Civilization requires self-restraint. The terrible events in Minneapolis this week, at every juncture, have featured the polar opposite. It is past time for all of us to defend civilization and push back against lawlessness in all forms.

The first thing to say, without disclaimer or weasel words, is that George Floyd should still be alive today. There is no justification for the police officers, all four of them, who bear responsibility for having administered to him a slow, agonizing death by suffocation as he and others pleaded for his life. This looked like an execution without benefit of due process, evidence, jury, or judge. It cannot be condoned, and the officers should be investigated and prosecuted as the law prescribes, given the sort of fair trial that Floyd himself was denied.