Tyre Nichols’ Death and the Urgent Need for Humanization

By Kevin Ring

I don’t know why those Memphis police officers beat Tyre Nichols to death. I don’t understand why other law enforcement officials arrived on the scene and did nothing to help. And I don’t know why it took more than 20 minutes for an ambulance to take him to be treated. All I know is that Tyre Nichols and his family were destroyed by agents of the state whose job was to protect them.

During nearly 14 years at FAMM, I have seen the state fail so many people in its care and custody that I’ve lost count. I think often of Andrea High Bear, the first woman to die of COVID-19 in federal prison, who gave birth while on a ventilator and died without ever holding her child. Sentenced to two years for a nonviolent drug offense, Andrea was killed by the state’s neglect and incompetence. No one was fired or held responsible.

As I write this, we are fighting to get the U.S. Justice Department to use its authority to release incarcerated women who were raped and sexually abused by correctional officers. Why does this require a fight? After all, whatever crimes these women committed, they were not sentenced to be tortured and abused. One might have hoped in 2023 that the nation’s top law enforcement agency, upon learning that its employees had sexually assaulted powerless people in their care, would act quickly to help these women heal. Yet here we are.

More people are coming to understand that human beings are corrupted by power and that law enforcement officers are no different. Give someone a gun, a badge, and the authority to deprive someone of their liberty, and you had better have mechanisms in place to detect and prevent abuse.

Tyre Nichols should be alive, and his death is a tragedy we should not get used to. The reason his murder will not be swept under the rug is because it was recorded. The officer who killed George Floyd will likely die in prison because his abuse was recorded, too.

It is time for our prisons to also become more transparent and accountable. If police officers wearing body cameras can act with the impunity that the Memphis officers did, imagine what officers working in remote prisons with no cameras feel free to do.

Furthermore, our culture needs to stop dehumanizing people who violate the law. Viewing people in police custody or in prison as something less than human makes us indifferent to the abuse they suffer. Consider that many comedians are rightfully chastised for making jokes about rape, but jokes about prison rape aren’t nearly as criticized. Or think about a new bill introduced in Massachusetts that, if passed, would allow incarcerated people to leave prison a little early if they donate organs or bone marrow — offering them a chance at early release if they literally give pieces of themselves away.

All the problems that come with dehumanizing people are compounded when the person in state custody is Black, like Tyre Nichols, as our culture has been far too comfortable dehumanizing Black people. This is a problem that all of us need to work together to resolve.

There are times when a steady stream of horrific incidents can drop us in a reservoir of despair. We question whether meaningful change and reform are possible. In those moments of doubt, it’s easy to lose track of the progress we’re making.

We need to watch the watchers. That’s why FAMM is pushing so hard for independent oversight of all state and federal prisons. We need oversight not simply to catch people abusing their authority — although that is important — but to prevent abuse from happening in the first place. In prisons, as with policing, we have urgent work to do.

Want to help? Contact your lawmakers today and ask them to support federal prison oversight and independent oversight in your state.

Kevin Ring is FAMM’s president.