How could five police officers beat a man to death earlier this month in Memphis? The answer is so obvious people overlook it: because they thought they could. Obviously, since they were in front of numerous witnesses — each other, the cameras they wore, bystanders — and still did what they did. Not impulsively or momentarily but over many excruciating minutes.
As to why the five beat Tyre Nichols, 29, a FedEx worker stopped by police while driving home from a park — possibly after some traffic infraction, though there’s no evidence of that — numerous possibilities present themselves.
The top five — there are more — in no particular order:
1) because they’re cops.
2) because Nichols was Black.
3) because he might have questioned them or hesitated following their orders, which gets some police officers mad.
4) because the cops were in a group and so reinforced each other’s violent behavior.
5) because we live in a racist society where the lives of Black people aren’t seen as significant.
That last one might seem improbable because the five cops, fired from the force and charged with second degree murder — things move faster in Tennessee — are themselves Black.
That detail figured prominently in the reportage of the release of the video Friday night. Why not? It’s news. Usually, officers who kill Black citizens are white, which should not be surprising, as police departments are typically white clubs.
In Chicago, a city that is 30 percent Black, only 20 percent of the Chicago Police Department is Black. Nationwide, the figure is 12 percent.
Implied in the coverage is that Black officers would somehow be more sympathetic to their victim. Remember Reason No. 1. Police officers will be the first to tell you that their race is not Black or white, but blue.
Notice how in Tennessee, as with George Floyd, or Rodney King for that matter, there were a lot of officers involved. Making none of them responsible — in their own eyes — to the citizen they were supposedly being paid to serve and protect. Their only concern was each other.
Racism infects the downtrodden in society as well as the dominant class. Just as Jews can be anti-Semitic (hello Stephen Miller) Blacks can unconsciously absorb the diminishment of themselves and their own worth that has warped our nation’s attitudes and policies for 400 years. How could they not?
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To those nincompoops saying he should've obeyed the cops, it's apparent from both seeing & listening to them on the video, not only were they out of control maniacs, but they were also screaming contradictory orders at him.
ReplyDeleteExactly why they were so insanely angry at him that their first orders were to tell him to get out of the car or they were going to drag him out & light him up is beyond insane.
Then when he's forced onto the ground, which was unnecessary, they're still screaming at him to get on the ground & they start beating him, completely forgetting the body cameras are on.
Every one of the cops is at least 50 lbs heavier than Nichols, so I wonder if roid rage was involved?
And cops wonder why the line "All cops are bastards" is so popular!
What I don't understand is that the bystanders said nothing. I've seen this happen to young men in my neighborhood and always got involved. Mob mentality takes over, even with police, sanity flees, and the unspeakable happens. It never turns out well.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right about the diminishment of self worth. I cringe every time I hear a black person refer to another as n*****.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, thanks to Desantis and his Individual Freedom Act (a.k.a. Anti-woke law), a K - 12 teacher can lose their job if they are taught something from history that might make them “feel bad about the actions of their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents.”
Whether a student feels bad or not, the teacher loses if this column were to be read in his or her class.
A Federal judge recently blocked a portion of this law enabling colleges and universities to provide courses that tell the whole story. Whoop de doo!
"At least they can't say it's racist." That's what I heard first off and I'm sure that was intoned with a sigh of relief by many many whites, even ostensibly liberal whites. But if you don't get it, a ton of explanation is not going to do. Look at J.D. Vance, who wrote a mostly sympathetic book about his roots, but ended up repudiating them. Among Blacks, examples of such are legion, as they are for Jewish anti-Semites. Karl Marx might be as good an example as Stephen Miller.
ReplyDeletejohn
John
Karl Marx was anti-semetic?
DeleteI would go with a combination of all five...
ReplyDelete1) Because they’re cops. "I've got a badge. And a gun. And I am trained to kick ass and shoot straight and I can hurt you or kill you for any reason...or no reason. What have YOU got? Nothing!"
2) Because Nichols was Black. And Black lives DO NOT matter. Even to other Blacks. That is how bad things have become in these Untied Snakes. Truth is, lives in general don't matter as much as they used to, either.
3) Because he might have questioned them or hesitated in following their orders, which gets some police officers mad. I would pick this one, Door #3, if I had to pick just one reason. He may have said something snarky. Or perceived as snarky. Doesn't take much these days. So his crime became POPO, Pissing Off Police Officers, which can easily get you beaten. Or killed. Or both. The yelling and the screaming of contradictory orders is standard operating procedure, designed to disorient and confuse and make the victim less likely to think clearly...or to resist. Drill instructors also do this to recruits in military boot camp, which is where the now-militarized police got it from.
4) Because the cops were in a group and so reinforced each other’s violent behavior. Mob mentality. The feeding frenzy of sharks. And they were in that goddamned paramilitary outfit that the Memphis P.D. called SCORPION. The name stood for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods. They wore black hoodies and tactical black vests with "POLICE" emblazoned across the front and back and drove dark-colored Dodge Chargers marked with a SCORPION seal. Sounds like gangbanging thugs with badges. And not like the Wehrmacht, either. More like the Waffen-SS. The ones with the death's-head insignia...the skulls. Welcome to Occupied France, folks. Hell, the Memphis Five don't even look that much like cops...more like Black Gangster Disciples.
5) Because we live in a racist society where the lives of Black people aren’t seen as significant. If still in doubt, refer to Reason #2.
I have not seen the video. I do not want to watch it. I am trying like hell NOT to see the video. I am already a rather pissed-off and angry old geezer most of the time, and this would not help my situation one damned bit. Same reason I NEVER watch action films and the vast majority of TV programming. I carefully pick and choose what I see, and my wife is forced to do the same. My old man beat and abused me, so violence on the screen, with me watching, can be a dangerous and explosive mix. One TV through the window is already enough for a lifetime. And triple-paned storm windows are VERY expensive. Ask the man who knows.
Now there's an internet rumor going around that the victim was having an affair with the wife or girlfriend of one of the cops, and this was payback. If there's anything to that, it should come out in their trial, assuming Tennessee's investigators are halfway competent.
ReplyDeleteGrizz, just FYI, he didn't hesitate or question the cops. He opened his car door and the cops just went violently off on him.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, The Scorpion Squad sounds like a bad Vin Diesel movie. I can see this name giving some cops an over-inflated idea of exactly what their job is. From the photos I've seen, the cops all look muscular and extremely fit. Could their uncalled for violence be a result of steroid use? I mean from the second he opened his door, they were unusually violent - screaming at him, dragging him out of the car and on to the ground. I was immediately shocked by their initial behavior. What came after was just unimaginable as we've all seen. I have no idea how one would screen for this, but the screening process must become more thorough and sophisticated to try to keep these kind of people from becoming cops in the first place.
The cops who do this know they can get away with it because they keep getting away with it. Perhaps these high-profile cases where cops have been prosecuted and convicted (George Floyd, Laquan McDonald, et al) will give some cops pause before killing their next victim. But I kinda doubt it.
We haven't all seen it. I haven't seen it. I don't plan to see it. I don't want to see it. I don't know what he did or said...or didn't do or didn't say. What came after was just unimaginable...but we have not all seen it. And won't see it.
ReplyDeleteAll I know is what everyone now knows...how they went apeshit. and beat him to death. The powers-that-be encourage this sort of behavior...kick ass, take names, and clean up Dodge, by any means necessary. If it means fatal shootings and fatal beatings and fatal chokings...so be it. Ain't America grand?
Not anymore. We're now what used to be called a Third World country. The pitiful helpless giant is alive and well.