28 January 2023

White vs Black Cops

I'm not sure how much I have to add to the story of the police murder of Tyre Nichols as a news story.

I have been told that the video (at link) is extremely disturbing, and I have chosen not to watch it, because the descriptions (also at link) are enough for me.

What is noteworthy, and has not really been a part of the discourse, is just how blisteringly fast we went from abuse to justice.

When 5 white cops were involved in the beating murder of Ronald Greene, it was 2 years before the bodycam footage was released and 3½ years before charges were laid, when it was 5 black cops, it was 1½ weeks from when the event occurred and the charges were laid, and 2 weeks before the footage was released.

We have not seen any push-back from the rank and file police in Memphis, nor any racist and inflammatory statements from the Memphis Police Association, the officers' union.

The police reviewed the circumstances, and fired the cops in a few days, and they have been open and transparent about the investigation and the evidence.

Call me a cynic, but if these officers had been white, the wheels of justice would have turned much more slowly.

Note that I am not suggesting that the Memphis cops are being treated unreasonably harshly, I am suggesting that the Louisiana cops were treated excessively leniently.

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