The fatal beating of Nichols, 29, by five police officers tells the story many residents know by heart: that any encounter, including traffic stops, can be deadly if you’re Black.
Examples abound of Black residents, primarily young men, targeted by police. Some are in official reports. Anyone you talk to has a story. Even casual discussions in a coffee shop net multiple examples.
In police sweeps, unmarked cars roll into neighborhoods and armed plainclothes officers jump out, rushing traffic violators and issuing commands. The result is a community in fear, where people text, call and use social media to caution each other to stay inside or avoid the area when police operations are underway.
Chase Madkins was about a block from his mother’s Evergreen neighborhood home just east of downtown Memphis dropping off his 12-year-old nephew when the blue lights of an unmarked police car flashed behind him. The random stops are meant to terrorize, said Hunter Demster, organizer for Decarcerate Memphis. He’s the one Madkins called when he was stopped in November.
Marcus Hopson, 54, a longtime resident and barber in the neighborhood, said the sweeps remind him of how in the early 1990s New York focused on nuisance crimes and zero tolerance and that morphed into stop-and-frisk. What that left here is complicated, especially when it comes to policing and crime. In 2021, the year the SCORPION unit – a specialty squad that all five officers were part of -- was set up, homicides hit a record, breaking one set in 2020, the previous year. Homicides dropped in 2022 but high-profile cases kept crime in the news. Most of the victims those years were young Black men. In the cases where arrests have been made, the suspects were overwhelmingly Black.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
At Tyre Nichols' funeral, Black America's grief on public displayThe funeral of Tyre Nichols on Wednesday had all the hallmarks of what\u0027s known as a homegoing service in Black American communities
Read more »
At Tyre Nichols' funeral, Black America's grief on public displayThe funeral of Tyre Nichols on Wednesday had all the hallmarks of what\u0027s known as a homegoing service in Black American communities
Read more »
In Tyre Nichols' neighbourhood, Black residents fear policeIn a terrible way, the death of Tyre Nichols brings vindication to members of the Black community in Memphis who live in terror of police.
Read more »
Licenses suspended for two fired EMTs in death of Tyre NicholsAn attorney for the state Department of Health says the two suspensions are ‘not final disposition of this entire matter’
Read more »
Licenses suspended for 2 fired EMTs in Tyre Nichols deathA Tennessee board on Friday suspended the emergency medical technician licenses of two former Memphis Fire Department employees for failing to render critical care to Tyre Nichols after he took a beating from police that ultimately killed him.
Read more »
6th Memphis officer fired after beating death of Tyre NicholsA sixth Memphis officer was fired Friday after an internal police investigation showed he violated multiple department policies in the violent arrest of Tyre Nichols, including rules surrounding the deployment of a stun gun, officials said.
Read more »