I never thought I’d say this as someone who works in the information industry but I just don’t think the entire Tyre Nichols video should have been released.
Surely the world doesn’t need to see another Black man losing his life after being apprehended by police.
I just can’t stomach seeing somebody’s son and father snuffed out on video all over again after George Floyd just three years ago.
After Rodney King which sparked the 1992 LA riots. After Robert Adams, Jayland Walker, Patrick Lyoya and so, so many others.
An avalanche of anger, a sea of tears, a tidal wave of frustration – but yet more denial of the structural, systemic issues at play within the US police force.
Between 2014 and 2020, US police killed at least 7,680 people. Twenty-five percent of them were Black.
The concern is that people are now becoming desensitised to the virtual genocide of Black men at the hand of law enforcement.
Maybe we could have seen an edited version of the footage. The events up until force was used.
In a digital society where “content” is king and humanity comes a distant second, there just seems something grotesque about the video of a man being beaten is trailed on the internet as though it is a blockbuster Hollywood movie or season two of a popular box set.
Nichols, 29, was a delivery driver with a four year old son. A keen skateboarder and photographer, he stopped for a supposed traffic violation on January 7.
What was then caught on camera was shocking yet so familiar to millions across America and around the world.
Footage shows Nichols viciously beaten, yards from his home as called for his mother.
He died three days later. The officers concerned have been fired and charged.
Even before it was released, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn ‘CJ’ Davis described the footage as being worse than that of Rodney King being attacked by police in Los Angeles more than 30 years ago.
Many people I know vowed even before it was out not to watch it, adamant that they could do without the trauma.
I talked with my children about the need to respect Nichols’ life and his family by not buying into the ghoulish desperation to see someone else who looks like us wiped out.
And don’t kid yourself that because of the identities of the accused this is not about race.
These were Black men who bleed Blue. Individuals drunk on power and locked into a deadly, well-established, murderous culture.
They were operating in a state historically soaked in violence. Memphis is the beating heart of the Deep South where Black people were subjected to lynchings which peaked across America between 1880 and 1940. Also where violent acts of torture were tolerated by law enforcement.
And don’t kid yourself that because of the identities of the accused this is not about race.
These were Black men who bleed Blue. Individuals drunk on power and locked into a deadly, well-established, murderous culture.
They were operating in a state historically soaked in violence. Memphis is the beating heart of the Deep South where Black people were subjected to lynchings which peaked across America between 1880 and 1940. Also where violent acts of torture were tolerated by law enforcement.
And don’t kid yourself that because of the identities of the accused this is not about race.
These were Black men who bleed Blue. Individuals drunk on power and locked into a deadly, well-established, murderous culture.
They were operating in a state historically soaked in violence. Memphis is the beating heart of the Deep South where Black people were subjected to lynchings which peaked across America between 1880 and 1940. Also where violent acts of torture were tolerated by law enforcement.
Memphis is obviously an extreme example but don’t kid yourself that some people expressing disgust won’t be back to their reprehensible day jobs, doing the work of the oppressors to punch down.
But back to those officers. They’d been part of the 50-person Memphis police SCORPION Unit.
The acronym stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighbourhoods. Police chief Davis has confirmed it will come under review.
Surely it needs to be disbanded with every case it has touched under review.
In the meantime, we are back where we have always been, railing against a broken, racist system that will have many who were happy to slip back into a world pre-George Floyd once again wringing their hands asking how it could happen.
By Darren Lewis
