Five Memphis officers beat driver to death over reckless driving
Tyre Nichols, a twenty-nine year old Memphis resident and a father to a four-year-old was brutally beaten and killed following a traffic stop due to reckless driving on January 7th, 2023. He sadly passed away three days later while in the hospital treating the various wounds both internally and externally caused by the officers.
While all five of the officers have been subsequently fired for their crimes, none of which have been arrested or charged with the murder of Tyre Nichols, who was defenseless and beaten mercilessly over his driving.
Nichols was stopped after coming home to his mother from his FedEx job on his lunch break, sitting less than 80 yards away from the home where he would be attacked by the officers, half of which watched and did not render any aid while the others attacked him.
In this day and age we see more and more cops being caught committing these kinds of horrific acts without any kind of punishment. Just because they have a badge and a gun does not mean they think or are any different than the citizens they choose to protect. They should be punished for murder, and all be held 100% accountable for what they did, no matter the authority that they hold.
The fact that the media is not covering this as much as past crimes by police show how we are slowly losing our battle with fighting and abolishing corrupt police departments. Not only should these police officers be imprisoned, but their superiors should also be held responsible for not taking action sooner and helping enact justice for Tyre Nichols.
Unfortunately we see more and more law enforcement committing crimes with unfair to no punishment, it is crazy, and scary, to think our generation is almost being taught to fear the police when once upon a time they were the ones supposed to help and save us. This is because of the many crimes that all have similar stories, and similar lack of justice endings for the victim and their family. It is time to hold our police, and the ones covering them accountable! Great job covering the unfair Tyre Nichols case.
ReplyDeleteThe Memphis SCORPION unit's actions in Tyre Nichols murder are a terrible chapter in the criminal justice reform conversation evolving within American society. This is a specifically complex issue because this conversation is almost entirely controlled by media narrative. As police brutality and related cases arise, they immediately gain national notoriety, making them an opportunity for legacy media to leverage the crisis for ratings and viewers. What I am interested to see now, is how legacy media will comment on certain aspects of Nichols' case, like for example the fact that the entire SCORPION unit was comprised of black men. The more recent cases of police brutality were centered around the fact that it was white officers shooting unarmed black men. Now, the conversation will address more specific cultural issues related to policing itself and less so on racial disparities within society. I am optimistic that this complexity will lead to meaningful reflection on police and their role in our society, especially those parts of our society ravished by violent crime, and less so on racial specificity between individual cops and the people they interact with.
ReplyDeleteI do respect how you were able to cover the Nichols case. I do feel that stories like these spread the idea of police accountability, but hopefully not fear of police as a whole. I do not want to live in a time where we fear the law enforcement that is meant to protect and serve us, but we must acknowledge cases like these. It is a controversial topic nowadays, so I was intrigued reading your post. Great Job with this!
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