Through his eyes, what we see is brutality
Afew years ago when Tyre Nichols set up a website to showcase his photography, he titled the home page “Welcome The World Through My Eyes.” He wrote, “My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens.”
It is painful to read these words knowing what Nichols was seeing and feeling on the night of Jan. 7, now that we’ve witnessed the brutality inflicted on him. That brutality stole his life three days later.
The bitter, tragic irony is that much of what we know and saw of Nichols’ killing was through the lens of the police officers who should have been his protectors but are now charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
For the second time in less than three years the nation has stopped in horror to watch police killing a Black man.
In the case of George
Floyd, on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis, the cause was the knee of a white officer on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. In the case of Nichols in Memphis, Tenn., the nation witnessed five Black police officers beat Nichols with fists and batons, and kick him for three minutes.
Nichols was two minutes from his mother’s home when he was stopped for a supposed traffic violation, for which the Memphis Police Department has yet to provide evidence.
What is seen in the video is that while the officers aggressively approached Nichols and pulled him out of his car with profanity-laced tirades, the 29-year-old photographer and skateboarder reacted calmly until he was physically attacked and ran for his life — toward home.
During their assaults, both Floyd and Nichols called out for their mothers.
They are now dead, and the millions who bore witness to their suffering must call out for justice, accountability and continued police reform in their names, as well as those of other victims of deadly police encounters. Names like Botham Jean, Breonna Taylor and Atatiana Jefferson, who were killed in their homes; and Philandro Castile and Daunte Wright, who were killed in their cars during traffic stops. These are just some of the names.
Most police officers are honorable public servants trying to make their communities safe places. Law officers have essential, dangerous and highly
stressful jobs, which is why police departments must do better in their recruiting and change the institutional mindsets that embolden police brutality.
A mindset in which no officer tried to stop another officer from assaulting Nichols and no one tended to the battered and bleeding young man, handcuffed and on the ground. A mindset that led to Nichols going without medical attention, waiting 22 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
That the officers were Black doesn’t alter the long narrative of police violence against Black people, especially young Black men, or a culture that so often sees young Black men through suspect eyes. Three of the six Baltimore police officers charged in the 2015 arrest and death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray were Black. One of the officers charged in Floyd’s murder was
Police departments must face the reasons this keeps happening
Black.
We wonder: Would Nichols have been brutalized had he been white?
Once again, video has given us insight into a horrific event and challenged the official narrative. Video has contradicted lies offered by officers in the initial Floyd and Nichols police reports. The camera’s lens doesn’t always assure justice in these cases, but videos provide documentation about what occurred.
The city of Memphis has acted impressively and may be setting a new standard in the handling of similar allegations of police abuse.
Officials have been unequivocal in their condemnation of the officers’ actions. Before Friday night’s video release, the officers had already been fired and charged. The special unit they were part of has been disbanded. Two other police officers have been fired as well as two Fire Department emergency medical technicians and a driver for their response.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis called the attack on Nichols “a failing of basic humanity towards another individual.”
Police departments across the country must turn the lens on themselves to ask why this failure happens again and again.