Heather Mac Donald on the Tyre Nichols beating and racism
Heather Mac Donald has written a great deal about the racial aspect of alleged police brutality cases, and here she weighs in on the Tyre Nichols beating:
Five Memphis officers responded to what was initially reported as a car driving the wrong way down a street. The officers’ tactics during the stop of driver Tyre Nichols, captured on video, were an abomination: while shouting contradictory commands, the officers immediately escalated their use of force without apparent cause.
It was Nichols who tried to deescalate the chaos — a responsibility usually put on officers, not on suspects. The cops struggled without coordination to cuff him, while delivering gratuitous kicks, punches to the face and baton strikes. None of the officers’ actions conform to police training; virtually everything on view in the videos violates sound stop and arrest techniques. Nichols repeatedly collapsed and received only belated and listless medical attention at the scene. Three days later he died in hospital…
Had the officers been white, their race would have led every report on the incident. But since all were black, such reticence bought time until a new racism reporting protocol could be developed…
“It’s time to move to a more nuanced discussion of the way police violence endangers black lives,” Jones wrote on the CNN website last Friday. “It is the race of the victim who is brutalized, not the race of the violent cop — that is most relevant in determining whether racial bias is a factor in police violence.”
In other words: anything bad that happens to blacks is a function of racism, determined solely by the race of the victim, not by the intentions or identity of the perpetrator.
The rest of the race industry quickly coalesced around Jones’s?lopsided definition of racism, from which whiteness has been provisionally suspended (to be restored the next time a white cop is caught on videotape using force against a black suspect).
One almost has to admire the extraordinary flexibility of the charge of racism these days. Is there any obstacle it cannot overcome, any river too broad, any mountain too high? Apparently not; it is capable of meeting all challenges, including this one. The key is, as Mac Donald indicates, the definition of the phenomenon. Once that is made broad enough, all else follows.
What percentage of Americans think that way? Nearly 100% of the MSM, or at least they pretend to. Likewise the left. But what of the rest, which still constitutes the majority? I doubt many people buy this – if they are over 45. The younger generation has had it drummed into them repeatedly, and it is the mark of a virtuous person to believe it.
[NOTE: By the way, so far the rumors that Kyre Nichols had a relationship with the ex of one of the offices who beat him are unsubstantiated.]
‘The key is the definition of the phenomenon. Once that is made broad enough, all else follows.’
Just like the ‘climate crisis’ or ’emergency’ or whatever it is this week.
Had the victim been white, no-one beyond his family, his friends, and a few conservative bloggers would have cared. Fortunately for the shameless liars in the MSM, the incident can be blamed mindlessly on “white supremacy” anyway, beginning with Van Jones (recently awarded one hundred million dollars by Bezos, supposedly for the charity of his choice) and continuing with countless other ridiculously-remunerated race-hustlers.
This incident has also faded from the media spotlight very quickly which is always a sign that it doesn’t fit the narrative no matter how hard they try to make it.
I imagine the DA is looking high and low for a white guy to charge in this case.
A decent percentage of people likely believe it, but only those who live sheltered, privileged lives.
Humans are animals and human interaction can be very messy. Anyone who has lived any form of life must have at least witnessed a spontaneous fight break out in a bar, rock concert, traffic accident… I’m a fairly passive individual yet I’ve been in my share of fights; even had a few girls hit me (I’ve never struck a girl, other than my older sister, and that was when I was quite young). I’ve had my nose broken. I’ve been stopped by irrational policemen. Had a cop drop to his knee and draw his gun on me (I had run a rather stale yellow light and was obeying his commands). He was black. I am not.
People who live real, actual lives understand there are cops who are animals, cops involved with vice, men and women who have very short fuses and can get violent easily.
I was not surprised by this video. Disgusted, yes. I feel very sorry for the man who was killed, and his family. I still think George Floyd died of a drug overdose but I feel incredibly sorry for him; even Michael Brown. None of them deserved the death penalty for their situations.
Everyday the media can grab 1 of any 1,000 human interactions in the United States and spin a tragic narrative from an unfortunate outcome. In this case and the George Floyd case and the Michael Brown case the police involved were immediately restrained and/or charged and rather speedy trials were held. What else is the “system” supposed to do when there is human error? Even intentional, malicious, criminal human error?
1. Let’s not assume this was some kind of “routine” traffic stop. I have never heard of requiring a driver to exit the car and lie down on his stomach, and I have lived in the Deep South all my life, with experience of no small number of traffic stops and all sorts of different cops. I would have resisted this if I had ever been requested. Let’s be open to considering that this might have been a targeted stop. Snopes having failed to “substantiate” a sexual affair with someone’s ex-wife means nothing.
2. Using racism as an explanation is certainly overworked, and harmful to our society, but one could ask whether these police officers would have done the same with a “white” man who worked for FedEx, unless he was targeted for some other reason. If there’s a non-racist explanation for what they did to this victim, it’s most likely that this was a vendetta of some kind.
Investigators are said to be looking into the question of some kind of personal vendetta in the case. Snopes is right to say it’s not substantiated at this point, but “at this point” is the key phrase. If Memphis cops act like this on purely random traffic stops the situation is even worse than it already appears.
In the macro, the media preaches and practices institutional racism. In the micro who really knows how much actual racism is happening daily. Here is the media’s metric, white shoots black-white supremacy, black shoots white-crime/poverty, white shoots white-no story or local. Black shoots black-no story or local story.
Examples of this are easily found. All the black on black shootings in Chicago. And other cities. Weeks after Michael
Brown died Maya Angelou said that things would be very different if the shooting was turned around. She was right, a week after Brown was killed an unarmed white kid was killed by a black cop in Salt Lake City. Following the media’s metric no story. So if you don’t hear about it how can you know it happens? Ms. Angelou never, ever heard of black cops killing unarmed white kids, but she had heard about cops killing black kids-a lot! This is the racism I see. Nobody cares about blacks killing blacks. Ever.
Rufus,
have to disagree on Michael Brown. As the older black man who witnessed the whole thing play out testified to the grand jury, he couldn’t believe how long the police officer waited to fire. Even in a ham sandwich nation the grand jury came back with no bill. Extraordinary.
I have asked some commentators on other blogs who believe the explanation for this killing is racism: what then is the explanation when a white person is subject to abuse by police officers? There’s a big old logic gap for ya.
If it’s just plain “police brutality,” then how do we know it wasn’t “mere” police brutality in this case? Do officers who are prone to police brutality de-activate their brutality mode when they encounter a minority suspect??
What if the white suspect is subjected to abuse by black police officers? Is there any kind of racial animus in their actions in that case?
Our daily rag here in SoCal (the headlines of which I give a cursory look while picking it up for my wife. She wants the crosswords, and they practically gave it away when I tried to cancel the subscription.) led with the headline about the beating death, and in the sub-head described the victim as Black. So, it was very important to make that point; but of no relevance that he was killed by Black men.
I recently commented to a friend, that I have to acknowledge that on a Macro level I am racist, in the sense that I am sick of the whole package of racialism, and the people who foster it. This is a recent development. I do not generally advertise this because I regret it. On the other hand, I do not beat myself up over the attitude because I think it is justified. On a personal level, like most Americans, I continue to approach each individual with courtesy and respect; and do not differentiate on the basis of skin color between individuals who reciprocate.
I don’t know how widely this attitude might be shared; if at all.
I suspect–possibly giving them too much credit–that journos know they’re scooping the poop when they make a big deal on white cop-black decedent as opposed to the reverse.
It’s not that they think it’s a big deal in one case and not in the other. It’s that the first can be used to fire up racial animus and the other can’t. Or the other could if anybody ever heard about it. But the latter racial animus goes the wrong way.
It’s deliberate and an awful lot of people buy it.
Keep telling me I’m a racist, I just might turn into one.
And as I predicted: https://apnews.com/article/politics-crime-tyre-nichols-memphis-tennessee-28c478a5583c7aca61b1ea48a2fb41de
Yancey Ward:
The non black police officer was heard saying something, so they arrested him for his alleged speech. Was there a recording of the alleged conversation? And what was the non black officer thinking as well.
If you can’t find racism, you haven’t looked, and you are a racist?
“Rasicm. Is there anything it can’t do?”
– Home Simpson (apochryphal)
Oh, it is recorded- I heard it on one of the videos. This guy will be charged by some prosecutor with murder, just like the officers in the George Floyd case were outside of Chauvin.
Rumors of a relationship with one of the cops’ exes are unsubstantiated BUT they explain two imponderables: (1) why would black cops beat a black man for no apparent cause (if true, the rumors offer a cause), and (2) why would a man with no history of trouble with the law run from the cops (to avoid a jealous ex).
Tyre Nichols’ death is the direct result of a media-driven panic.
For several years now, the media has been pounding away on the topic of police brutality at traffic stops, whether to feed the defund-the-police meme, or the white supremacist meme, or continuing the Floyd George theme. Night after night, day after day.
The result is that young black males honestly believe that if cops pull them over for whatever reason, at a minimum they’re going to get the crap kicked out of them, and there’s a very likely chance they’re going to die. So running away now seems like a rational choice.
But running away is like tossing a mechanical rabbit in front of a pack of greyhounds — unless pursuit is expressly forbidden in their department, they’re going to chase. At the end if the chase, the cops will be pumped full of adrenaline, and they’re going to be pissed. Now, violence is even more likely.
We wouldn’t be here if the media responsibly reported that most traffic stops are benign. But that doesn’t sell ad space, so the violent encounters get all the press, and amplify the narrative. It’s a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
So we get more scenarios like Tyre Nichols. I hold the media directly responsible for this.
The German government has said, maybe Russia didn’t blowup the gas pipe lines. Same here.
Let some dust settle. A video I viewed appeared to show an officer going over to take a picture on the motionless victim. The officer then apparently does something with the phone. Maybe sends the picture to the woman? A good look at his phone, some cooperation from cell company, and we have more evidence. This thing has stunk to high heaven from the get-go. A crime detail like the SCORPIONS doesn’t usually make traffic stops. Cops usually don’t rush the car and drag the driver out. Cops usually don’t have two hold a guy up while the third punches. With enough evidence we may discuss Murder One and Felony Murder.
If this was a passion motivated murder, outside police duties, does that lighten financial liability for the city?
Jesse Jackson in 1993: “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps… then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
Pettifogger on February 4, 2023 at 1:35 pm said:
“Rumors of a relationship with one of the cops’ exes are unsubstantiated BUT they explain two imponderables:”
A lot of things can be used to explain imponderables.
However, over the last decade, I have learned to distrust a lot of the “fact checking” at Snopes, especially political controversies.
They cite a lot of family denials of any illicit affairs, but those are just assertions, as unsubstantiated as the “rumors” Snopes deems unfounded.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Hopefully, someone is actually investigating the rumors with more expertise than just soliciting the claims of interested parties.
Aesop
Presume it’s true: What difference does it make? More evidence of premeditation? So one guy is offended and his four buddies are offended for him, too?
Jeez, what a mess.
What about the EMTs and other responders, why did it take so long for them to render aid?