Photo: Video Screenshot
One week before Dr. King’s birthday, a cold-blooded murder was committed by employees of state violence.
We know that now for sure as we watch and process the recently released police videos coming out of Memphis showing the police murder of Tyre Nichols.
The 29-year-old was terrorized, brutalized, and killed by five Black brutes wearing badges. His life clearly didn’t matter to these Memphis “to serve and protect” officers. The despicable footage make it clear these cops have engaged in this type of behavior before.
The videos, of the Memphis Police encounter with Tyre Nichols, show us something worse than what occurred in 1991: when Rodney King was savaged by five white cops in Los Angeles. Tyre was used like a human punching bag for the sadistic pleasure of these police.
Nichols was beaten, and chewed on, like a rag-doll by these wicked ravening wolves. These blood-thirsty killer-cops beat him ruthlessly—twice, in this fatal encounter. Both times we see some cops holding him down while others wailed on him, as he is completely defenseless. He was pepper-sprayed (while being told to show his hands) and repeatedly hit, including in the face; Tasered; held up while being punched; kicked and stomped on, while being on the ground; and hammered relentlessly throughout without mercy.
Then we see these police officers change positions so other officers can take their turns punching and kicking him. What we see is callous monstrous behavior.
These officers are seen trading stories, and laughing, about their exploits in beating Tyre. As Tyre is dying, we see them walking around smoking cigarettes. Some complained about their injuries and bruises. Others are giving high-fives.
Let’s be clear: Tyre was completely non-violent during this entire encounter that snuffed out his life. We’ve all heard of “fight or flight.” After the first round of vicious beating, we see Tyre fleeing to preserve his precious life.
Unfortunately, the state-sponsored murderers caught him before he could get home to safety.
These Memphis Police officers, in the second round of their beating Tyre, were even more vicious. Cops have an unwritten rule, principally for Blacks, that if you dare run from police a proper beating will be your deserved punishment, assuming you’re not shot down by bullets to the back. Tyre’s second beating was the penalty for making these cops run.
Near the end, Tyre is heard screaming for his mother as his life slowly slips away in the clutches of his killers. He would get within three houses of his home before his executioners caught up with him.
America’s cop culture is clearly corrupt and thoroughly racist to the bone. Therefore, we will hear asinine excuses, or silence, from police unions and the apologists, like those in the Trump MAGA Republican Party, who never see anything wrong with the racist criminal conduct of cops.
The political dehumanization of African-Americans leads to our criminalization in this white supremacist society that kills us in so many ways, including in policing. We again see it on these police execution tapes of Tyre Nichols.
There will be those who will say they see no racism here because these killer-cops were Black. But who taught these Black officers these techniques of torture? Who do these cops really work for? Whose rules do they follow? If not that of the larger white power structure who?
Blacks who are willing to sacrifice the lives of other Blacks, for profit, have always been employed by white America to further the oppression of the Black masses. This has been so since slavery days.
A white American, in the same situation as Tyre, would never have been handled in this manner, for a phantom traffic infraction that we still haven’t seen. These Black killer-cops are the finished products of white America’s institution of policing.
The reality is many of these Black cops, and politicians, have power because America’s white power structure gives them power to keep our people oppressed. Black leaders—like those in the larger white establishment—must be held to account for the continued criminal brutalization of Black people.
Where are our Black political leaders? Why can’t we count on them to fight ferociously for Black freedom?
How many generations of African-Americans do they think must be forced to face this same violent racist dehumanization time after time?
As protests are again erupting across the country, after this latest egregious act of police murder, some of our political leaders are parroting the same weak statements they always do. We hear them calling for non-violence, peaceful protests, and to please prioritize not destroying property.
Black Americans are not the ones they should be lecturing about being peaceful and non-violent.
Isn’t it about time they start preaching peace and non-violence to these murderous maniacs inside America’s police institutions—who they can always find money to give to, even when they are cutting everything else in their budgets? Why are they always asking Black people, who suffer the most from state-sponsored violence perpetrated upon them, to be peaceful?
Why do Black Americans have to be more non-violent, peaceful, and fucking long-suffering than those who commit slow genocide upon us regularly? Moreover, what kind of humanity do these politicians have when they show more concern about property damage after yet another Black person has been killed?
American policing’s race problem must be persistently attacked as viciously as the cold-blooded killer-cops who are captured on these tapes of torture. Black Americans must become relentless in the fight against ubiquitous racist police violence.
We must apply maximum pressure on Democrats to act more forcefully with consistency. MAGA Republicans must be continually condemned and exposed for their supporting silence. Black politicians who aid-and-abet the cruelty of cop culture, like Uncle Senator Tim Scott, must be called out and marginalized.
And those who always ask Blacks to be peaceful need be confronted about why that message isn’t being sent to the “license to kill” killer-cops like those who murdered Tyre Nichols.
