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This happened close to where I live. I passed by the intersection last night, and there is a very large memorial now.
https://twitter.com/natashalennard/status/1615694567071784960
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It's interesting they never release toxicology reports on the officers who perform these extra-judicial killings. Illegal stimulants, recreational drugs and steroids would possibly show up quite highly if they did.Comment
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Ain't it though?
See also the multiple scandals in drug testing labs used by the police and prosecutors, which somehow never result in false negatives.Comment
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This guy was extreme even by the batshit standards of US police union officials
https://twitter.com/createcraig/status/1616121455254683653?s=61&t=WhCUrMh3ADx5dTGUj7Sz3A
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Five Memphis officers sacked and arrested for the murder of a 29 year old black man.
It's significant in that the five officers were black too.
Tactical Genius might explain it best, but it still has to be considered a racist attack to me, in that it's the police force that are culpable, regardless of the skin colour of the officers.
The other thing to consider is the speed at which the officers were sacked and arrested. That in itself feels like the right thing to do in any such case, but I couldn't believe for a minute that the same response would have occurred had five white officers done this. I would be surprised if they would even have been suspended from their jobs.Comment
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The bodycam video (which will be released tonight) must be absolutely horrificComment
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Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostI noticed this in the NY Times article about the arrests:Some of the first descriptions of what was recorded at the scene were shared on Monday by Mr. Nichols’s family and their lawyers after they were shown the video in private.
Mr. Nichols’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, had to stop the video when she tried to watch it. His stepfather called it horrifying. Antonio Romanucci, a lawyer for the family, said the video showed Mr. Nichols being pummeled like a “human piñata.”
Apparently they were supposed to be involved in offering medical care at the scene, but them being removed from work really makes me fear for the worst.[Last week, the Police Department said the five officers had been fired after a “thorough review of the circumstances surrounding this incident,” which found that they had violated department policies on excessive use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid.
The Memphis Fire Department has said that two of its employees who responded to the scene have also been “relieved of duty” while it conducts its own internal investigation.
The police officers were part of a special unit created to work in high crime areas, known as the SCORPION Unit. Of course it's an acronym: Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods. No doubt there were a lot of Punisher logos to be seen among that unit.Comment
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Heard about this on CNN last night, the lawyer speaking said he'd never seen anything so shocking. They newsroom asked if it compared to Rodney King and the lawyer said its far worse, with the boy screaming for his mother.
It's being released tonight after the schools are closed so parents can get their kids home and safe before people hit the streets.
The cynic in me can't help thinking that the officers being black has led to the rapid dismissal of the officers and the controlled release of the footage. But the colour of the perpetrators is not important, it is the colour of the victim and the inherent racism of an institution which profiles all black people as possible criminals.Comment
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If the release of this footage is going to cause riots, why the hell are they releasing it?Comment
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I find this teasing of the footage and the announcement that it's going to be released at a specific time pretty unpleasant. Come see how awful this attack was! This black man's death wouldn't be important unless you could see just how he was mistreated by the police!
https://twitter.com/MarxistRealism/status/1619008192645857280
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Because there needs to be some accountability and police have hidden behind screens so many times previously. Even releasing it some people will almost certainly claim it is a deep fake. Riots are probably needed, because if you let this slide it is going to be awful in a different way.Originally posted by Paul S View Post
I am going to be staying in tonight (not that this would be in any way different than nearly every other night).
The "tune in at 6pm" vibe is awful, though it seems some intend it as a way to avoid seeing it.Comment
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It's also worth turning off autoplay on videos on Twitter and elsewhere online if you want to avoid seeing this.Originally posted by caja-dglh View Post
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I imagine the same discretion will be applied by news organisations as was applied when video footage of Isis executions were released to the media.
THe footage is out there, many have seen it already, releasing it pre-empts the inevitable leaking and from what the police say, releasing it tonight gives them time to prepare for the inevitable public backlash.Comment
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Larry Wilmore said, the problem isn't Black vs white. It's Black vs blue.Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
As we've discussed before, lots of people seem to think these things keep happening because, in the critical moment, racism overcomes reason in the cops' mind and they shoot out of irrational fear or hate or both. I'm sure that happens, but that's not the biggest problem.
As I understand it, the odds of any particular interaction with the cops turning deadly does not vary much by race. What does vary a lot by race is how many interactions people have with cops. Especially traffic stops.
Predominantly Black neighborhoods, especially poor ones, are just policed totally differently from predominantly white neighborhoods, especially wealthy ones.
Everything else being equal, it's better to hire cops who are from and/or really understand the communities where they work. But if the culture of that particular department or precinct is "us vs them," then it probably doesn't matter much where the cops come from or what they look like, because all of their social and economic incentives are pushing them to side with the brutalizers (if that's a word).Comment
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I honestly believe community policing should act as modern day national service, but the term "police" should be abolished in favour of "community support". Everyone has to complet a year of it before they turn 40.Comment
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That would probably be an upgrade over what we have, certainly.Originally posted by steveeeeeeeee View PostComment
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No doubt. I can only comment on policing in London, but kids have zero respect for them and see them as powerless. Exchange successfully completed service for student loan repayment, it would be popular and solve a lot of problems.Comment
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I'm not saying that Black officers can't be violent asshole cops, I'm just saying that our justice system seems a LOT quicker to charge Black officers with murder than when the officer(s) are white. When they're white, it was "justified" because the "perp" threatened them (or whatever). It's almost like the system relishes the opportunity to say, "see, it's not a racial thing". Very convenient for them, but I call bullshit. The entire system is racist regardless of which side of it you're on.Comment
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That might be true. I have not seen stats on that.Comment
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