Please explain to me why 5 officers just couldn't have cuffed him

[madaboutharry]

and put him in the back of a police car.

This is never going to make any sense to me.

[Bettie]

1. Because they were offended

and decided to "teach him a lesson".

[a kennedy]

2. What damn lesson.......I am sooooooooooooo heart broken over this incident.

[Bettie]

5. I'm so sick of hearing about how "good cops" can't do anything

because "the blue wall".

Fuck the blue wall, if you know that your co-workers are monsters and say nothing, you are also a bad cop. Full stop.

I keep hearing "why would X run away?" Why indeed? Maybe because they didn't want to be beaten to death?

[a kennedy]

7. I know, it just breaks my heart........

AND FUCK THE BLUE WALL. 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬

[Tree Lady]

40. Thats why physical abuse in cop

marriages are so bad, the other cops stick up for them.

I have known a lot of women married to cops, its not a easy life.

[mobeau69]

3. And they are sadistic.

[DashOneBravo]

37. Yep

[MOMFUDSKI]

4. Frank Figluizzi

said it best. This group of 5 was considered a "Scorpion Unit" and it had nothing at all to do with a traffic stop. The cops felt entitled. Our Country is off the rails now.

[wnylib]

42. What is a Scorpion Unit?

[jmowreader]

45. It's something specific to the Memphis PD

“Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods” is what it stands for.

Though I wonder how much it was inspired by Gerald Hege’s goon squad in North Carolina,

[wnylib]

47. Thanks.

[Woodswalker]

6. I've never seen cops so out of shape

These couldn't control this man. He managed to get to his feet at least two times that I saw.

[RockRaven]

8. Because they are sick bloodthirsty sadists who were happy to have an excuse to harm him?

They thought they were in the loophole of "resisting arrest" where they can get their jollies without getting in trouble, but putting cuffs on ends that loophole.

I guarantee that this isn't the first time these cops have beat the shit out of someone just because they thought they'd be able to justify it. And these aren't the only 5 cops in that department who do this. No fucking way. The odds that things perfectly aligned to capture all of the cops inclined to do this, in one moment, the first time they did so, are astonishingly small. Essentially zero.

[Kennah]

9. Either they weren't capable or didn't want to

Either they lacked the skills to restrain and cuff someone, which is inexcusable even for the initial stop when its two of them. Five against one you gotta be kidding me.

Or they didn't want to and this was about making him bow.

[Woodswalker]

10. I would have dropped as soon as they pulled me from the car and

put my hands behind my back. But that's just me.

[blm]

14. You've known that level of fear?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. Which wouldn't have guaranteed anything, but okay!

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. Victim blaming much?

[Woodswalker]

17. Just what I would have done.

[likesmountains 52]

19. Are you a frightened, young, black male?

[The_Casual_Observer]

21. Good for you.

[Woodswalker]

24. Would you have resisted if in his situation?

[The_Casual_Observer]

27. Defensive much?

It appears he didn't have a whole lot of time to resist anything bud.

[Shellback Squid]

30. I didn't see him resist at first, when they held his left arm he was prevented from laying on his

stomach as commanded, they put him in a flight or fight situation
but blame the victim...........nice

[LuckyCharms]

33. He didn't fucking resist. n/t

[ShazzieB]

61. No, he most certainly did not resist.

What I saw in that comment was clear evidence of someone speaking out of their personal assumptions without any factual knowledge of the actual events in question.

[wnylib]

43. It wouldn't matter what he did.

Passive or defensive, abusive cops still abuse the people they stop.

[LuckyCharms]

35. You don't know what the fuck you would have done. n/t

[wnylib]

44. +1000

[Torchlight]

22. We often fantasize about what we'd do in particular circumstances.

And while it's a commendable mental exercise, it is a speculation based only on your life circumstances and no one else.

[phylny]

25. Maybe he was afraid they'd kill him.

[Sympthsical]

32. I felt my fight or flight response kick in just through a computer screen

How the cops came in that hot and grabbed him out of the car like that. I could feel my anxiety rising just watching.

Now imagine being the person in the situation.

I'm not going to say I wouldn't have run either. Now mix in reports I've been reading that some gangs in Memphis use unmarked cars with blue lights to pull people over and rob them.

Imagine what that man was thinking. I don't think it's useful to woulda, shoulda, coulda any part of this.

[wnylib]

46. Excellent post.

[LuckyCharms]

34. He did.

[W_HAMILTON]

38. In the initial stop, they were in unmarked cars and certainly did not act like you would think...

...actual police officers would. As the police chief (not sure if that's her correct title) said, the cops began the stop at energy level 10 or something along those lines. I can see why Nichols would have been afraid and potentially thought that it was not even cops that had stopped him, but criminals that were carjacking him. It should be noted that Memphis has apparently had problems with criminals posing as police officers and carjacking people and one such incident happened just earlier this month.

[LuckyCharms]

50. Agree. This is just from a singular comment on Reddit, but the

comment started that these people simply put a blue rotating light on their dashboard and pull people over. If this is the case, it's highly likely that Tyre was not sure if they were real cops or not, especially considering all of the unnecessary chaos created by the cops as they pulled him out of his vehicle.

[we can do it]

57. Good for you.

[ShazzieB]

60. Well, it's apparent from this comment that you don't know the facts of this case.

If you did, you would never make such an assumption or engage in such blatant and insensitive victim blaming.

[LudwigPastorius]

63. That wouldn't have mattered.

The cops were shouting conflicting orders at him. ...screaming at him to get on the ground, when he was already on the ground. ...yelling at him to show his hands, when his hands were being held behind his back.

No, those cops were just in the mood to beat the shit out of somebody to assert their authority. Hell, that's why many people become police in the first place, to carry a gun and order someone around. It makes them feel alive.

[2naSalit]

11. American death squads...

Wear badges.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

12. For the same reason that other officer knelt on George Floyd's neck.

It seems nowadays, and maybe it was always this way, but the cops feel the need to punish people for whatever they did, or maybe did not, do. That's not their job. I remember when you could describe them as 'keepers of the peace'. Now? Heavily armed bullies, hyper sensitive to criticism or back talk and never (or rarely) held accountable. These guys gotta go to jail.

[CanonRay]

13. As a former law enforcement officer

I am totally offended by this video. They were nothing but a street gang with badges. No excuse. Five big guys, trained no less, can't arrest one skinny kid without this shit?

[Woodswalker]

18. Those guys looked like NFL offensive linemen, they

should've been able to just pile on him and make him comply.

[The_Casual_Observer]

20. Cop gang beat downs, shooting people in the back, no knock warrants

Where they shoot through the windows and doors have become commonplace. Meanwhile the powers that be insist on "peaceful protest".

[Enoki33]

23. There is level of culture within the

police force nationwide that sees certain groups of people as less than worthy of decent respectful treatment, deserving of being treated as the dregs of society. Their instinctive reaction is to control, not communicate. Their attitude and mannerisms almost always convey that. Any POC who's been traffic stopped will confirm this. It's another problem we have to defend against.

[uponit7771]

39. +1,

[sammythecat]

51. +2 N/T

[Codifer]

26. Gads.

Did none of you ever get arrested in the '60s?

It was so easy to figure then where the grade school bullies went to get jobs.

Lots of bullies, sadists and psychos delighted in bashing striking union workers. You know, to save the world from a living wage. This was the hard truth from 1850 through the 1920s and has never really gone away.

I don't imagine that it was any different in the '30s during the depression. Possibly worse... especially if one lived in Germany or Italy or Hungary.

We know that gawd made poor people so the fricken righteous could have skulls to crack.

Research also "The Stanford Experiment".... see what happens to intelligent college students who were not natural bullies. But give them mirrored sunglasses, a badge and POWER... watch what happens.

Warm up hatred then stir in a huge dollop of macho bullshit and bang, everyplace is Baghdad or Brazil.



I get so damn tired.

[sammythecat]

54. +1 n/t

[Codifer]

59. There have been times

when there were agencies (Pinkerton, Phelps Dodge etc) where entities (business men like Henry Ford) could hire sadistic goons to perform a range of atrocities on their employees and those pesky union organizers.

The cops were bought and told to look the other way.

"Protect and Serve" was/is a fairy tale?

I consider Blackwater or whatever the hell eric prince calls his mercenaries are Pinkerton on steroids.

The good cops (there must be some) must clean the ranks from the inside and the voters must clean from the top down.

[Beaverhausen]

28. Not sure I'd willingly put my hands behind my back if people were beating and tasing me

[Sogo]

29. Every single cop and every single cop in training in this country

needs to be given a psychological profile. The least hint of racist or sadistic homicidal inclinations disqualifies them. Period.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

31. Policing is a racist and sadistic system; people with those inclinations are what it needs to

work.

[RockRaven]

36. Oh, the cops have figured out how to game that system...

There was an episode in CA a while back where a Sheriff's department was revealed to have hired dozens of deputies who had failed psych evals.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/alameda-county-deputies-suspended-psychological-exams-failed/

Once found out, they took them off the streets temporarily. The Department's excuse was "oh, we didn't know we weren't allowed to hire them just because they failed psych evals." If that wasn't brazen enough, the department then had them retake the psych tests until they passed, and restored them to active duty.

[JanMichael]

41. Because they went ballistic & attacked him.

They could have cuffed him but didn't.

[sakabatou]

48. Is someone going to fill me in, or do I have to sort the forums?

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Edit: Wait, is this about Tyre Nichols?

[ShazzieB]

62. Yes, it's about Tyre Nichols.

At least that's what I've been assuming, and commenting accordingly.

[Raine]

49. So poor at the job if I understood correctly they had even pepper sprayed

themselves or each other!

[Jedi Guy]

56. Yep, and I believe that's what set off the rage spiral.

They went hands-on with him at the initial stop, and one of them deployed OC. That's a very, very stupid thing to do when you're wrestling with someone. It's going to get everywhere.

They should have just restrained him (one officer holding his legs, another officer on each arm) and worn him down until they could force his wrists together and get him cuffed up. Instead, they were stupid, got angry because they were stupid, and then beat a man to death because they were angry.

[Jedi Guy]

52. Because they were mad.

They were mad because they got OC (pepper spray) on them when one of their dumbshit buddies deployed it during the initial contact. They were mad that they had to chase him. So when they caught him, they took their mad out on him and essentially beat him to death.

I generally try to give cops the benefit of the doubt. I don't jump on the "BlUe MaN bAd" bandwagon every single time. I've worked with cops and they're generally decent people, just like most people are generally decent. But these cops straight up murdered Tyre Nichols because they were mad. There's no other way to explain or describe it.

[Raine]

55. Totally agree. They were livid after spraying themselves

and chasing him, then they enjoyed beating him.

[aocommunalpunch]

53. Because they're not PERSONALLY LIABLE.

That's it. TAKE AWAY QUALIFIED IMMUNITY FUCKING YESTERDAY. This shit WILL continue. ACAB.

[Emile]

58. Fascists have no shame!