Police brutality continues to rise in America even after the 2020 promise of systemic reform. On January 9th, 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was pulled over in Memphis, Tennessee for claims of reckless driving by patrolling officers. Nichols pleaded to officers that he was only trying to get to his home which was two minutes away from where he had been stopped. This led to an extreme altercation where several officers forced Nichols to the ground yelling, “I’m going to beat your a** and I’m going to tase your a**!” shown in body camera footage found during the investigation of Nichols's death. Nichols was continuously beaten on the ground by officers while calling for his nearby mother. He attempted to stop officials due to “feeling shortness of breath”. Four of the seven officers continued to kick, punch, and strike him in the face and torso with their batons despite Nichols's pleas. Only after three minutes of a beating did officers stop and “render him aid”. Three days after being detained by police, Tyre Nicholas was pronounced dead at the Memphis St. Francis Hospital.
On January 18th, the federal investigation of the beating took place, resulting in five of the officers who were involved being fired and charged with murder by January 20th. “Four of the officers had previously been disciplined, including two who had failed to report the use of force during arrests”. Yesterday, February 3rd, the Memphis PD fired the white officer responsible for pulling Nichols over on account of “violating multiple police guidelines in his encounter with Nichols.” Guidelines violated included “personal conduct, truthfulness, and a violation for not using the taser in compliance with regulations”. Two of the EMTs who first arrived to treat Nichols were suspended for not providing care until “19 minutes after arriving at the scene”. Body camera footage of the beating was released to the Shelby County deputies on January 27th a day before two more police were relieved of their duties during the investigation.
This is among the thousands of police brutality deaths that have occurred in the U.S. since 2020. After the death of George Floyd in 2020, Cerelyn Davis testified before Congress demanding “police reform”. However, three years later there has still been little reform. Some progress has been made such that states have passed hundreds of bills to improve policing. But even so, “shootings by police have risen each year since 2020, and last year, police shot and killed nearly 1,100 people, according to a Washington Post database tracking such cases”.
The constant amount of police brutality that keeps occuring, specifically towards black people demonstrates the lack of progress being made to stop racial injustices. Although the use of weapons such as guns weren’t used in this case nor George Floyd’s, there is still a large amount where police have opened fire onto already wounded and unarmed black individuals. Unless there is a dramatic change made to police training, these injustices will continue.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/26/us/tyre-nichols-memphis-police.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/us/memphis-officer-suspended-tyre-nichols.html
https://abcnews.go.com/US/tyre-nichols-timeline-investigation-death/story?id=96695791
https://apple.news/ADderXx3QSqC8ukUQXyfdfw
5 comments:
Police rarely lose their job after murdering someone. I have never seen police act this quickly in the fallout of a murder and it's because they are in damage control mode. They are currently doing everything in their power to prevent targeted violence against police officers in the coming days, which means firing the officers and promoting peaceful protest. Conforming to their framework will not make change. There is a point at which peaceful protest becomes ineffective and we are at that point. Democrats even passed a meaningless police reform bill but how do we break the cycle of endless reform? How do we actually change the status quo? Additionally, I hope this murder proves that the police force is not corrupted by racist white individuals. Rather, policing is inseparable from racism and violence that cannot be reformed away. Even when officers are black, they enforce white supremacy. As you can tell, I am incredibly angry and have a lot of thoughts about this murder -- too many to write here. The bottom line is: we have a moral responsibility to riot and abolish the police state.
Police brutality is a systemic issue that sabotages the legitimacy and the foundation of our justice system. The excessive use of force by police officers is a violation of basic human rights. According to a 2020 Harvard and Northeastern study, African Americans are 3 times more likely to be killed than white Americans; police brutality is disproportionately directed at African Americans. Police brutality is interconnected with racism and discrimination, even in instances where there are black officers involved. This is because white supremacy is not solely perpetuated by white people. According to the New Yorker, there have been studies to show that a minority of African Americans also harbor white supremacy. Still, the root of the murder of Tyre Nichols and other African Americans is the racist institutional history of American policing. It must be addressed through comprehensive reforms. But how?
I am curious as to what approach can be taken to actually resolve the issue of police brutality. As established by both the article and my peers is that this is a systemic issue, that is nested deep in the workings of justice system. And as we have seen from the conclusions to the countless stories from George Floyd to Tyre Nichols, most cases do not end satisfyingly. Some may get sentenced for their crimes, most will get away basically unaffected. Bringing more and more of these cases to light is not enough to really create a major difference in solving our justice system. Perhaps the best option is to truly fight for a complete reworking of our current justice system, whether that means defunding the police or changing the way officers are trained. But at the end of the day, something new has truly got to happen.
Police brutality is such a complex issue and I think that many people are so eager to find a solution to the problem that they come up with rash and ill-thought through ideas. For example, after the murder of George Floyd many people wished to de-fund the police. However, defunding the police would simply lead to an overall lower equality police force and crime is likely to become more rampant. I believe there are many parts so a solution for police brutality but it starts with better training for our current police force.
As more information on this case as come out since the publishing of this blog, I think it is important to call attention to key details missing from this story. Nichols was pulled over for "reckless driving" which is now proved to not be true. There is no evidence that Nichols was driving recklessly. The traffic stop and beating were due to personal reasons (there is speculation of baby mama drama, but nothing confirmed). Therefore the 5 officers involved were charged with second degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of official oppression, and one count of aggravated assault. If you watch the "heinous, reckless, and inhumane" behavior captured on video it is clear that Nichols was targeted due to ulterior motives. Some view this murder as modern day Emmett Till based on the brutal level to which Nichols was beat. Like the killing of Till, the death of Nichols is, yet another, wake up call to take action. We must reflect on and combat this ongoing cycle of injustice.
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