Some thoughts on this disturbing video, showing Tyre Nichols beaten to death in Memphis Jan 7th.
The video released has enraged the black community in America, much as it will the white community because it’s goes against everything we expect of the people paid to protect us. And, it’s a murder by police captured live on video.
Already parallels are being drawn with the killing of George Floyd in 2020, and the beating of Rodney King in 1991.
Tyre Nichols was stopped by a team of black officers, part of a special unit to tackle crime in Memphis. They are known as the SCORPION Unit. (Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace in our Neighbourhoods).
Update - The Scorpion unit has now been disbanded*******
In this case its not about race because all officers are black, and they have all been charged with second degree murder. But this is about police training, screening including psychological assessments and constant reviews of officers.
As the Police Chief of Memphis Cerelyn Davis notes, it’s also about integrity, humanity, and it doesn’t matter whose wearing the uniform. but there is some bias by serving police and black communities.
By the way 2 paramedics who arrived on scene are also facing charges, for failing to render proper care.
There is likely to be violence and unrest when the video is shown tonight on TV in America, because the beating which lasts minutes is incomprehensible and as the Chief noted “you are going to see acts that defy humanity”.
From the beginning the police officers were angry and jacked up after supposedly stopping Nichols for driving erratically, although a review of cameras along the roads leading to the incident don’t back that up.
What’s clear in many of these violent police incidents, is that police can become angry, scared, over taken by adrenalin, and yet the training of police seems woefully suspect.
Traffic stops by police generally seem unnecessary in many of these incidents and that’s another problem altogether. But de-escalation by police keeps being talked about but not acted on.
Acting out these violent incidents and what creates and manages them should be given to every police officer, and encouraging police to stop each other from going too far, has to be ingrained in training and retraining.
Specialized Police Units from robbery squads to street crime units often have problems, as those officers think they are above the law, and reviews of their work are not sufficient.
I know from my days as a crime reporter, the biggest violations of law by police often came from police squads, where the roughest toughest police were assigned and they often acted with encouragement to be severe.
Add to this the fact America has 18,000 police Dept’s all with different standards, and models with little Federal oversight unless something goes terrible wrong.
If you want to get an idea how different each is, search up ‘police officers wanted’ and watch the videos of police recruitment, often juiced with guns and heavy weapons, and little about community policing and care.
There is more and more talk of changing policing, but it’s tragically slow and the question of who wants to wear the uniform, who is doing the hiring and supervision and screening is such an important issue.
The fact is the police don’t do it well. Civilian oversight seems to be the only solution to reviewing incidents and finding bad officers before they do bad.
The story of Tyre Nichols isn’t a new story. It’s an old tragic revolving door of police violence in the U.S. that includes unjustified shootings, kneeling on peoples necks until death, and murderous beatings caught on police body cameras.
And the America public has every right to be furious it’s happened again.