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Tyre Nichols beaten to death by 5 Memphis police officers


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10 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:


White Americans should be fucking pleased as punch that Black Americans only want equality and justice and not revenge.

no shit and 100% correct.

i'm only just now scratching the surface of racial inequality in this country, and i only just started really digging. and before that i thought i understood race relations and history in this country. 

i've made statements like "we're 50 years after the civil rights movement!" and "are we in a post racial world yet?"

i didn't realize how racist i was being. i actually thought i was being reasonable.

that's the thing about ignorance. you can learn what you don't know, but you can't magically know what you don't know. 

that's why i asked @52-80 if he asks himself critical questions before posting.

 

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5 hours ago, Helobious said:

All 5 officers charged are black. Just my own opinion but I do wonder if the fact they were dealing with a black suspect made them feel even more empowered to abandon restraint. 

I had very little exposure to racism as a child.  Small town, good people for the most part,  damned lucky to have been raised there. That being the case I've always been curious about the racism my coworkers endured and its long term effects on them.  Nearly all had multiple run ins with the police growing up. Seeing the pattern developing I asked them, "was it strictly a race problem, or a police problem"?  Nearly 100% stated it was mostly a police problem, that typically black officers treated them far worse than any others. Needless to say, I was more than a little surprised. 

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3 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

It's obviously why nobody has 'backed the blue'.  (1) the heinous shit they did is virtually unpardonable.  (2) the 0.001% chance of exoneration that is in video, has not been made available for people with which to defend them.

Therefore no one has. You present only these paths:  (a) if you defend this, you're obviously wrong [duh].  (b) you don't defend this, because the cops are black [the "difference"].

We'll get a lot closer to knowing things are as you posit they are if the usual suspects actually condemn this act instead of merely remaining silent.  But yes, otherwise, we'll never know exactly why the usual cop defenders are silent (if indeed they remain so).  Without admissions or statement of reasons, we can't know for sure.  BUT, in a world where we've seen multiple heinous acts by cops, the cop defender crowd always seems to find their voice, no matter how awful the action.  So, yes, when we have a case that presents a notable difference -- all the cops involved are black -- and the crowd that consistently defends cops, even when they do awful shit, is silent....extrapolation to get to their reasoning is not unsupportable.

But again, you're setting a standard of "unless someone expressly says 'I am reacting this way because of the race of the parties,'" we just can't consider whether race is a part of their action/reaction.  Which is EXACTLY how racism thrives and is allowed to thrive.  Coded terms, proxies for race, all that shit, all practiced by people who 1) loudly proclaim that they aren't racist who 2) are 100% racist as hell.

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2 minutes ago, SHOOTER12 said:

I had very little exposure to racism as a child.  Small town, good people for the most part,  damned lucky to have been raised there. 

I was raised in Mayberry.  At least I thought I was.  Rural midwestern college town, mostly an engineering school, "Black" was probably the 4th most represented demographic (behind white, Asian, middle Eastern).  Us kids of the college profs tended to hang together; we were driven to get good grades, etc., and we really didn't have all that much to do with the FFA and other kids unless it was being on the football team, etc. with them.

Imagine my surprise when my lily-white world that wholly lacked racism (hey, my two best friends were Black and Chinese-American) was rocked by social media, specifically Facebook, and I discovered probably half my graduating class was raised by KKK parents along with those who bought the message but were too embarrassed to join.

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9 minutes ago, SHOOTER12 said:

I had very little exposure to racism as a child.  Small town, good people for the most part,  damned lucky to have been raised there. That being the case I've always been curious about the racism my coworkers endured and its long term effects on them.  Nearly all had multiple run ins with the police growing up. Seeing the pattern developing I asked them, "was it strictly a race problem, or a police problem"?  Nearly 100% stated it was mostly a police problem, that typically black officers treated them far worse than any others. Needless to say, I was more than a little surprised. 

I see something similar when dealing with hispanic border patrol officers at the checkpoints. Some are chill, but a lot of them abandon the concerns for optics that some of the white officers have when dealing with a hispanic person.

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2 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

honest question: when was the last time the police severely beat a white person to death? 

Not to death in this case but it's never inappropriate to inject this encounter into a thread, in any thread really. 

The concrete wall never disappoints in its starring role as a shock absorber. 

 

 

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40 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

[1]: this honestly could be a whole other thread, but if you don't understand racist codespeak, that's on you. i'm trying to explain it to you and you are now coming across as being obtuse. intentionally. in a discussion about a black man being BEATEN TO DEATH BY COPS, your first go-to is "it can't be about race. we have better race relations now than ever before."

[2]: the timeline probably does not need to be discussed in the thread ABOUT THE THING UNDER DISCUSSION because i would imagine that anyone with intellectual curiosity would at least look up the facts of the case upon which they are about to opine; but here:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/us/tyre-nichols-timeline-investigation/index.html

i would quote it, but i think you could do the bare minimum and click the link and read the article and see the facts before declaring opinions about the case?

[3]: me and my friends would be locked up that very night if the police knew where we were. it just so happens that after this beating, police knew where the officers wh did the beating were. because they were still there. after BEATING A MAN TO DEATH. but it still took weeks for perp walks and mugshots. weird. this has more to do with blue than black.

[4]: i think this one is different on timeline and relevant to race for several different reasons. 1) the community policed is largly minority, 2) the chief is black, 3) the officers are black, 4) the victim is black. this is also not a simple one-off situation. this is part of a decades long conversation in this country - how police treat young black men. once again, they BEAT A YOUNG BLACK MAN TO DEATH - this is an ongoing problem. race may be a factor for many reasons, not limited to a) this is NOT the same procedure/timeline (wait, how do you know that this procedure and timeline are the same as every police homicide in the country? nevermind, maybe i'm starting to get it), b) these officers were named, disciplined, fired, charged, and the video will be release all in the same calendar month as the incident. this is unprecedented. sometimes it takes years for a video of cops KILLING AN UNARMED PERSON to be released. in this case, we seem to have reached firing/charges/video release rather rapidly, and people are wondering if that might have something to do with the race of the officers. any thoughts on that? i still think it took too long, but it's a laughably short timeline compared to other police brutality examples in this country. i would argue this has more to do with black than blue.

[5]: i don't think any race is more important. i think plausible deniability is the key to any successful racist operation. hoods, codespeak, and situation ethics all come into play and it's a very important thing to have a discussion about race. you don't want to discuss it. it's weird to me. why not? it's clearly an important part of this story for many different reasons.

[6]: i don't think it should. but cops seem to kill a lot of unarmed young black men in this country, so it's pretty fucking important, wouldn't you say?

1. im quite okay with not being a versed practitioner of racist codespeak, thanks very much.  it takes a stretch for you to accuse 'thats what a racist would say'.  i didnt make the 1st, 2nd, 3rd response in this thread.  it was brisket and others whose reaction is to bring race into it. you know what would be a NORMAL first response to a thread titled "[name] beaten by police"?  it's pretty fucking VILE to beat someone to death, REGARDLESS of pigment.

2. dont move the goalpost.  i didn't make any claims to the righteousness of the timeline, i answered your question in good faith.  whether race was why it took 5 days versus 10 days for people to be fired is a helluva lot less critical than whether race was why a GUY WAS KILLED (for which theres no proof).

3. if it took weeks for them to be stripped and charged, agreed thats a failure of the system.  but again whats it got to do with race?  and if it took TOO LONG for that to happen, then their being black is apparently a benefit - the opposite of what people are claiming. weird.  also see #2

4. beating people to death is sufficiently a very very bad thing.  we are not arguing this. age is every bit as inconsequential as race here.  is beating middle aged or old men better?  this is NOT SAYING beating one age/race group in outsized number is a okay.  see #6 below

5. disagree with your characterization.  i do want to discuss race -- you admitted to having seen me post about it elsewhere -- in earnest and with nuance.  i dont want to discuss it with people [not you] whose only playbook claim that most everything is racist, and label those disagreeing as racist.

6. it's hugely important... if it was true and targeted.  consider that 82% of the blacks killed were armed, as were 83% of the whites, 82% of hispanics, and 84% of asians.  can you now earnest say that the death were due to the race instead of ...say... the fact that they were armed?

feel free to fact check: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/

 

 

 

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41 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

We'll get a lot closer to knowing things are as you posit they are if the usual suspects actually condemn this act instead of merely remaining silent.  But yes, otherwise, we'll never know exactly why the usual cop defenders are silent (if indeed they remain so).  Without admissions or statement of reasons, we can't know for sure.  BUT, in a world where we've seen multiple heinous acts by cops, the cop defender crowd always seems to find their voice, no matter how awful the action.  So, yes, when we have a case that presents a notable difference -- all the cops involved are black -- and the crowd that consistently defends cops, even when they do awful shit, is silent....extrapolation to get to their reasoning is not unsupportable.

But again, you're setting a standard of "unless someone expressly says 'I am reacting this way because of the race of the parties,'" we just can't consider whether race is a part of their action/reaction.  Which is EXACTLY how racism thrives and is allowed to thrive.  Coded terms, proxies for race, all that shit, all practiced by people who 1) loudly proclaim that they aren't racist who 2) are 100% racist as hell.

there are racists of all intensity, and will always be.  that is not an excuse of status quo - its accepting human reality.  so surely some of the 'back the blue' crowd must be racists, as must be some bus drivers, and longshoremen, and packers fans, and roman catholics, and etc.

the notion that they publicly denounce this incident lest they risk being confirmed as racist, is a bizarre demand.  'my people' were involved in some recent incidents, and i dont feel compelled to have to apologize on their behalf.  when anders breivik killed 80 people near my house, i dont expect my neighbors to say "sorry, we're not all like that, promise".

racism and pedophilia are basically the 2 most vile things anyone can be labeled today.  so when you condemn an entire swathe of people (BtB) of it for merely not saying something, that's a serious and asymmetric accusation to throw, is it not?

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59 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I was raised in Mayberry.  At least I thought I was.  Rural midwestern college town, mostly an engineering school, "Black" was probably the 4th most represented demographic (behind white, Asian, middle Eastern).  Us kids of the college profs tended to hang together; we were driven to get good grades, etc., and we really didn't have all that much to do with the FFA and other kids unless it was being on the football team, etc. with them.

Imagine my surprise when my lily-white world that wholly lacked racism (hey, my two best friends were Black and Chinese-American) was rocked by social media, specifically Facebook, and I discovered probably half my graduating class was raised by KKK parents along with those who bought the message but were too embarrassed to join.

Haha, I remember several years ago thinking, "Man, Jimmy sure has some dumbass hometown friends on his facebook page."

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"Back the Blue" is absolutely a common (although not universal) front for racists.  It just is.  It's an easy way throw support behind a group that is notoriously discriminatory in their handling of minorities without actually coming right out and saying the discriminatory stuff.

2 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Haha, I remember several years ago thinking, "Man, Jimmy sure has some dumbass hometown friends on his facebook page."

You probably got there about a week after I did.  Let's just say I didn't go to my last HS reunion.

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4 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

A Norwegian vociferously defending American police is weird as fuck. The internet was a mistake.

if you interpret a single word in this thread as being in the defense of the police, may god have mercy on your soul.

juxtaposed against brisket and hayden who actually show thoughtfulness, regardless of agreement, i dont know whether you are proud or ashamed to be dredging the sewer with your level of contribution.

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11 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

there are racists of all intensity, and will always be.  that is not an excuse of status quo - its accepting human reality.  so surely some of the 'back the blue' crowd must be racists, as must be some bus drivers, and longshoremen, and packers fans, and roman catholics, and etc.

It's not that there are members of the crew who also happen to be racists.  It's that it's a significant motivating factor for them BEING a member of that crew.  One doesn't become a bus driver because one is racist.  But one may well join the "back the blue" crowd because one is racist.  Come on, man.  Just....come on.  If you don't see the heavy correlation between the "back the blue" crowd and the numerous classic racist tropes of "thugs" and whatnot....well, you see it.  You know you see it, we all know you see it.  You're just being disingenuous, and think you're being clever by doing so.  You're not.  Nobody is fooled.

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24 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

The biggest characteristic that correlates to getting killed by a cop is your sex (almost all male).

Then your age (18 to 45).

Then your race.

Society only focuses on the last one.

all which corresponds to the relative violence conviction rate from the fbi crime database.  crazy how that works.

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Apparently the cops were part of some gang task force unit called the SCORPION unit.  I don't know much about them but I remember growing up in Sacramento and their Asian gang task force unit.  If they are anything alike they are fucking bastards that will harass and beat you for no reason.  

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8 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

It's not that there are members of the crew who also happen to be racists.  It's that it's a significant motivating factor for them BEING a member of that crew.  One doesn't become a bus driver because one is racist.  But one may well join the "back the blue" crowd because one is racist.  Come on, man.  Just....come on.  If you don't see the heavy correlation between the "back the blue" crowd and the numerous classic racist tropes of "thugs" and whatnot....well, you see it.  You know you see it, we all know you see it.  You're just being disingenuous, and think you're being clever by doing so.  You're not.  Nobody is fooled.

...and we circle back to the 'stereotyping/generalizing is an acceptable practice again, and you're wrong if you disagree' phase.  

didn't have that in my bingo card for 2023.

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40 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

The biggest characteristic that correlates to getting killed by a cop is your sex (almost all male).

Then your age (18 to 45).

Then your race.

Society only focuses on the last one.

Wrong. The biggest predictor is your living status. All of those killed by cops were alive at the time.

The second biggest predictor is your species. Almost all of those killed by cops are dogs, followed by humans.

Edited by BrickHorn
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6 minutes ago, FartingMonk said:

Apparently the cops were part of some gang task force unit called the SCORPION unit.  I don't know much about them but I remember growing up in Sacramento and their Asian gang task force unit.  If they are anything alike they are fucking bastards that will harass and beat you for no reason.  

Thank you for mentioning this. I'd started reading the following short article but got distracted by a phone call for a while and had forgotten that tab was open. Just now catching back up.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/us/scorpion-unit-tyre-nichols-death.html

The Memphis police officers charged with the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols were part of a specialized unit that had been formed a little more than a year ago to help halt a surge of violence in the city.

The unit — called SCORPION, or the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods unit — was designed as a 40-officer group that would deploy in neighborhoods, with a focus on crime hot spots. The officers have often operated in unmarked vehicles, making traffic stops, seizing weapons and conducting hundreds of arrests.

The unit was such a key part of the city’s crime-fighting strategy that Mayor Jim Strickland touted it in his State of the City address a year ago, at a time when the city was tallying record homicide numbers.

Now, that unit has been involved in a fatal encounter that Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, who created the team in the fall of 2021, called “heinous, reckless and inhumane.” Five officers have been charged in Mr. Nichols’s death, and Chief Davis has ordered a review of SCORPION.

On Friday, Antonio Romanucci, a lawyer for Mr. Nichols’s family, said units that saturate neighborhoods under the guise of crime-fighting end up oppressing young people and people of color, often operating with impunity. He said the family was calling on the Memphis police department to disband the SCORPION unit immediately.

“How will the community ever, ever trust a SCORPION unit?” he said. “The intent was good. The end result was a failure.”

Specialized crime-fighting teams have long been the subject of scrutiny in cities around the country because they often target people of color and utilize tactics such as pretext stops, in which officers may stop someone for a minor violation and then use the opportunity to look for more serious crimes.

Memphis police reported in an initial statement that officers stopped Mr. Nichols for suspicion of reckless driving on Jan. 7 and that a “confrontation occurred” as the officers approached the vehicle. Mr. Nichols was taken to the hospital in critical condition and died three days later.

An independent autopsy found that Mr. Nichols “suffered extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” according to preliminary findings released by his family’s lawyers, who said Mr. Nichols told the officers that he just wanted to go home.

Ben Crump, a lawyer for the family, said the SCORPION unit has used excessive force before, adding that a man reported being confronted by the unit — and being threatened with an officer’s gun — while he was going to get pizza just a few days before Mr. Nichols’s death. Another man, age 66, also described being brutalized by the unit and had photos of his injuries, Mr. Crump said.

“We believe that this was a pattern and practice, and Tyre is dead because that pattern and practice went unchecked by the people who were supposed to check that,” Mr. Crump said.

He called on federal officials to investigate such teams and their tactics.

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3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

It's not that there are members of the crew who also happen to be racists.  It's that it's a significant motivating factor for them BEING a member of that crew.  One doesn't become a bus driver because one is racist.  But one may well join the "back the blue" crowd because one is racist.  Come on, man.  Just....come on.  If you don't see the heavy correlation between the "back the blue" crowd and the numerous classic racist tropes of "thugs" and whatnot....well, you see it.  You know you see it, we all know you see it.  You're just being disingenuous, and think you're being clever by doing so.  You're not.  Nobody is fooled.

We've done this dance a lot with him. He'll look for any reason not to see or discuss systemic problems associated with race. Racism can't be a systemic problem because people aren't saying "I'm racist!" 

A lot of this is informed by his view that being racist is one of "the two most file things" anyone can be, right up there with pedophilia. That prevents an honest look at prejudices and biases and how they impact us on conscious, subconscious, and systemic levels because no one wants to admit being associated with "one of two most vile things."   

As to this incident, I think so far the way it was handled after it was discovered is a good example of how it should always work. From that angle, I can argue that racism played a minor role in this incident. However, I can also recognize that a significant potential reason this incident has played out how it should is because of the race of the cops of involved. And that is where racism potentially comes into play.  Not wanting to discuss that issue is just another form of denial. 

 

 

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1 minute ago, Jameslaw121 said:

I get that. But, Friday night at 6 seems like the absolute worse time if you're trying to avoid riots

I agree with you.  You got the masses waiting for the body cam footage while getting drunk on Schmore Schnapps and all it takes it a charistmastic General Cartman Lee to rile up the crowd and then viva la revolution

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3 minutes ago, FartingMonk said:

I agree with you.  You got the masses waiting for the body cam footage while getting drunk on Schmore Schnapps and all it takes it a charistmastic General Cartman Lee to rile up the crowd and then viva la revolution

image.gif.30933e644c1ef110a2d2c0d1425dd974.gif

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23 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

...and we circle back to the 'stereotyping/generalizing is an acceptable practice again, and you're wrong if you disagree' phase.  

didn't have that in my bingo card for 2023.

That...is pretty fucking stupid.  Stereotyping based on things like, oh, one's skin color -- that's bullshit. 

Stereotyping based on actual objective actions and beliefs....well, that's exactly how reasonable behavior-based treatment works (I mean, it's a "stereotype" that people who wear orange longhorn gear are generally fans of longhorn athletics.  See, they've engaged in an activity and declared belief that correlates highly to the "stereotyped" thing).  Just like I can "stereotype" back-the-blue types as.....generally being strong supporters of law enforcement.  ZOMG!  See what I did there!  I "stereotyped" them!  How DARE I DO THAT!

Yes or no: are people with a "thin blue line" sticker on their vehicle likely to be 1) more or 2) less racist than the population in general?  You can do it.  I know you can.  Give us an honest answer.

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21 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

We've done this dance a lot with him. He'll look for any reason not to see or discuss systemic problems associated with race. Racism can't be a systemic problem because people aren't saying "I'm racist!" 

A lot of this is informed by his view that being racist is one of "the two most file things" anyone can be, right up there with pedophilia. That prevents an honest look at prejudices and biases and how they impact us on conscious, subconscious, and systemic levels because no one wants to admit being associated with "one of two most vile things."   

As to this incident, I think so far the way it was handled after it was discovered is a good example of how it should always work. From that angle, I can argue that racism played a minor role in this incident. However, I can also recognize that a significant potential reason this incident has played out how it should is because of the race of the cops of involved. And that is where racism potentially comes into play.  Not wanting to discuss that issue is just another form of denial. 

 

 

I'm pretty sure this is because he's cognitively incapable of understanding systemic problems, social dynamics, or anything else involving how people actually interact with other people that isn't express, literal statements of thoughts, feelings, or motivations. If the video doesn't involve the cops yelling "WE ARE BEATING YOU TO DEATH BECAUSE WE ARE RACIST" he can't understand how it could still be racism.

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12 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

We've done this dance a lot with him. He'll look for any reason not to see or discuss systemic problems associated with race. Racism can't be a systemic problem because people aren't saying "I'm racist!" 

A lot of this is informed by his view that being racist is one of "the two most file things" anyone can be, right up there with pedophilia. That prevents an honest look at prejudices and biases and how they impact us on conscious, subconscious, and systemic levels because no one wants to admit being associated with "one of two most vile things."   

As to this incident, I think so far the way it was handled after it was discovered is a good example of how it should always work. From that angle, I can argue that racism played a minor role in this incident. However, I can also recognize that a significant potential reason this incident has played out how it should is because of the race of the cops of involved. And that is where racism potentially comes into play.  Not wanting to discuss that issue is just another form of denial.

I can picture it: you straining all of your will and might to concede you have no evidence of race as a factor, in the same post calling me out for evading the big bad race monster.

Racism is terrible. It's a weapon reserved for when the weapon is deserved. I want to discuss it - I am discussing it. Where's did you anybody show any shred of proof of its evidence here, before the charge was initially lobbied?  Is guilty before proven the new MO?  Can brisket or another lawyer please explain? Or you also a lawyer, or merely a pedophile? (see what i did there)

 

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stats and graphs can tell a story very quickly.   It's remarkable how the # of death by cop, such a random frenetic event, can have such perfectly stable annual number ... from 981 to 1061 with hardly any variation. 

This is an excellent graph, showing race. Sucks to be an unknown race in 2021.  About 300-400 whites are killed by cops each year too.  I'd love to have a further stats breakdown by how many , of any race, were armed.  I'm guessing the dead whites would be much more likely to be in a real shootout with the cops, the gun nut culture, and all of them MAGA types, than blacks who I'm sure were much less armed. 

image.png.69ad6e4899c0822920b9c877536c8d9e.png

 

Edited by Make em eat Taco Bell
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