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Tyre Nichols Is The Latest Black Man To Be Killed By Excessive Force At The Hands Of Police. Nichols, 29, Was Beaten To Death In Memphis By 5 Police Officers Only 80 Yards From His Mother’s Home. He Was Unarmed, Handcuffed, And Complying. Finally, Justice Moved Quickly. The Police Officers Involved Have Been Fired And Charged With Second Degree Murder. With Lawmakers Like Jim Jordan Declaring No Legislation Will Stop Police Brutality, The Hope For Passing Federal Legislation For Police Reform Will Not Happen While MAGA Politics Exists.

Tyre Nichols was 29 years old. He was less than 100 yards from his mother’s home when he was stopped by Memphis police, dragged from his car, tazed, had expletives screamed at him as he cried out, “what did I do?” Th video tapes of the brutal beating I Tyre show him handcuffed, on the ground, complying while the 5 policeman took turns hitting him in the head, kicking him, and dragging his limp, badly injured body. The tapes also reveal the pokice officers and paramedics laughing, not offering first aid to Tyre. Claims of reckless driving and accusations by one officer that Tyre tried to grab his gun remain unsubstantiated. The police officers were all black, proving the reality that in addition to racism, there is a systemic problem of entitlement to use excessive force at will by law enforcement.

Democrats support legislation for police reform. Republicans oppose it. The House passed the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act in February of 2021, however Senate Republicans didn’t support it. Law enforcement usually trends towards supporting conservatism so Republicans side with the police against public complaints about corruption and brutality. The GOP meekly states opposition to police murdering black men during traffic stops, while they ridicule the police who were brutalized while defending the Capitol against the insurrectionists. Memphis officials are setting party affiliation aside, declaring,”enough is enough” and calling for police reform legislation.

Is another preventable death of a young black man caused by police use of excessive force finally going to bring about reform? A major obstacle: the majority of law enforcement professionals are conservatives and the current Republican party is infested with racism and toxic masculinity. The epidemic of black men being killed by excessive force is a stain on America’s world image. Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and MAGA members of Congress like Marjorie Taylor Green are on a mission to revive the racism of the Jim Crow era. However, there is outrage among all political parties about young men being killed during routine traffic stops by enraged, anxious police officers.

Timeline of black deaths by police in the US ( BBC, April, 2021)

The George Floyd Act For Justice In Policing must be passed.
  • 17 July, 2014, Eric Garner: Eric Garner died after he was wrestled to the ground by a New York police officer on suspicion of illegally selling cigarettes.
  • 9 August, 2014, Michael Brown: Michael Brown, 18, was killed by a police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri, who was responding to reports that Brown had stolen a box of cigars.
  • 22 November 2014: Tamir Rice: Tamir Rice, a boy of 12, was shot dead in Cleveland, Ohio by a police officer after reports of a male who was “probably a juvenile” pointing a gun that was “probably fake” at passers by.
  • Walter Scott was shot in the back five times by a white police officer, who was later fired and eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison.
  • Alton Sterling’s death led to days of protests in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mr Sterling was killed after police responded to reports of a disturbance outside a shop.
  • 6 July 2016: Philando Castile: Philando Castile was killed while out driving with his girlfriend in St Paul, Minnesota.
  • 18 March 2018 Stephon Clark: Died after being shot at least seven times in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento, California, by police who were investigating a nearby break-in.
  • 13 March 2020: Breonna Taylor: Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was shot eight times when officers raided her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky.
  • 25 May 2020: George Floyd: George Floyd died after being arrested in Minneapolis and held down by police officers, one of whom had his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.
  • 25 May 2020: George Floyd: George Floyd died after being arrested in Minneapolis and held down by police officers, one of whom had his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.
  • 11 April 2021: After being pulled over for a traffic violation, the police told Mr Wright he was being arrested for an outstanding warrant.He broke free and tried to re-enter his car, at which point an officer is heard shouting “Taser” several times before firing a shot.

A 2020 study by the Harvard Chan School of Public Health revealed black Americans are 3 times more likely to be killed by police than white Americans. The continued resistance by Republican lawmakers to support life-saving police reform is political-based racist dog-whistling to it’s white nationalist voters and wandering strategy to please other forms of alt-right conservative voters.

Republican Senator Tim Scott, the only black man in the Senate, pushed the passing of a bill called the Justice Act which failed to pass because it didn’t include restricting the use of most deadly forms of excessive force and supported qualified immunity for police officers.

However, the trend is positive as the justice system is beginning to hold police officers accountable for murdering black people taken into custody. The reality of systemic racism in policing is denied by Republicans but acknowledged by most Americans.

Published by rebeccasperber

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