I can appreciate that good people might be less inclined to become cops today, particularly in the larger cities where they can anticipate hard work, abuse, and little or no support from city politicians. Unfortunately, this is a recipe for a downward spiral. As good, competent people resign or move to other departments, their places are filled, if they are filled at all, with less competent people, or with those who want to be cops for all of the wrong reasons. This leads to more police atrocities, resulting in greater hatred and even less support for the police. Surely the answer can't be blind support for the police, however incompetent or corrupt they may be. I don't think we're going to be able to replace bad police with good ones unless something changes in the right direction, though. To begin with, I think that the police need to be held to at least the same standards as everyone. Follow the traffic laws unless you're responding to an emergency, and be prepared to accept the penalties when you use unreasonable force against a citizen. As a cop, you should be subjected to at least the same scrutiny as any other citizen would be if they decided that it is necessary to kill or harm someone. Yes, these decisions are made in a split second, and a cell phone might look like a gun to you when someone pulls it out of their pocket. I get that, but if I get scared because someone pulls a cell phone out of their pocket, I am not going to be given the benefit of the doubt, this despite the fact that my life means as much to me as your life means to you. You have - or should have - more training than I do. Officer safety should not be an excuse if my safety isn't considered to be a reasonable excuse, particularly since we can't depend on the police to keep us safe. If my safety is to be my concern, I can accept that, but I can't keep myself safe if I have to assume that the person assaulting me or breaking into my house in the dead of night is a cop. There may be a place for no-knock warrants but they should never be used against non-violent people, and you damned well better have the right address. If someone is breaking into my house, I should be able to defend myself. If you're right about my being a violent offender, then we have a shoot-out, but that might happen regardless. But if you've got the wrong guy or the wrong house, and you kill me because I have a gun in my hand, then you should do time for it. It won't help me but the next time someone serves a no-knock warrant, they'll be more careful. As an on-duty police officer, you should be equipped with a body cam, and if you shut it off or otherwise disable it, then it should be assumed that you have done so for nefarious reasons when something nefarious occurs in the absence of your body cam video. Citizens should be encouraged, not discouraged, or arrested for videoing the police. Lastly, qualified immunity is greatly abused in this country, and used to make individual police officers and their employers immune from prosecution in all but the most egregious cases of abuse, and even then they are often granted qualified immunity. That is wrong. The police should be held to a higher standard than the public, not to no standard at all. No, we shouldn't have to be in this place, but we are. Until we can trust the police again, their powers should be severely limited.
Yes, they were part of a team called "Scorpion" or something like that. The unit has been disbanded. https://www.police1.com/officer-mis...arged-in-tyre-nichols-death-mr6QOI6XkqtlL8GS/
What pisses me off is that we had protesters in Portland blocking traffic and violating the law over this killing. Let the people of Memphis handle this. The chief has already done the honorable thing and even the Memphis folks need to stop protesting and let the law take its course which is being monitored federally so all these protests calling for disbanding or defunding the police need to stop. We still don't know who Tyre really was and regardless, officers are not supposed to brutalize suspects. Maybe he was mistaken for one of the hardcore gang criminals they were after. I understand the frustration of officers with courts not administering justice. They arrest a hardcore criminal and he is back on the street the next day or maybe months later. Until we fix the courts and justice system, then police work will only draw those that want to become the judge and jury because of their frustration with the system and the breakdown of society that is getting worse by the day, I think there is a lot more to who Tyre Nichols really was. I think the chief knows more than she appears to know. She started the Scorpion unit for a reason and that was to make neighborhoods safe from the violent criminals that operated in these neighborhoods. Now the narrative supposedly being touted by the residents is that they are glad to see this police unit canceled. Would they have felt the same just a day before Tyre was killed? If one of the area's violent Black gangs had beaten Tyre to death would it have even made the national news? I wonder if that School Police that allowed all those kids to die in Uvalde, Texas has been brought to justice and charged with multiple murders? His actions were worse than what the Memphis Scorpio team did beating one 29-year-old to death. In my mind, that baby killer should be on death row. In any event I bet these cops will get longer prison sentences than a violent criminal would if they had beaten Tyre.
One of the "Bottom Lines" here is that the kid ran from officers! That is a definitely "no, no" and that's when bad things happen. Want to really piss an officer off, resist and run!
Here's a thought re Scorpions... Bloods - violent black gang founded in the 70s in Los Angeles. Their main rivals are the Crips. Crips - violent black ganf founded in the late 60s in Los Angeles. Their main rival is the Bloods. Scorpions - violent black gang founded in 2022 in Memphis, TN. AKA "our gangstas". Whaddya ya think?
With all respect, I thought the same way until seeing the 26 minute version. I'm not saying he was guiltless. What I am saying is that in the video there is no coverage of reckless driving (we have to take the word of the 5 cops), there was no resistance, the cops did not ask for ID or any other normal procedure. They simply opened the car door and jerked him out like someone pulling an oyster out of its shell. I don't know what all of this means, but it does not fit with the idea that he was driving recklessly and resisted arrest. If he did and they show it, I'll accept it.
Civil society is too civil, and violence has taken over our apathetic self-loathing nation. Try to save your community from crime and ruin and the liberals will call you everything but a nice person. Call the sheriff's dept when a fool next door sends a bullet whistling thru the trees 10' from Jake who is working on truck in back yard. They send out a minority deputy who acts like you're the perpetrator or lying on some innocent 'victim' just because your white you HAVE to be racist. This happened several months ago but we have told everyone we know if something happens to us where to look. Now walking my trails is not as peaceful as it used to be. I share about 700 feet of property line with the " CAMPERS" next door who's above all county code restrictions. No septic, no power living a camper made out of scrap's picked up from junk yard or roadside garbage no problem. So, what if your property values took a nosedive because a couple family's of illegal Haitians somehow bought the property nest door or maybe squatted on it till it is theirs's now? No I don't live in America anymore and nether do any of you.
Oh so true, and a damn sad state of affairs . It seems to me that here in the US, it's all about protecting the criminal, and the minorities anymore. Law & order, and the expected behaviour of it has gone out the window. We have become oh-so quick to excuse/protect the criminals & to prosecute law enforcement . In this latest incident A. if it would have been white officers ... IMO most major/larger cities would be on fire as we speak. B. I have heard 'rumors' the he [Nichols] was having an affair with one of the officers wives ? That changes everything , if proven true.
Well, Mitchell, what I could think, of which has happened before, we aren't seeing or hearing the complete story.
So, exactly WHEN did the entire Apple Cart get turned upside down? People must understand, any many don't and/or won't, that any police officer's job isn't easy. Nobody is suppose to take their family problems to work, but officers are human just like the rest of us. If these officers did indeed commit murder on this kid, it will be proven in a court of law, not an Old West hanging where a crowd decided the person should be hung. Blacks, again, are taking this very personally and the mother of this kid was sort of shocked when she found out that the officers were Black. Instead of coming to all kinds of assumptions, I'd rather wait and see what a court of law says. Yes, I still believe in our court system. We all have to believe in something!
If the stories are true he was having sexual relations with one of the officer's wives, then maybe he feared for his life and tried his luck at running. That turned out to be a bad decision on his part. I doubt the true story will come out from the trial unless it fits the narrative that the major media is told they should promote. I am surprised that these 5 Black officers haven't been labeled Mega Republicans.
Agreed. We are not. The best we can do for now is to look at all of the stuff available. I trust what I see much more than someone telling me what I'm supposed to have seen, and I'll bet you're the same.
Yes, exactly. There's been what looks to be a wrong-doing, and the legal system has procedure for dealing with wrong-doing, and the case is now in the pipe, proceeding. Before we even begin to talk about injustice, we need to see the result of the proceedings, at least. ..and we need to use our life experience to decide how well the legal procedure was followed. By default I've found that the system works really pretty well, with a few glaring exceptions, but nothing's perfect. "EVERYTHING is subject to analysis."
Hah! That's a *good* one! Before long I expect to see red MAGA caps Photoshopped into the crime scene photos--you know, where the guy first comes up to Nichols' car, opens the door, and jerks him out...