Garner to Nichols: When will we stop police brutality?
I am an attorney in Memphis and I am certainly not alone in shedding tears at the latest incident in our city.
I was a college student in 1974 and recall the death of Edward Garner, shot by the police. I cried for his family that his life ended at age 15 and I recall the controversy, the justifications and vilifications from people afraid of crime, saying things like “He got what he deserved,” and “The officer ought to get an award for shooting a criminal” or “When the police tell you to stop …”
Edward Garner was trying to climb a 6-foot chain-link fence to get away after a burglary when he was shot once in the back of the head.
Under the law of Tennessee at the time, the so-called Fleeing Felon Rule, the officer was legally justified, protected from prosecution. Edward’s father said his son should not have been killed, that his civil right to life had been violated, and sued.
I followed the case as it went through the federal courts. The U.S. Supreme Court decided it in 1985 and changed the law.
But that did not change the approach of law enforcement to force and violence. As crime increased, public support grew and claims of police brutality were met with justification and denial.
The militarization of policing increased, as did the violence of policepublic contacts. Young men, often Black or brown, were the victims and more and more justifiably feared for their lives.
The advent of video monitoring has finally begun to help. From Rodney King to George Floyd and now Tyre Nichols, we are at last forced to confront the
truth that some of the violent criminals on our streets wear badges.
Maybe the public’s brutal awakening will result in changes in our approach to policing and training officers. Perhaps our society can grow to a place where officers will “protect and defend” even from crimes by their fellow officers. But something must change.
Erich M. Shultz lives in Memphis.