By Colin Benjamin
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
An all-white American jury murdered justice Wednesday, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Despite damning, irrefutable, video evidence showing three killer-cops brutal beating Tyre Nichols to death, this jury decided to let these violent cop criminals walk free. How could any humans, of good conscience, watch that video documenting the policing savagery unleashed on Nichols and decide these blue brutes with badges were guilty of nothing?
This all-white Chattanooga jury obviously didn’t give a damn about Tyre Nichols’ Black life.
This verdict, along with the recent executive order, by America’s first convict president, will now further endanger the lives of Black Americans, when we are inevitably targeted by police as we are busy trying to live our lives. This despicable decision tells police they can murder a Black person for, at best, a minor traffic infraction.
There are so many things wrong here.
Firstly, the conniving decision to bring white jurors from the mostly White city of Chattanooga to the mostly Black city of Memphis (to sit on this jury) was done solely to allow a white, police-friendly, jury to pervert justice. This is reminiscent of what was done in the Rodney King Trial when that case against those cops was moved to the police community of Simi Valley.
The notion this was done because of pre-trial publicity is a lie. It was done to facilitate the miscarriage of justice that occurred Wednesday. How often are requests for change-of-venue agreed to? If Tyre Nichols had been a cop-killer in Chattanooga, do you think any judge would’ve granted this request?
Here is a question to ponder: was the fix in—with collusion by the prosecution?
Let’s recall another case where the fix was clearly in: the case against the NYPD killer-cops who executed Sean Bell in a 50-shot barrage of bullets, on Nov. 25, 2006.
In the trial, that followed the cold-blooded murder of Sean Bell, officers Michael Carey, Marc Cooper, Gescard Isnora, and Michael Oliver were all acquitted by Judge Arthur J. Cooperman, in a bench trial. The choice to go for a bench trial was itself very telling. And after the telegraphed acquittal, then District Attorney Richard Brown talked about how great and respected a jurist Judge Cooperman was. Brown said very little about “losing” the case against those who murdered a man, on the night before what was to be his wedding day.
We must remember this: these prosecutors are the buddies of these thuggish officers, who they depend on to make criminal cases against Black Americans in this nation’s institutionally racist so-called “justice” system. We must ask this: did Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy object much, if at all, to the venue change—or, to the fact that, miraculously, none of the 28 percent of Black people, who live in Chattanooga, made it onto this jury?
Some are criticizing the prosecution for things like not putting on enough witnesses and not presenting other relevant evidence. However, with this white jury, likely made up of racist rednecks, would any amount of evidence mattered to them?
Once again, the corrupt connections between law enforcement, and “officers of the court,” who criminalize Black lives, likely colluded to deny justice for Tyre Nichols and his Black family.
Some will say racism wasn’t a factor here because the perp police, in this case, (Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith) are Black like Tyre, who they callously killed. Of course, this is asinine.
If Tyre was white, would this all-white jury have turned a blind eye to the video which shows his Black life being snuffed out by the barrage beating he took? Would they have escaped being convicted of the top charge—much less not being found guilty of anything, if Tyre had pale skin?
Of course, if Tyre was white, these Black disgraces to their race would never have dared to lay a hand on him, especially for a supposed traffic infraction. These Black bums are trained by the state to brutalize Black people, and they do it with absolute delight. Recall their behavior after they used Tyre like a human piñata. They were walking around rejoicing, reveling and telling stories with gory glee about how they pummeled Tyre.
Once again, as always happens after police kill Black people, we hear some talking about the need for better training. Are authorities going to train racism and prejudice against Black people out of American policing? Honestly, we know the authorities, who hire these monsters, never want to admit that racism is the central reason for these atrocities.
If training is the problem, why don’t we see innocent white people being murdered by police in this way? Is it just a coincidence that police training, leading to murder, only seems to take Black lives?
Police officers across America surely love this verdict. And with Trump in the White House, these state-sanctioned killers of Black people are probably very happy about the prospect of going back to having open season beatings and killings of Black Americans.
Let’s remember this: the police unions decided that endorsing a convict was more appropriate that endorsing a Black female career prosecutor, in the 2024 Presidential Election. Their decision tells us everything we need to know about these hypocritical phonies who like to talk about the “rule of law.”
Their kind of “law and order” is having their police murder a man and then orchestrate the situation so justice for Tyre Nichols would be murdered by white racism inside the courthouse.
