Columnist Bill Newman: A murder in Memphis

Published: 02-03-2023 12:19 PM

I keep thinking about Tyre Nichols. And the depravity of the five Memphis cops who killed him.

The videos show that this 29 year-old Black man, the father of a four year-old son and a Fed-Ex employee, did nothing wrong, and yet the cops pulled him out of his car and brutally and repeatedly kicked, punched and smashed his face with a baton. He died three days later in a hospital. Watching the videotape of the cops crushing his face is excruciating.

We’d expect, based on experience, that the cops who killed an innocent Black person are white. But here the five cops who killed Nichols — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith — all are Black.

Preston Hemphill, a white cop, is a confusing part of this story. That cop was part of the initial encounter, but he did not chase after Mr. Nichols, who the police caught as he fled towards his mother’s house for safety. According to his lawyer, Hemphill turned on his bodycam and “is cooperating with officials in this investigation.” But Hemphill also was caught on tape saying as his brother officers converged on Mr. Nichols, “I hope they stomp his ass.”

The condemnation of these cops has been universal, but we should note that law enforcement here got some things right. For example, they released the videos quickly (which is good), much faster than the time that usually elapses after white cops kill Black people (a difference that is deeply troubling). And they without delay charged those five cops with seven felonies each, including second degree murder and kidnapping.

Let’s consider another law enforcement question — about the strike force unit to which these five officers belonged, called Scorpion. Scorpion, an intentionally menacing title, is an acronym for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods.

Elite police units like Scorpion are known for their aggressive and intimidating behavior. Those attributes are why they are formed to wage a war declared by politicians, the War on Crime and the War on Drugs. One question is, should Memphis Police Chief Cherlyn Davis be credited for dissolving Scorpion or castigated for having established it?

In contrast to the police brutality, the country has experienced the uplifting and extraordinary grace of Mr. Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells. Ms. Wells said about the officers who murdered her son, “They have brought shame on their families and the Black community. I feel sorry for them. I really do. They didn’t have to do this.” What a remarkable person she must be.

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With so much to unpack here, the best I can do at this point is offer a few observations.

While white racism often is the driving force behind police violence, the culture in a police department or unit also can bear blame. What does the department do about cops who approach the job and civilians with the attitude “I am the law. What I say, goes. I have weapons. I can hurt you. I can send you to jail. Don’t tell me about rights.”

Cops like these not only harm the people they are suppose to serve but also all the law enforcement officers who perform their duties with competence and integrity.

Not these cops, who lied about, and tried to cover up, their horrifying assault. Fortunately, the public outrage and the videos made their lies unravel.

Which raises the issue: what about those bodycams? The first rationale for bodycams is that they will deter police misconduct. Here obviously they didn’t. But the second purpose of bodycams, to have an audio and visual record of what happened, — that worked, although a stationary camera actually captured the most damning images of the beating.

What I can’t wrap my mind around is how these cops could kill so cavalierly. After mercilessly beating Mr. Nichols and propping him up like a rag doll against a car, the videos show one cop laughing and cussing and another routinely and unhurriedly tying his shoes.

No motive for this homicide has been suggested. And maybe there was none. Maybe for these cops the entire incident was just another day at the office or night on the street albeit with a bit more injury than they expected. That may be the most frightening part.

That and the fact that, according to the Department of Justice, 60% of the 450 yearly deaths in police custody in this country still go unexamined and unexplained.

Families of other Black people recently killed by police, including Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Botham Jean, attended Mr. Nichols’ funeral. There speakers called for police reform and for passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. That proposed federal law, among its measures, includes a national registry for disciplined police officers and a ban on no-knock warrants. But in Congress that law continues to languish.

My heart goes out to Tyre Nichols’ family and friends. I really don’t have words adequate to express my anger, sorrow and despair.

Bill Newman, a Northampton-based criminal defense and civil rights lawyer and talk show host on WHMP, writes a monthly column.]]>