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Tyre Nichols’ Beating by Black Officers Shows How Deep the American Anti-Black Bias Goes
Black officers too can be complicit in systemic racism.
On 7th January 2023, Tyre Nichols was pulled over by the Memphis police for reckless driving. Three days later, he died in the hospital from injuries sustained during the fatal beating by the police officers who pulled him over. As unfortunate as it is to admit, this isn’t a new story for Americans. We see instances of police brutality against black people more often than one can count.
But what set this particular instance apart was that the officers reprimanding Nichols were black. This creates a certain dissonance. How could black officers beat a black man to death? Given the increasing instances of police brutality against black people, you’d expect black officers to be vigilantly looking out for black people, being positive forces within the police force and challenging its institutional racism. But this was not the case. These officers escalated their encounter with Nichols at every stage, using unnecessary force and violence.
Nichols was aggressively asked to leave the car after being stopped for reckless driving. He was then pinned to the ground while he protested, asking what it was that he’d done. Nichols was then pepper sprayed and attempted…
