Brief Reflections on the Tyre Nichols Death
On January 7th, 2023, Memphis Police officers pulled over Tyre Nichols for reckless driving. The altercation that ensued left Nichols dead, and five officers charged with murder. Both Nichols, and all five officers were black. As with most of these events, it can be ethically complex, and it seemed a potential benefit to offer some brief observations about the incident.
1. The first thing worth observing is that Nichols was in fact resisting arrest from the very beginning, refusing to comply and follow plain orders to lay on the ground and put his hands behind his back. He *MAY* have been unclear about these instructions at first but it was quickly made perfectly clear and Nichols did nothing but resist during the entire event, refusing to give them his hands behind his back. As his resistance escalated so did the necessity of their severity of response. He never did comply until he was basically hamburger, and unable to further resist. If I’m not seeing it clearly enlighten me. I’m open.
2. Once he was cuffed, it appears that the officers continued to beat Nichols. To beat someone restrained is a felony for a cop. This is a just and righteous law and should be enforced with all due sanctions. And the cops appear to have done exactly that in this case.
3. Further, the police involved had better be able to demonstrate a cause of pulling him over, not only of pulling him over, but of being so severe and extreme in the immediate interaction, yanking him from the car and slamming him to the ground, etc. If they cannot, this also would seem to have to be some violation of law. If Nichols were swerving around threatening pedestrians or going 70 in a 25, then such a response is called for. But if the “reckless driving” was of the more benign variety, then it would appear that they have no legitimate moral ground to respond with such immediate severity, and if that is the case, they should be, and likely will be, charged for this as well.
4. Despite the criminal excesses displayed in this case, it remains that if Mr. Nichols had simply complied he’d be out on bond right now, with vehicular violations of some sort. This could be said for likely every single one of these huge Civil rights police cases in the last 40 years. Name one where it couldn’t. White people offer resistance to police authority in this fashion a much smaller percentage of the time, but when they do thus respond they get the same treatment. Police, both here, and in nearly all such cases, are targeting no race whatever but are responding to “content of character” not “color of skin. And those seeking to create racial tension rather than good will and peace, constantly forget their own narrative, because it’s all about escaping accountability for “content of character”, and shifted accordingly to issues of skin. Because justice isn’t really what they’re after. They want hatred, because they want to benefit politically from the animosity and divisions they promote. And that is a game no race should participate in.
