When 5 Memphis cops killed Tyre Nichols by beating him to death on January 7, 2023 (he died in hospital 3 days later from his injuries), they showed clearly what is wrong with policing in America. The descriptions and spoken quotes below are from the video provided by Memphis police department.

1. 1. The stop was a racially profiled pretext stop, in which officers stop a person of color for a minor traffic violation, e.g., a tail light out, in order to potentially find evidence of a crime or simply to intimidate the person. Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis told the New York Times that the department could not determine why Mr. Nichols had been stopped. A routine traffic stop in the wealthy Memphis neighborhood of River Oaks/Brierwood with a white driver would rarely, if ever, involve such aggressive behavior.
   2. The cops led with force, epithets, and profanity as they dragged Mr. Nichols from the car. They are so aggressive that they should have been tested in the immediate aftermath for use of steroids, cocaine, and other drugs associated with aggression.
   3. One cop is seen approaching the car with his gun drawn, though no threat to his life or the lives of other officers is visible at that point or later.
   4. Mr. Nichols was unarmed and non-violent throughout from the first stop until he was placed in an ambulance.
   5. During the initial stop, as the cops manhandle Mr. Nichols and force him to the ground, he remains fairly composed, saying, “All right, all right.” And, “I’m on the ground,” as they scream at him to get on the ground. And, “You guys are really doing a lot right now,” as the cops scream and threaten to “Tase your ass!”
   6. It appears in the video that one officer does use his Taser on Mr. Nichols, on his right thigh, at which point Nichols breaks free and runs away down Ross Rd. toward where his mother lives. As he had said moments before, “I’m just trying to go home.”
   7. There follows a foot chase in which at least 2 officers run after Mr. Nichols. Foot chases often end in police violence, as the officers get tired and angrier the longer they run. Some police departments prohibit solo foot chases for this reason; an angry tired officer is more likely to employ excessive or even deadly force that otherwise would not be used. A fleeing suspect is, after all, not life-threatening to an officer.
   8. This foot chase lasts about 7 minutes, until about 8:32 p.m., according to the time stamp in the video. Two cops drag Mr. Nichols to the ground, and the beating begins.
   9. Mr. Nichols calls out, “Mom! Mom!” in desperation that she might hear him. Her house is less than 100 yards away. As his mother said after his murder, “All my son was only trying to do was get home.”
   10. Here’s how the New York Times describes what happens next: “Throughout the struggle, Mr. Nichols appears to have been kicked violently at least twice in the face, beaten three times with a baton, sprayed in the face twice with a chemical and punched in the head six times, all within the span of three minutes.”
   11. Officers pile on Mr. Nichols until he can no longer stand up. Then the cops stand him up, holding him up by his arms, while one cop screams, “Give me your hands!” Philip Stinson, a scholar of criminal justice and policing at Bowling Green University, told the Washington Post, “It appeared to me that one or more officers were providing a false narrative to accompany the video recording in real time. They were saying things like, ‘Give me your hands’ when they already had his hands.”
   12. Throughout the horrific beating, not one officer intervenes or suggests that anything is wrong with the excessive use of force, which was wildly disproportionate to the complete lack of resistance from Mr. Nichols.
   13. By 8:37 p.m., Mr. Nichols is on the ground in handcuffs, barely moving, nearly unconscious from the beatings. Not one of the officers provides first aid or care of any kind to Mr. Nichols.
   14. The paramedic unit arrives about 8:41 p.m., but it takes another 16 minutes before they offer Mr. Nichols any first aid.
   15. The cops joke and talk among themselves, trashing their victim, as they begin to rationalize their violent misconduct and make their stories consistent. One says that Mr. Nichols “reached for my gun,” when there is no evidence to support his claim.
   16. Shortly after 9 p.m., Mr. Nichols is placed on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to St. Francis Hospital.
   17. The initial report of the Memphis police department was false and misleading, stating only that “a confrontation occurred” and “another confrontation occurred.” The statement on Twitter, which was later revised continued, “Afterward, the suspect complained of having a shortness of breath,” according to the Washington Post.
   18. The autopsy of Mr. Nichols determined that he “suffered excessive bleeding caused by a severe beating.”

In summary, the cops who killed Tyre Nichols were part of a special unit, known as Scorpion. The night of January 7th the unit apparently worked without supervision. They racially profiled Mr. Nichols, stopped him on the pretext of a minor traffic violation – “reckless driving” – which could not be verified by the department. They initiated violence, dragging Mr. Nichols from his car; then they escalated their own violence using pepper spray and a taser weapon. Mr. Nichols tried to remain calm and spoke to the cops in fairly calming language, given what was happening to him.In summary, the cops who killed Tyre Nichols were part of a special unit, known as Scorpion. The night of January 7th the unit apparently worked without supervision. They racially profiled Mr. Nichols, stopped him on the pretext of a minor traffic violation – “reckless driving” – which could not be verified by the department. They initiated violence, dragging Mr. Nichols from his car; then they escalated their own violence using pepper spray and a taser weapon. Mr. Nichols tried to remain calm and spoke to the cops in fairly calming language, given what was happening to him.

When he had a chance to run, after apparently being Tased, he took it. This was a rational response to a situation that looked likely to turn deadly. The officers had Mr. Nichols’ car, could have likely found him the next day, and did not have to pursue him on foot, which pursuit appears to have fueled their rage. (In a 2011 case of a man running away from a Field Interrogation and Observation stop, Boston’s version of stop-and-frisk, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2016 that Black men who try to avoid an encounter with Boston police by fleeing may have a legitimate reason to do so – and should not be deemed suspicious.)

When the cops caught up with him, they beat him to the edge of death. Each cop involved failed to intervene to stop his colleagues’ use of excessive force. Each cop failed to render aid or care to the victim. The paramedics who arrived did not deliver timely medical care or first aid. The cops dehumanized their victim, as evidenced by their taunting him as they delivered blow after blow to his face, head, and abdomen, and later by their joking and trash-talking about him as he lay dying. Finally, these cops turned in inaccurate and false reports about the incident.

The killing of Tyre Nichols is part of the national crisis in the use of excessive and deadly force, in which more than 1,000 people are killed annually. In the week that ended on January 7th, at least 18 people had been shot to death by U.S. law enforcement, according to the Washington Post Fatal Force database.

When 5 Memphis cops killed Tyre Nichols by beating him to death on January 7, 2023 (he died in hospital 3 days later from his injuries), they showed clearly what is wrong with policing in America. The descriptions and spoken quotes below are from the video provided by Memphis police department.

1. 1.  The stop was a racially profiled pretext stop, in which officers stop a person of color for a minor traffic violation, e.g., a tail light out, in order to potentially find evidence of a crime or simply to intimidate the person. Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis told the New York Times that the department could not determine why Mr. Nichols had been stopped. A routine traffic stop in the wealthy Memphis neighborhood of River Oaks/Brierwood with a white driver would rarely, if ever, involve such aggressive behavior.
   2. The cops led with force, epithets, and profanity as they dragged Mr. Nichols from the car. They are so aggressive that they should have been tested in the immediate aftermath for use of steroids, cocaine, and other drugs associated with aggression.
   3. One cop is seen approaching the car with his gun drawn, though no threat to his life or the lives of other officers is visible at that point or later.
   4. Mr. Nichols was unarmed and non-violent throughout from the first stop until he was placed in an ambulance.
   5. During the initial stop, as the cops manhandle Mr. Nichols and force him to the ground, he remains fairly composed, saying, “All right, all right.” And, “I’m on the ground,” as they scream at him to get on the ground. And, “You guys are really doing a lot right now,” as the cops scream and threaten to “Tase your ass!”
   6. It appears in the video that one officer does use his Taser on Mr. Nichols, on his right thigh, at which point Nichols breaks free and runs away down Ross Rd. toward where his mother lives. As he had said moments before, “I’m just trying to go home.”
   7. There follows a foot chase in which at least 2 officers run after Mr. Nichols. Foot chases often end in police violence, as the officers get tired and angrier the longer they run. Some police departments prohibit solo foot chases for this reason; an angry tired officer is more likely to employ excessive or even deadly force that otherwise would not be used. A fleeing suspect is, after all, not life-threatening to an officer.
   8. This foot chase lasts about 7 minutes, until about 8:32 p.m., according to the time stamp in the video. Two cops drag Mr. Nichols to the ground, and the beating begins.
   9. Mr. Nichols calls out, “Mom! Mom!” in desperation that she might hear him. Her house is less than 100 yards away. As his mother said after his murder, “All my son was only trying to do was get home.”
   10. Here’s how the New York Times describes what happens next: “Throughout the struggle, Mr. Nichols appears to have been kicked violently at least twice in the face, beaten three times with a baton, sprayed in the face twice with a chemical and punched in the head six times, all within the span of three minutes.”
   11. Officers pile on Mr. Nichols until he can no longer stand up. Then the cops stand him up, holding him up by his arms, while one cop screams, “Give me your hands!” Philip Stinson, a scholar of criminal justice and policing at Bowling Green University, told the Washington Post, “It appeared to me that one or more officers were providing a false narrative to accompany the video recording in real time. They were saying things like, ‘Give me your hands’ when they already had his hands.”
   12. Throughout the horrific beating, not one officer intervenes or suggests that anything is wrong with the excessive use of force, which was wildly disproportionate to the complete lack of resistance from Mr. Nichols.
   13. By 8:37 p.m., Mr. Nichols is on the ground in handcuffs, barely moving, nearly unconscious from the beatings. Not one of the officers provides first aid or care of any kind to Mr. Nichols.
   14. The paramedic unit arrives about 8:41 p.m., but it takes another 16 minutes before they offer Mr. Nichols any first aid.
   15. The cops joke and talk among themselves, trashing their victim, as they begin to rationalize their violent misconduct and make their stories consistent. One says that Mr. Nichols “reached for my gun,” when there is no evidence to support his claim.
   16. Shortly after 9 p.m., Mr. Nichols is placed on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to St. Francis Hospital.
   17. The initial report of the Memphis police department was false and misleading, stating only that “a confrontation occurred” and “another confrontation occurred.” The statement on Twitter, which was later revised continued, “Afterward, the suspect complained of having a shortness of breath,” according to the Washington Post.
   18. The autopsy of Mr. Nichols determined that he “suffered excessive bleeding caused by a severe beating.”

In summary, the cops who killed Tyre Nichols were part of a special unit, known as Scorpion. The night of January 7th the unit apparently worked without supervision. They racially profiled Mr. Nichols, stopped him on the pretext of a minor traffic violation – “reckless driving” – which could not be verified by the department. They initiated violence, dragging Mr. Nichols from his car; then they escalated their own violence using pepper spray and a taser weapon. Mr. Nichols tried to remain calm and spoke to the cops in fairly calming language, given what was happening to him.

When he had a chance to run, after apparently being Tased, he took it. This was a rational response to a situation that looked likely to turn deadly. The officers had Mr. Nichols’ car, could have likely found him the next day, and did not have to pursue him on foot, which pursuit appears to have fueled their rage. (In a 2011 case of a man running away from a Field Interrogation and Observation stop, Boston’s version of stop-and-frisk, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2016 that Black men who try to avoid an encounter with Boston police by fleeing may have a legitimate reason to do so – and should not be deemed suspicious.)

When the cops caught up with him, they beat him to the edge of death. Each cop involved failed to intervene to stop his colleagues’ use of excessive force. Each cop failed to render aid or care to the victim. The paramedics who arrived did not deliver timely medical care or first aid. The cops dehumanized their victim, as evidenced by their taunting him as they delivered blow after blow to his face, head, and abdomen, and later by their joking and trash-talking about him as he lay dying. Finally, these cops turned in inaccurate and false reports about the incident.

The killing of Tyre Nichols is part of the national crisis in the use of excessive and deadly force, in which more than 1,000 people are killed annually. In the week that ended on January 7th, at least 18 people had been shot to death by U.S. law enforcement, according to the Washington Post Fatal Force database.