Heather Mac Donald on the death of Tyre Nichols, racism, and the police
This is an important article, and I suggest you read it in its entirety. Heather Mac Donald has been writing about race and police work for many years, and she’s among the best at the topic. Her article makes for very depressing reading.
Excerpts:
Did these cops possess the tactical skill and psychological disposition to conduct any high-risk car stop according to professional standards? Given what is shown in the videos, the answer, even more self-evidently, is no.
The officers ignored protocol for car stops, whereby a driver is told to stay in his car and show his hands; instead, for no apparent reason, they dragged Nichols out of the car and manhandled him to the ground. They failed to tell him the reason for the stop. They failed to follow a chain of command, whereby the officer who initiated the stop usually takes the tactical lead; instead, they operated without coordination and at cross purposes. They issued contradictory commands that could not be simultaneously obeyed. They escalated their use of force without provocation. They increased everyone’s stress by screaming profanities at a cowering Nichols; it is Nichols, not the officers, who poignantly tries to deescalate the situation by pointing out his compliance. Having unjustifiably resorted to a taser and pepper spray, the cops botched their deployment of those devices. They were unable to handcuff Nichols, despite his low level of resistance and the officers’ superior numbers.
And so forth.
Why? What was wrong? Here’s Mac Donald’s assessment:
The Nichols beating is not the product of racism; it is the tragic culmination of the very narrative being offered to explain that beating. The idea that policing is racist, both in its treatment of black suspects and in its hiring of black officers, has led to manpower loss, a lowering of standards, and a drop in proactive enforcement. The resulting increase in crime then puts more downward pressure on hiring standards in order to try to replenish the depleted ranks. Unable to compensate for officer attrition, police departments are left without enough well-trained sergeants and lieutenants to supervise officers who maybe should never have been hired in the first place.
That’s the summary, but Mac Donald goes into some detail on just how it played out in Memphis and Philadelphia. Standards were lowered so much that a significant number of officers who had prior arrests (their own, that is) were hired. That seems to be the only way, in the current anti-police climate, to get the number of police officers up.
More:
In 2018, the MPD eliminated the requirement of a college degree. The department regularly requested permission from the police licensing board to hire rookies with felony and misdemeanor convictions. A former lieutenant in charge of recruiting complained to the Associated Press that the department let “just pretty much anybody” become a police officer. The most brutal officer in the Nichols beating, Emmitt Martin III, joined the force in 2018. He had at least one arrest on his record, whose details have been redacted. The criminal history of another officer in the beating, Demetrius Haley, was also redacted from state records. Haley joined the force in January 2021.
Meantime, Memphis crime soared.
This is exactly what might be expected. And there’s no end in sight. Everyone suffers, but black communities probably suffer the most. The people who implemented and promoted the anti-police movement could not care less.
It is certainly a fine piece (as one expects from the brilliant Heather), except for her contention that “the idea of black anti-black racism is not nonsensical as a speculative construct”, any idea with no evidence whatsoever behind it being certainly nonsense (Larry Elder and Candace Owens are often charged, idiotically, with this; both are, in fact, pro-black but have contrarian and unfashionable opinions on how to improve black communities). It is also unclear whether Heather has ever revised her flawed view of the so-called “killing” of G. Floyd.
This is eerily reminiscent of the plot from A Clockwork Orange where Alex is attacked by his former droogs who have now become policemen. Interesting that Anthony Burgess wrote that novel in 1962.
The most tragic aspect of the post-May 2020 police situation is the fact that, for the most part, the areas most severely damaged have been poor black neighborhoods.
One reason for not caring about what happens in the black community is that the not-carers know that mentioning…certain things is verboten on account of…it’s racist.
Decades ago, I knew a prof who had the job of getting more diversity–before that took on its current meaning but looked the same–in his department. Quit that assignment. It was impossible. He was always outbid.
As MacDonald says, a good prospect for a police department, a black man, has other options and, for him, the cop’s job is poison, if only among his friends and family.
The most tragic aspect of the post-May 2020 police situation is the fact that, for the most part, the areas most severely damaged have been poor black neighborhoods.
That’s because the goals of the antipolice mob are topped by their hatred of police, and any hope for ‘benefits’ to poor black neighborhoods have been abandoned as not inspiring enough for their donors. Let the taxpayers and their ‘nonprofits’ carry that secondary burden, the haters have more important damage to inflict on those luckless law-enforcers.
I’m sorry to be so heartless about all this … but my well of sympathy for the black community has just about run dry.
And I know very well, as neighbors and fellow NCOs or officers – a number of very fine and hard-working, patriotic people of color. Decent people, who have high standards, whom I am proud to have as friends.
But the general run of people of color in places like Chicago, NY, Memphis and all … they vote for the useless wastes of flesh who enable all this dysfunction in their communities. They come out to support the spawn of a career welfare-recipient-baby-mama who has finally pushed his luck too many times. They scream ‘raaaaacism’ at being held to account, scream for lowered standards so J’Quan can skate through high school with a diploma while not being able to read. That same spawn loots the local dollar store, or throws a violent tantrum in a fast-food outlet … and … ehhh. They enable so-called community “leaders” like Al Sharpton, political grifters like Maxine Walters or Sheila Jackson-Lee, and a stone-cold racist like Louis Farrakhan … and now we’re being lectured by intellectual frauds like Nikole Hannah-Jones (whose parental units couldn’t even bring themselves to spell her first name correctly.) Nope – done with all this. Communities like those in Memphis and Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit – they asked for all this. I’m agreeable to seeing them choke on it.
“The Nichols beating is not the product of racism…”
And yet…every piece of evidence she presents says otherwise.
The reduction of hiring standards, requirements & training demands, the elevation of lower capability black officers into command ranks, the papering over criminal convictions on & on is to allow blacks to meet an effectiveness & capability standard they could not otherwise have currently met. At best it’s the “soft racism of low expectations.”
In a majority black city, they sought to create a majority black police force & elevated to lethal risk black officers barely beyond the level of the criminal element in their city & obviously sometimes not removed from it at all.
You cannot exempt one segment of society from the requirements of that society & expect anything other than Tyre Nichols dead on the pavement at the hands of 5 black police officers. Racism…straight up.
Any self proclaimed feminist who is not lauding Heather MacDonald is an ideological fraud. She is one of the greatest journalists working today of any gender.
Brave, brilliant and follows the facts wherever they lead. She should be the Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism.
I’m with you, Sgt. Mom. I’ve run out of f–ks to give about the black — excuse me, Black — community. And I just have to laugh at the stupid names they give their children. Of course there are exceptions: the Martyr of Minneapolis was plain old George.
John Guilfoyle:
I believe what Mac Donald means by saying it wasn’t the product of racism is that it wasn’t the product of what is usually meant by the word – that is, discrimination against black people.
I’m sorry to be so heartless about all this … but my well of sympathy for the black community has just about run dry.
==
I understand your disgust, but I think the modal disposition of the black wage earning element is passivity. They can be manipulated by frauds, but I suspect most of the trouble is on the supply side, which is to say that social processes in the black population and in society generally do not produce capable people willing to run for public office. By the same token, the dysfunctions of the schools are generated by the accrediting agencies, the teachers colleges, the administrators, the teachers, the unions, and the politicians. There should be people standing up and mobilizing a counter-revolution to these nefarious guilds, and there isn’t. On top of that you have the legal profession, which may aid or injure those seeking repairs. On top of that you have sorosphere rent-a-crowd and you have the criminal class in the black population (which includes around 1/3 of the males between 13 and 35).
==
There’s all sorts of poisonous stupidity which gets a lot of purchase among rank-and-file blacks, but the energy isn’t coming from there. You have the same problem in attenuated form in the larger society.
They fit the personality type of concentration camp kapos, described by Primo Levi. Barely sentient; filled with rage; the weak are always targets; ready-made justifications; cowards on their own.
Lance de Boyle:
Watch out for calling people kapos. Please see this post.
Boss – I’m sure you’re correct about what is meant in the article by the word “racism.” I’d just say that’s a crap definition.
Can any sentient being still ignore the single biggest commonality in all of this, viz., that black people, by and large prefer living in lawless communities in which they can commit crimes of all sorts with impunity. Why else would they continually vote for leaders who espouse anti-police–more properly anti-civilizational standards–rhetoric, and when elected, enact laws and policies that further the decline of their communities? Yes, there are exceptions to this rule, as there are exceptions to nearly every rule, but the exceptions are so small as be unable to comprise a majority sufficient to install leaders who favor ordered liberty rather than chaotic libertinism. Why is it that every–and by every I mean every–community ruled by blacks descends into chaos, anarchy and ruin? Please do not tell me it is the fault of “democrat” politicians; that is simply codespeak for “black” politicians, who simply gravitate to the political party that best reflects and excuses their vices, rather than the other way around. If someone can provide to me an example contrary to that which I have posited–excluding Wakanda–I will be happy to change my position. Until then, I fear I can only conclude that the reason black-run municipalities in America are such cesspools of crime and corruption is the same reason why Africa remains Africa; because it is full of Africans. I do not say this with anything other than abject sadness and I wish it were otherwise. I would love to believe that everyone is equally capable of individual achievement and personal success, but some are simply not. There are, I understand individual exceptions to the general group characteristics, but the group characteristics still hold true, much like the gods of the copybook headings. The Bell Curve is undeniably real, and even DuBois recognized that the vast majority of those with whom he shared ethnicity were not capable of self-improvement and required the “talented tenth” to do so on behalf of them all. Regrettably, it seems that the “talented tenth” has failed in its mission.
Steve, that’s another reason the racial division stoked by the Democrats is so damaging. It pushes blacks to choose between what’s best for them and for society versus standing with their “team,” and unfortunately the vast majority choose the latter. Blacks who deviate from the norm (Clarence Thomas, Byron Donalds, among others) are ostracized. Donalds was not allowed to join the CBC. Black Republicans who get elected to Congress are from predominantly white districts.
There are a few hopeful signs. After decades of misrule by blacks, Detroit (80% black) elected a relatively competent white mayor. Mark Robinson’s election as lieutenant governor in NC is interesting. But overall the Democrats’ strategy of dividing everyone by race is working (for them, not for blacks).
I would assume that it is not only the black officers that are being given a pass on prior criminal activity. It is not really a surprise that this is happening. Who in their right mind would want to be a police officer after George Floyd? Additionally since many of the governments that hire police are Democrats and other lefties who believe that all police are all thugs anyway so why would you not hire people with criminal backgrounds.
Can any sentient being still ignore the single biggest commonality in all of this, viz., that black people, by and large prefer living in lawless communities in which they can commit crimes of all sorts with impunity.
I can ignore it. It’s demonstrably untrue.
Steve does not give much hope for the black community, but his outlook is counter to evidence of the success of the private and charter public schools which accept students by lottery and turn out educated and productive black & other minority individuals. But for the power of the education unions, this seems an obvious way forward in improving the prospects of this troubled community.
Dear Mr. Deco;
I truly do not mean to be insulting or in any way demean your noble intentions, but I simply repeat my original challenge, i.e., point out to me a single example contradicting my generalization about the state of black-ruled societies. I will happily recant upon receipt of the facts that support your intentional disregard of reality. Simply denying it may be sufficient for you, but like all faith-based positions, it ought to be supported by some degree of factual predicate, otherwise it is mere fantasy. I wish it were as you believe, because I take no joy in the present state of affairs.
neo @ 8:00pm,
Very interesting read. Until reading your post, when I heard the word I always thought the person meant, “Capo,” as in the mafia hierarchy (“boss,” or “head” in Italian). I didn’t know about “Kapo.” Maybe “kapo” came from the Italian? German would be “Chef,” or “Kopf” and I think yiddish usually uses variations of “Kopf” when referring to the head as a body part.
From your post it seems like someone using the “k” spelling almost certainly means the Prison Camp usage, and, likely, is using it as an insult to Jews. However, spoken, I think a lot of people may mean the mafia usage. “Cappo di tutti capi.”
Steve @ 7:44am,
“…black people, by and large prefer living in lawless communities.”
I don’t see any evidence to support that, especially the word, “prefer.” Once a community becomes lawless it is a trend that is difficult to reverse and it has happened throughout history in every nation and among people of all ethnicities. Look how quickly communities devolve to that state once the “Ferguson effect” takes hold and law officers stop enforcing laws. Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, L.A.’s Rodeo Drive, Manhattan’s 5th Avenue… all are elite, predominantly white spaces that are now experiencing high crime and vandalism.
Steve @ 11:05am,
Show me an example of a “black” (your word) who achieves financial success and remains in a lawless community.
Regarding your challenge; Marietta, GA, Duluth, GA, Homewood, AL, Cedar Hill, TX, Baldwin Hills, CA…
point out to me a single example contradicting my generalization about the state of black-ruled societies.
Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Botswana could also suggest itself.
that black people, by and large prefer living in lawless communities in which they can commit crimes of all sorts with impunity.
Sorry, but that’s a small subset of the so-called ‘black community’. Don’t pretend you can project that uniformly to denigrate all the rest of its residents – and do remember than in the ‘mostly peaceful protests’ of 2020, thousands of lawful black-owned businesses and black wage-earners were reduced to poverty themselves because the police were reined in by their elected ‘progressive’ politicians. Only a Lenin would say ‘the worse, the better’ on the assumption that all the new paupers would join the revolution.
Plenty of interviews have been published, of black community members wishing for more policing, not less – though not generally in the crusading rags like the NYT.
Insufficiently,
Thomas Sowell ties it to the civil rights movement, but, given the timing and results, more likely the Great Society.
The additional freedoms available to blacks allowed the more stable types, the leaven, so to speak, to move out to the further neighborhoods, leaving the unfortunates behind. The move took money, which you have to be stable and in some way middle class to acquire, and the characteristics left, along with the money.
My kids played high school sports in a league which was small-town, almost rural, couple of suburbs, and a system which, it seemed, had been lifted from the nearest urban inner city and plunked on the border. Completely different issues altogether. Parents’ night…football team. Three kids had intact families. Basketball team…zero. Crime. Crappy ed results.
But, to break your heart, at the basketball games, there were middle aged black men in suits and ties near the court and the stands, trying to keep order and reproaching the buttheads. Didn’t work. Couple of schools in the inner city in question now play their football games without spectators due to fights in the stands.
I took Steve’s comment to be primarily about how blacks vote, and the quality of the candidates they vote for where they have a large share of the vote, not where they choose to live. And specifically the 90% or so who continue to vote for leftist Democrats. I noted one exception of Detroiters voting in a relatively competent white mayor. Yes, many blacks say they want more, not less, policing, but how do they vote in those big cities where most of them live?
Dear Mr. Firefly:
I looked up your examples. The most glaring error appears to be Homewood, AL, whose mayor is white, and whose council is composed of all whites, save one. Marietta, GA has a white mayor and five out of seven council members are also white. Duluth, GA likewise has a white mayor and all council members are white (except perhaps for one, whose ethnicity can’t be readily determined.) I’ll give you Cedar Hill TX, however, and Baldwin Hills, CA is a real outlier in terms of the economic status of its inhabitants. To the contrary, I give you Detroit, MI, Memphis, TN, New Orleans, LA, Chicago, IL, Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, Jackson, MS……………….. QED
Interesting that another option is not being explored: that it was a beating up that got out of hand. One of the police officers was a competitor for the affection of the victim’s squeeze. He allegedly sent her a photo of the victim, post beating.
Yeah, I saw reports of that, too.
But was that story corroborated?
If so, then it was definitely a targeted hit, if not necessarily a killing, though perhaps that too.
Maybe THAT’S the reason why Nichols, realizing that he WAS THE target and knowing why, ran for it.
Maybe.
Pure, ugly speculation.
UNLESS that story has legs.
So does it?
Barry
For this to be targeted, they’d have to know which car he was driving and gone looking for it. Or they knew where he was–possibly at the woman’s home, if such was going on.
There were two cars involved in the stop, as I recall the report.
To have a random encounter with a random driver and go after him as if he were a bank robber or something does not compute. Too much work, for one thing.
So the likelihood it was targeted looks pretty high. The reason may be a woman, or it may be something else. But random is a low-probability issue.
If it were targeted, they knew what they were going to do–death not necessarily part of the plan–and expected to get away with it. Why so confident? Done it before to with no consequences? If not, known others who had? Supervision knows what? about earlier issues. Are we going to hear about such from other victims?
Who, exactly, did they send the pics to?
Richard:
I would prefer this rumor not be true.
The episode is already bad enough as it is.
Greg:
Some woman, supposedly.
Not sure whom.
Not sure IF.
It is public knowledge that the victim was dating the ex-girlfriend of the police officer that beat him into unconsciousness yet, only Newsweek magazine has mentioned this. I think it is crucial to why this particular police officer and his four buddies beat this man to death.
Richard Aubrey on February 21, 2023 at 2:25 pm said:
Insufficiently,
Thomas Sowell ties it to the civil rights movement, but, given the timing and results, more likely the Great Society.
Doesn’t have to be either or. Also other things can contribute, e.g., the sexual revolution. Well off white liberals live conservative lives generally, and a period of wild behavior may do little damage if culturally you then settle down and get your life together.
that still doesn’t make sense, if he was someone like freddie gray of baltimore, well maybe such action might be merited,
Don
Some years back, Myron Magnet–odd name until I heard if pronounced “Mahnyay”–which I should have guessed–wrote “The Dream and The Nightmare” something along your line. The better off can have a great time, but they have an anchor to leeward, trust fund, connections, know when to stop, etc. While advertising the same to the less fortunate without such grounding-just-before-too-late.
He makes a better case than I do, but you figure entertainment and celebs and politicians and the wealthy ain’t advertising restraint.
Going on a century ago, Lucius Beebe practically invented cafe society to have something to report on and make a living at it. Wasn’t about knitting socks for the homeless.
Said he had a picture in his mind; Dark, windy night. A woman, homeless, holding an infant, sees a train going past. In the well-lit windows of the firstest of the mostest first class is, surrounded by all the good things, the father of her child. “I want to be that man.” Kind of a joke, I suppose. But not so bad as to get him consigned to oblivion. Probably didn’t actually mean it, but that he could accurately presume his readers would find it funny…. Which they could afford to do since they didn’t do such things, or if they did, there was a trip to Switzerland….
whirlwinder:
“Public knowledge” is, in this case, another term for “unsubstantiated internet rumor.” So far it’s nothing but a rumor, one that Nichols’ family has denied is true. Here’s the Newsweek article.
neo. What evidence we have at this point seems to indicate a targeted attack.
Or this was the first in a series that this crew was likely to do just because, but they got caught. That’s bad luck for them, but it brings up the question of…really, the first time?
Or they were planning on doing this as a tactic and…the first time was this time…or it wasn’t the first time and we’ll hear about earlier attempts.
There are any number of crazy, stupid, rotten things these guys could have done and been thrown off the force much earlier. But they didn’t, which is why they had as much time in the force as they had. So they have some rational capacity. But this….
Richard Aubrey:
We have very little evidence of why this happened, or of whether it was a one-off or their usual m o and only drew attention this time because the victim died.
neo.
It drew public attention because the victim died. One would think a victim only seriously beaten would, at least, come to the attention of supervision due to complaining about it. Or local press. If not the first time, there’s a lot of business -as-usual in several different and not necessarily related institutions.
The evidence is, to my view, not that it was in a positive sense, a one-off and likely targeted. But that it was an MO is the less likely due to that various baggage an MO carries with it and earlier reports, by now, would have surfaced.
Questions:
Do two or more Scorpion cars travel together? Given their task and the areas to which they are assigned, probably a good idea so probably. Okay. That there were two there at the same time does not indicate some kind of pre-planned op.
Is there reporting of similar treatment for routine traffic offenses? Similar except for the dead thing, I mean. Now, if the guy happened to be going 90mph the wrong way in a 25mph school zone as the school was being dismissed, the cops might have been more than ordinarily annoyed. Any evidence this wasn’t a routine traffic offense?
When you pare off such possibilities, what’s left is suspicious.
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