Add stupid to the list of charges
My fatherwas born and raised inmemphis, Tennessee.
I’ve seen the good parts of the city: the popularmarch of ducks in the lobby of the famous Peabody Hotel, and the transformation of the rundown Lorrainemotel, wheremartin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, into a gleaming civil rightsmuseum.
I’ve also seen the ugly side. Itwas during a visit tomemphis years ago that my brother and I witnessed a disturbing act of policemisconduct at a park in the shadowof that same Peabody Hotel.
The cops were harassing a homeless man, physically tormenting himfor sleeping on a park bench.
This was years before cell phone cameras could be used to record brutality from a safe distance. So, we watched helplessly as the abuse took place, ashamed of ourselves for not intervening, alive and unharmed because we didn’t.
I thought about that daywhen I watched the video ofmemphis police officers beating a motorist, Tyrenichols, to death after a bogus traffic stop.
I have relatives inmemphis, wheremy father was born and raised, who raise families, work in the community and drive along streets patrolled by abusive cops.
It could have easily been one ofmy relatives pulled over for no reason, pepper sprayed and pummeled by a bunch of inept police officerswho couldn’t even run a half-mile withoutwhining and wheezing.
These bumbling, stumbling Keystone Cops couldn’t even beat aman to death and violate his civil rights without stun-gunning and pepper spraying each other.
“Motherf—ermademe Tase myself. “
“Damn, me too “
And don’t giveme any of that he shouldn’t have resisted, or he shouldn’t have run bulls—t. He didn’t resist, and he only ran because he believed his lifewas in danger.
And he was right.
“Iwas hitting himwith straight haymakers, dog,” one of the officers bragged.
The five Black cops — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmittmartin III, Desmondmills Jr. and Justin Smith— who chased Nichols, a Black man, on Jan. 7 and beat himto death after an unnecessary traffic stop were fired and charged with second-degreemurder.
That’s far above anything that happened to the NYPD officers involved in the 2014 Staten Island chokehold death of Eric Garner, whowas accused by cops of illegally selling cigarettes on the street.
None of the cops involvedwere criminally charged, and it took authorities five years to finally fire Daniel Pantaleo, the officer whose banned chokehold led to Garner’s death.
In both cases, there were police involvedwho have yet to face aminute of scrutiny for standing around and lettingaman die.
Would authorities have been so quick to fire and charge thememphis cops if they had been white? I don’t know. And I don’t care. These punks need to be punished for their crimes, and if that means locking them in a cell where they can Tase and pepper spray each other for the next 50 years, thatwould be Okwithme.