'Splain It to Me

There has been almost wall-to-wall coverage of the alleged murder of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police officers belonging to a special crime-fighting unit called Scorpion. It’s a familiar pattern: a young Black man pulled over initially for a traffic violation and then being tased and beaten by the police.

What is unfamiliar, of course, is that the five police officers involved were also Black. So, what was going on here? That’s what I don’t get. Some may say, well, it’s a policing matter, race wasn’t involved. I’m not sure that’s the case, but I don’t know what IS the case.

Could these simply have been power-hungry cops angry because their orders weren’t obeyed? Or, were they trying to show fellow law enforcement officers that just because they were Black, Black suspects weren’t going to get special treatment. Or, was the message to the Black community that there is zero tolerance for crime, and they had to get the point across with harsh treatment of a community member? Was it simple group-think or the result of training or expectations? For heaven’s sake, they were wearing body cameras, weren’t they concerned that their actions might be met with some pushback later? Why didn’t other officers intervene? Why didn’t paramedics help Mr. Nichols? Didn’t anybody learn anything from George Floyd’s murder? Why, why, why?

Many have compared the video captured on those bodycams with the video of the beating of Rodney King by L.A. cops more than 30 years ago. It might be useful to remember that it wasn’t just the 1991 beating of King that sparked the fiery L.A. riots, but the failure of a Simi Valley jury the following year to convict four police officers charged in the case. The Memphis response seems very different, in that the police chief moved swiftly to fire the five officers and disband the Scorpions. The district attorney followed up with murder charges against them. Yes, the officers are innocent until proven guilty, and we don’t yet know what mitigating factors, if any, may still come out.

But there are other familiar patterns here: police officers behaving badly, followed by calls for police reform by outsiders. But the most common come from the media, as in, “We’re about to play this shocking video, but it may prove disturbing for some viewers, and you may want to take your kids away from the TV.” I’m getting a little tired of that one too. But it would be nice to get some answers to the “why” questions.