story remains how so many well-funded and well-organized riots broke out simultaneously across the entire nation, causing billions of dollars in damages and numerous needless deaths.

In the years since Floyd’s death, police departments have faced ongoing calls for their defunding, even as crime continues to rise in many cities.

It’s possible to acknowledge the tragedy when a person succumbs to the results of his own bad decisions and yet resist the urge the twist the narrative in hopes of some perceived political advantage.

The politicians, activists and pundits who continue to push the lionization of George Floyd are being deceptive at best and outright evil at worst.