Content Warning: Police violence; Murder of a Black man

 

Indivisibles,

Tyre Nichols should still be alive.

Period.

Let’s start there. 

A simple statement that has needed to be uttered far too often following
the murder of Black people in this country. 

His life was taken from him by five Memphis police officers (and
potentially two fire department members) who chose to brutalize a man so
horrifically that he immediately needed a feeding tube -- dying of his
injuries 3 days later. Today, camera footage will be released which will
most-likely lead to pain, protests, and upheaval. 

Backing up: Tyre Nichols was stopped by police officers for “reckless
driving” approximately 100 yards from his home. The stop escalated,
reports indicate there was a chase, and it ended in 3 minutes of police
officers beating, pepper spraying, shocking, and restraining Tyre in what
even the city’s police chief described as a “failing of basic humanity.”
[ [link removed] ]Here’s the CNN story for more context.

What is important for all of us to remember is:

* This was a traffic stop
* Every officer on that scene had an opportunity to de-escalate
* This was entirely preventable  

In the coming days, we’re going to hear a lot about how the officers were
all Black and the ways in which that “complicates the narrative.” What we
know as progressive organizers is that white supremacist structures harm
Black people in a multitude of ways. One of those ways is through the
extrajudicial murder of Black bodies. Another is through the assimilation
of Black people into the system to shield it against charges of racism
while continuing to carry out oppression on those same individuals. 

Racism is a structure, not simply an act. Regardless of the fact that his
murder took place at the hands of Black men, the fault lies at the hands
of white supremacy.

In a clear example of that duality, these Black officers have been fired
and charged with second-degree murder less than three weeks following
Tyre’s January 7 traffic stop, while we’ve seen white officers continue
for months, years, their entire lives, after an incident like this. 

Even as they are white supremacy’s vessels for racist violence, they
become victims of its reach. 

There is no complication in this conversation as long as we stay true to
the knowledge that policing in this country is a tool of anti-Blackness.
Regardless of the race of the cop, they are a part of that system and
therefore enacting its goals. 

We ask a few things in the next couple of days: 

* Do not share the video. As Black people, we have been inundated,
traumatized, and re-traumatized by videos of our people being
murdered. You are not sharing anything new with us. If we want to see
it, we can seek it out just like anyone else. Sharing the video is
sensationalizing violence while minimizing the pain that it imparts on
Black bodies. Share solutions. Share actions. Share outrage. Do. Not.
Share. The. Video. 
* Don't get caught up in the discourse that says “but they were Black
too.” This conversation ignores the larger power structure that leads
to anti-Black violence in order to individualize the actions and
insulate the system from critique. These cops were a part of a new
“Scorpion Unit” meant to tackle violent crime in the city of Memphis.
We now, once again, clearly see the results of that sort of policing.
“Violent crime” framing criminalizes Black and brown peoples before
any evidence of a crime exists. When we empower a bolder, stronger
police presence, we encourage the militarization of Black and brown
communities which leads to our deaths. The Black men involved are a
symptom, not the cause. Focus on the cause. 

The public reaction, the community reaction, may become another flash
point. If you are a non-Black progressive, think deeply about how you will
internalize the framing and address this murder. There is actual work to
be done here towards Black freedom, towards Black joy, towards
accountability for white supremacy’s toll on Black bodies. Lean into that
work. 

Support Black lives rather than sensationalizing Black deaths.

Bear Bellinger
Member of the Indivisible Black Staff Caucus

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