On Friday night, January 27, Memphis officials released more than an hour of footage showing the deadly confrontation between Tyre Nichols and Memphis police officers. Since then, Twitter has been flooded by expressions of shock, fury, and grief, as people struggled with the horror of the images they’d seen.
Below you’ll find—in no particular order— a variety of those thoughts, observations and, in some instances, searing emotions. So, read on.
Elie Mystal, Justice Correspondent: of The Nation, author of Allow Me To Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution
Barack Obama
A series from Jon Peltz, reporter for Knock-LA
Radley Balko, Washington Post justice reporter, author of The Rise of the Warrior Cop
W. Kamau Bell, stand-up comic
Actor LaVar Burton
Jamelle Bouie, a New York Times opinion columnist
Another from Comedian W. Kamau Bell
Another from Radley Balko, Washington Post justice reporter, author of The Rise of the Warrior Cop
Danté Stewart, author of Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle
The Martin Luther King Jr. Center
Matt Sedensky of the AP. Please click through and read Sendensky’s well written and devastating story.
Sherrilyn Ifill,
Former President & Director-Counsel NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Sr Fellow, Ford Foundation.
What’s amazing to me is that NO ONE has the courage to talk about the true cause of these incidents (it’s NOT racism). One person determined what would happen in Memphis, how the traffic stop (justified or unjustified) would end…Tyre Nichols. If the black community really wanted to stop these trajedies from happening, they’d emphasize respecting law enforcement and the law. Don’t argue, don’t resist, don’t fight and don’t flee. It really IS that simple. If the stop or the arrest is unjustified, file a complaint and a lawsuit. But it seems they’re more interested in perpetuating a constant culture of victimhood.
What I really want is for cops (of all races) to STOP being proactive and STOP risking their lives, careers and freedom for a public that has declared open season on them regardless of the circumstances. As we’ve already seen around the country, once the despised sheepdogs stop protecting the sheep, the wolves will quickly move in.
The “true cause” of this incident was out-of-control cops, who lost it and will probably spend the rest of their lives in prison for their actions.
Your argument would blame a rape victim for going to a bar and accepting a ride home. Would the incident have happened if she hadn’t done that? No. Does that make her to blame?
If you need this concept explained to you, you’re stuck at about the level of a six year old when it comes to reasoning. Failure to cooperate, even running from police, does not justify a fraction of what happened to this kid. I hope to hell you’re not working in LE.
This is the first time anyone has said the right thing on how to accept a traffic stop, pay attention as to what is being asked of you by the officer, officers could give a WARNING instead of a citation if anyone gets froggie by this approach shame of them, yes there are going to be times when everything goes south deal with it as it comes.