Tyre Nichols’s Death Raises Questions About Race and Policing

It feels callous and opportunistic to turn a man’s death into a moment for political and social commentary. Ghoulish pundits with tendentious takes are a staple of the 24-hour social media and cable news circus. A mother has lost a son. A young man, by all accounts, wholly innocent of any crime, has lost his life in a most degrading and brutal way. The decent, immediate human response is emotional: grief, sympathy, anger.

But just as the conscience cries out for retribution, the mind calls for some understanding, some larger...