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No adjective is sufficient to describe the reaction one gets from watching five Memphis police officers beat 29-year-old Tyre Nichols to within an inch of his life. He later died of his injuries in a local hospital.
“Inhumane” and “senseless” are as close as it comes. While Nichols was accused of “reckless driving,” it was an insufficient charge to cause such a violent reaction by the five cops. In fact, the 67-minute video shows Nichols posed no threat and tried to calm the officers, who were quickly dismissed from the force and their special Scorpion crime-fighting unit disbanded. In the gut-wrenching video we hear Nichols calling out for his mother, who later stated she didn’t want any protests to turn violent.
All five officers have been 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.
Unfortunately, there are people who use such incidents for political purposes. One example came from CNN commentator Van Jones, who said even though the five officers are black (as was Nichols), the beating could still have been driven by racism. His argument was that police officers — even black police officers — “internalize” certain stereotypes about other black people.
