Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Five Memphis Police Officers Charged with Murder
Yesterday, five members of the Memphis Police Department in Tennessee were indicted on numerous charges including second-degree murder in the beating death of Tyre Nichols. Later today, the body-cam and other videos that detail the beating will be released. A short while after that, Memphis and some other cities in the US may well experience rioting. The story of Mr. Nichols is horrific, three-minutes of police batons on a defenseless man who would die a few days later. It is also a story this country has heard over and over. It is, frankly, tedious. Police reform is long overdue.
The Memphis Police Department is a majority black institution, much as the city itself is. The five officers are black. Mr. Nichols was black. The idea that that is racial animus in this incident is unlikely. However, the culture of most American police departments, even when majority black, is that young black males are probably guilty of something, so they are criminals awaiting the system to punish them. The color divide here is the blue versus everyone else. To their credit, the senior people in the city have done the right things so far, or so it appears. One wonders if five white officers would be treated similarly. One would hope so.
The incident arose from a traffic stop with the officers alleging that Mr. Nichols was driving recklessly. That is a catch-all charge or pretext because the crime is in the mind of the officer. Some might let certain behavior on the road pass, while others will not. It is not like a speeding charge where the radar gun provides objective data as proof. This is a sticky issue because genuinely reckless driving is a genuine threat to others. Weaving in and out of traffic, tail-gating and so on should be halted as soon as possible to avoid an accident.
Yet, the video, which is due out after 5 pm local time today, is said not to show any such behavior on the part of the late Mr. Nichols. The officers allege the cameras came on after the recklessness happened. That is plausible. It also seems a bit convenient.
Regardless, there is no excuse whatsoever for 5 police officers to beat an unarmed man for three minutes with nightsticks. Defenders of police misconduct will say that things can get out of hand in the heat of the moment. That is, of course, bollocks. Well-trained professionals will never find themselves giving into primal urges in the heat of the moment.
That brings the discussion to the basic problem in American policing. The cops are rarely trained well enough, and a great many members of the police profession are psychologically unfit. One an report firsthand knowledge of New York police officerts proudly stating that they are members of the biggest and baddest gang in town. That belief cannot be allowed to persist. Police are not a gang. They are guardians of civilization. Guardians do not beat the bejesus out of those they are charged to guard.
This journal has been on record for years saying that the American approach to policing is about 200 years out of date. There are a lot of arguments about America being a unique case, the nonsense that is American Exceptionalism. A police force that is there to escalate the situation until the civilian gives up is one that will, sooner rather than later, kill a civilian. American cops killed at least 1,176 people last year. The police must learn to de-escalate situations in order to save lives. That will require root-and-branch reform.
The police should be required to have an associates degree (paid for by taxpayers) in law and police proceedure. They should be required to meet all of the physical requirements they now meet plus similar psychological requirements. Lord Acton was partially right when he said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In fact, it attracts the corruptible, and they must be weeded out.
© Copyright 2023 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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