Race and Police Brutality Debated Following Death of Tyre Nichols
AllSides Summary
Following the death of Tyre Nichols, who died three days after being beaten by five former members of the Memphis Police Department who now face murder charges, many are reflecting on police brutality and the relevance of race in Nichols' death.
Policing Is The Problem, Not Racism: Both Nichols and the officers involved are black, leading some to question or critique race being discussed in response to the tragedy, instead placing the focus of the incident on flaws in policing. Theresa Dear, a NAACP board member and writer for Deseret News, determined the death of Nichols to not be about race, but instead about “the use of force and brutality by five police officers.” Piers Morgan (Lean Left Bias) wrote that “high-profile black people have raced to blame white people for what happened in a way that is as ridiculous as it is disingenuous.”
Racism Is A Problem In Policing: Others are arguing that the race of those involved is a crucial factor to consider in preventing this tragedy from repeating. CNN host Van Jones wrote that “society’s message that Black people are inferior, unworthy and dangerous is pervasive,” and that black people are “not immune to its pernicious effects.” A writer in the Wall Street Journal Opinion determined that in order to address “stereotypes of particular demographics” that persist in America, it is necessary to “ponder how the race of suspects affects how they are treated by police.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
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...
From the Left
The police who killed Tyre Nichols were Black. But they might still have been driven by racism
Three decades ago, when four White Los Angeles police officers were videotaped beating Rodney King, the public outcry was heard around the world. In fact, I got arrested for the first time in my life during protests that followed. And I subsequently dedicated my career as a lawyer to helping to sue rogue cops, close prisons and reform the criminal justice system. It was a defining moment for the nation and the world.
What happened to King was horrifying — but at least he survived the ordeal. Tyre Nichols, tragically,...
From the Center
What happened to Tyre Nichols was not about race. It was about police brutality
After the events of the past few years, many municipalities heeded the call to hire more African American police officers to reflect and respond to the diverse needs of the community. African Americans believed that if we had more African American officers assigned to our communities, there would be less police brutality against us. Many police departments agreed with this sentiment and deployed African American officers to urban and diverse communities. In practice, this theory worked, until it didn’t.
It didn’t work for Tyre Nichols — a 29-year-old, son, sibling, father, skateboarder, photographer...
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