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Anyone who watched the video of Memphis cops fatally beating 29-year-old Tyre Nichols had to be horrified at the senseless brutality of officers sworn to uphold the law. Decent folks should be outraged, the cops held accountable.
Yet it would only compound the horror to smear all police officers for the sins of these few. Or to enflame the outrage by citing this as an example of “systemic racism” — and a justification for violence, as in 2020 after George Floyd’s death.
Key questions remain: Why was Nichols really pulled over? What prompted the cops’ virulent hostility? Yet so far there’s no evidence whatsoever that the cops targeted Nichols because he was black.
Where’s the logic in claiming racism, after all, considering the officers who delivered the blows — punches, kicks, whacks with a baton — were all black themselves? These cops were out of control, abusing their power, incompetent, poorly trained or all of the above.
