We need police reform now

Dear Readers, Yet, another young African-American male’s life snuffed out by the bloody hands of rogue law enforcement officers. Another victim of overly aggressive police using the legal veneer of a suspicious traffic stop. The Memphis Police Department has “been unable to substantiate” any reckless driving activity.

What happened to Tyre Nichols crystalizes the need to reform police departments — not a much abused political football meaning “defunding the police.” Video footage shows Mr. Nichols acting confused stating he was “just trying to go home.” The officer responding he was going to “knock your ass the f—- out.” Mr. Nichols fled, was caught, and beaten to a pulp by this police gang, dying at the hospital three days later.

The video is brutal; the officers fabricating evidence in false statements for their body cam feed, unaware other video feeds were also capturing what happened. This was not a snap decision mistaking a gun for a taser, as happened in Minnesota, when Kim Potter killed Daunte Wright. This was not a Louisville SWAT team returning fire of a man protecting his home from potential burglars, killing Breonna Taylor. It was not even George Floyd being kneeled on for more than nine (9) minutes by Derek Chauvin, and suffocating to death.

The patina of racism usually hovers over these murders. In this case, all five (5) officers were member of an elite crime suppression unit, SCORPION or the Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods unit (40 members in total). You might say that Mr. Nichols is a victim of “Black on Black” crime. You also have an African-American led police department, in a majority black department and city. This is not example of White Privilege or insensitivity to the plight of people of color by White decision-makers.

Protests in Memphis (and around the nation) do not have the same tone as the summer protests following George Floyd’s murder from 2020. There is no question that what these five (5) officers did was evil. Watch the video. Punishment has been swift, the officers involved were promptly fired and charged with second degree murder.

The community was prepared in advance for the release of the video from the killing. The Memphis Police Department has been transparent and apologetic. The SCORPION unit was immediately suspended and since fully disbanded. Undoubtably, these were all also keys to the peacefulness in Memphis (as well as around the nation) we have seen.

The cry of “Black Lives Matter” is necessary because too often society cheapens lives. People of color have been protesting about police brutality for years, often with very little resonance from the public-at-large. We can look at this crime, while ignoring the loaded political lense of claims of racism. We can choose to see it as a “one-off,” instead of a teachable moment for us. This was an unspeakably savage attack; it crystalizes why minority communities distrust law enforcement and force us to finally soberly reconsider the role of policing.

Mr. Nichols is dead, because of a weaponized police unit. The SCORPION unit was not formed as a crime-solving special unit. It was not constructed as a tactical unit for when maximum force might be needed. It was tasked with trying to suppress crime with petty arrests. Every single other high-profile unnecessary police killing, back to Charlie Garner in 2014, was the result of a low-level infraction. Breonna Taylor was killed because she was sleeping in a misidentified house and a search warrant affidavit was falsified.

Training is not the problem, the trio of poor pay, deployment, and lack of accountability are to blame. Most of our officers bravely and honorably serve their communities, but as with educators, we pay them inadequately. The result is under-educated and “cowboy” bad apples. Pay better and you can weed them out with better screening and selectivity.

Deployment is a problem because armed officer’s have the right to use force almost indiscriminately. We task them with being a gang-like irritant, instead of supporter of communities, in which we do not require them to live in. We need to stop using officers as money-making slot machines fueling downward financial cycles for the economically vulnerable.

Accountability is a problem on two fronts. Supervisors hide behind desks and fail to heed early warning signs. And, there is near absolute legal immunity for abusive officers.

These are the reforms needed. Until, we have them, a minority of officers are members of roving gangs, thugs looking for trouble.

Warner Robins attorney Jim Rockefeller is the former Chief Assistant District Attorney for Houston County, and a former Assistant State Attorney in Miami. Owner of Rockefeller Law Center, Jim has been in private practice since 2000. E-mail your comments or confidential legal questions to ajr@rockefellerlawcenter.com.

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