MEMPHIS, Tennessee — An unarmed black man dies after police beat him on video. The officers involved are fired. After a thorough examination of the evidence, criminal charges are immediately filed against the defaulting officials.
Investigation, Accountability and Fees.
This is often the best black citizens can hope for as deaths continue. Police have been killing about three people a day nationwide since 2020, according to academics and police reform advocates who track such deaths.
Tire Nichols’ fatal encounter with police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, captured in video released Friday night, is a stark reminder that efforts to reform policing have failed to create further flashpoints in a persistent epidemic of brutality impede.
Nearly 32 years ago, Rodney King’s brutal caning by police in Los Angeles sparked heartfelt calls for change. They have been repeated at an incessant rhythm ever since, punctuated by the deaths of Amadou Diallo in New York, Oscar Grant in Oakland, California, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and so many others.
The 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was so harrowing to watch that it prompted a national reckoning that included proposed federal legislation and statements of solidarity from corporations and sports leagues on his behalf. All fell short of the change in law enforcement culture that Black people in America have been calling for – a culture that promotes freedom from fear, trust in the police and mutual respect.
“We need public safety, right? We need law enforcement to fight pervasive crime,” said Jason Turner, senior pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis. “Also, we don’t want the people who have sworn to protect and serve us to brutalize us for a simple traffic stop or any other offense.”
The five black officers are now fired and charged with murder and other crimes related to the January 10 death of Nichols, a 29-year-old skateboarder, FedEx employee and father of a 4-year-old boy.
From police officers and prosecutors to the White House, officials said Nichols’ killing points to the need for bolder reforms that go beyond simply diversifying ranks, changing the rules about the use of force and encouraging citizens to file grievances .
“The world is watching,” said Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy. “If there’s one silver lining to be pulled out of this very dark cloud, it’s that perhaps this incident can open up a broader discussion about the need for police reform.”
President Joe Biden joined national civil rights leaders in similar calls to action.
“To bring about real change, we must hold accountability when law enforcement officials violate their oaths, and we must build enduring trust between law enforcement, the vast majority of whom wear the badge with honor, and the communities they have sworn to serve and to.” protection. ‘ said the President.
But Memphis, whose 628,000 residents party to barbecue and blues music and lament being the place where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, has seen it before. The city took steps called for by proponents in a “Reimagine Policing” initiative in 2021, mirroring a series of policy changes that reformers from all departments wanted to implement immediately, known as “8 Can’t Wait.”
De-escalation training is now required. Officers are instructed to limit the use of force, exhaust all alternatives before resorting to deadly force, and report any use of force. Tennessee also took action: State law now requires officers to step in to stop abuse and report excessive violence by their peers.
Showing unusual transparency for a police department, the MPD now publishes accountability reports covering the race of people subjected to violence each year. They show that black men and women were overwhelmingly treated harsher in 2019, 2020 and 2021. They were subjected to nearly 86% of recorded uses of guns, batons, pepper spray, physical beatings and other violence in 2021, with the total nearly doubling to 1,700 cases this year.
Seven violent acts by the Memphis police force ended in death during those three years.
“I don’t know how much more cumulative black deaths our community would have to pay to convince elected officials that the police system isn’t broken – it’s working exactly as designed, at the expense of black lives,” Ash said – Lee Woodard Henderson, co-executive director of the Highlander Research and Education Center, a Tennessee-based civil rights leadership school.
The Nichols case – just one of the brutality cases that made national headlines this month – exposes an inconvenient truth: More than two years since the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks sparked protests, police reforms have not significantly reduced such killings.
States approved nearly 300 police reform bills in the wake of Floyd’s killing, creating civilian oversight of police, more anti-bias training, stricter limits on the use of force and alternatives to arrest in cases of people with mental illness, according to a recent report Analysis by Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland.
Despite calls to “defund the police,” an Associated Press review of nationwide police funding found only modest cuts, largely due to falling revenues related to the coronavirus pandemic. Budgets were increased and more officers were hired for some major departments, including that of New York City.
Still stuck in Congress is the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would ban racial profiling, ban strangleholds and warrants, restrict the transfer of military equipment to police departments, and make it easier to press charges against offending officers. Biden said he told Nichols’ mother that he would “take a case” to Congress to pass the Floyd Act “to get this under control.”
Rev. Al Sharpton said his eulogy at Nichols’ funeral on Wednesday will include a call for new legislation. NAACP President Derrick Johnson also confronted Congress.
“By failing to write a law, you are writing another obituary,” Johnson said. “Tell us what you will do to honor Tire Nichols. … We can all name victims of police violence, but we can’t name a single law you passed to address it.”
Proponents want state and federal legislation because local changes vary widely in scope and impact, and can be reversed by a single election after years of grassroots activism. But some say strict regulations are just the start – and the video of Nichols’ agony proves it.
“Changing a rule doesn’t change behavior,” said Katie Ryan, chief of staff for Campaign Zero, a group of academics, police experts and activists working to end police violence. “The culture of a police department needs to change to actually implement policy and not just say there is a rule.”
The five accused officers – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith – were part of the so-called Scorpion unit. Scorpion stands for Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis disbanded the unit on Saturday.
“It is in everyone’s best interest to permanently disable the Scorpion entity,” she said in a statement.
Prior to Davis’ move, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said it was clear that officers involved in the attack on Nichols violated department policies and training.
“I want to assure you that we are doing everything we can to prevent this from happening again,” Strickland said in a statement. “We are initiating an external, independent review of the training, policies and operations of our specialized units.”
The Memphis Police Union offered condolences to the Nichols family, saying they are “dedicated to the administration of justice and will NEVER condone the mistreatment of ANY citizen or abuse of power.” The statement also expressed a belief that the justice system would uncover “the entirety of the circumstances” in the case.
Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, resisted the conclusion that policing needed to change. This is not “legitimate police work or a traffic stop gone wrong,” Yoes said. “This is a criminal attack under the guise of law.”
The protesters came out again Friday night after the city released the video footage. Turner, the Memphis pastor, called the images “further evidence that our city and country’s criminal justice systems are in dire need of change.”
“It’s not that we lack concrete, sensible recommendations,” said Rev. Earle Fisher, senior pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church. “What we lack is the political will and commitment to structural change.”
Associated Press reporter Noreen Nasir contributed from Memphis, Tennessee. Adrian Sainz also reported from Memphis. Aaron Morrison reported from New York and Claudia Lauer from Philadelphia.