https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3834307-tyre-nichols-arrest-footage-what-we-know-so-far/
The outrage over the police beating of Mr. Nichols is correct from all sides. It is a terrible incident that, hopefully, will assist in reforming policing across the country. Please note I said REFORM, not defund or abolish police forces. They are a necessary part of helping to maintain the peace in our country.
What I have noticed is that the outrage seems much louder from those on the Right who showed no such anger with the beating of George Floyd a couple of years ago. Why is that?
Is it because the five officers in Memphis were all Black?
Discuss among yourselves.
I think your bias is showing. There are very important differences.
First, George Floyd was not beaten. He was held down after fighting the police.
There was no expectation that Floyd’s treatment would have been lethal, and had he not had invisible medical vulnerabilities, he would have survived. Floyd was recently infected with COVID, and had a previous heart condition, but he looked fit and powerful, remember he worked as bouncer. And Floyd had a near lethal level of Opioids in his bloodstream. Floyd resisted to the end, and it is quite possible that he was too far down the spiral of decompensation to survive even before Chauvin pinned him down. His own fury may have been what killed him.
So, he was held down too long, but most of us on the right would admit that under those conditions, we might have lost track of time too. I have doubts about Chauvin’s intent, was he holding Floyd down punitively, or just too wound up in his own ‘fight or flight’ response to realize Floyd was in real danger? Add to that the hostile crowd keeping Chauvin in a state of fear for his own life.
But in Nichol’s case, he tried to run but not to fight the police. The beating he got was clearly punitive and excessive. As far as I know, there were no contributing health issues or toxicity, it was just that bad a beating.
There is little doubt that Nichol’s was based on anger and not fear. And there was no external threat from others to distract the police.
So, for me at least, Floyd’s death was a ‘fog of war’ thing while Nichols was a victim of intentional “Street Justice” that went way too far.
Race of the cops is the least significant difference between the two deaths.
LikeLike
I was talking about the different reactions to the two police killings, not the differences in the police actions.
With the exception of Tucker Carlson, most of the voices from the right have screamed condemnation for the Memphis incident while they did the same as you in the Minneapolis incident.
Your list of excuses for Chavin’s murder of Mr. Floyd continue to show that you believe he did nothing wrong.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes the flash point for social unrest is not the most egregious case. Or even a sympathetic victim.
( I disagree that Floyd was a “fog of war”. Chauvin was a bad cop. 9 minutes is a long time to press on a handcuffed man, and held down by other cops, begging to breathe. People were pleading for medical assistance and he refused to relent.
But for people living in low income, cramped cities, who see or know of frequent abuses, it can be the proverbial straw.
And if you come from families that had recent relatives murdered just a few decades ago because they were Black, it kinda sticks with you.
Fear does not mean respect. And when fear becomes untenable, perceived or not, then any society can expect turmoil.
Let’s put this in another light.
You maintain the right to kill if you perceive a government not restrained as you see fit. Why is this any different?
LikeLiked by 1 person
“fog of war”
9 minutes isn’t that long when you have just wrestled down a very large angry man and then found yourself surrounded by an angry crowd,
Sitting on your couch in no danger, it is easy to speculate what was going on in the mind of someone you’ve never met.
And remember that Floyd was saying “I can’t breath” BEFORE he was put in the squad car and then escaped out the other side. And it might have been true, He might have already been too far down the decompensation spiral to be saved.
There’s way too much I don’t know for me to say he was guilty of INTENTIONAL murder,
LikeLike
…”and then found yourself surrounded by an angry crowd,”
Right. Chauvin was all by his lonesome.
LikeLike
Not what I said. How about you debate me instead of your projections.
LikeLike
EXACTLY what you said.
“9 minutes isn’t that long when you have just wrestled down a very large angry man and then found yourself surrounded by an angry crowd,”
You did not say 4 officers. You did not indicate that there was anyone else there, except for Mr. Floyd, Officer Chauvin and the “angry mob”.
LikeLike
There is an article in the Atlantic (paywalled) that suggests one of the reasons demonstrations in the Nichols case differs from the demonstrations in the Floyd case is that by the time the demonstrators hit the streets in the Nichols case, the offending officers had all been charged with 2nd degree murder. In the Floyd case, it was looking very much like “cops just murdered another black guy and got away with it.”
Fear of being killed by the police is a real, and justified fear in the black community. I have a black friend who has two sons. When his sons were old enough to get their driver’s licenses, he sat them down and had a long talk, explaining to them what they needed to do if ever stopped by the police. That is not a talk I’m aware of any white fathers ever having with their sons.
I can’t speak to why the right cares more about Nichols than about Floyd. Quite frankly, I don’t care. I can speak to why the Nichols video has spurred what is so far peaceful demonstrations. It was the video of him calling out for his mama. That broke the heart of every mother who heard it, didn’t matter whether she was black or white. That sent mothers out to march, just like Sandy Hook did. And just like Sandy Hook, you are going to be hearing from those mothers for a very long time.
LikeLiked by 2 people
RE: “What I have noticed is that the outrage seems much louder from those on the Right who showed no such anger with the beating of George Floyd a couple of years ago.”
What I have noticed is that Antifa is ginning up riots again.
LikeLike
“Brown shirts” wearing Black shirts…?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, and more.
LikeLike
“What I have noticed is that Antifa is ginning up riots again.”
I thought I posted my reply to this yesterday. SO I will try again.
Do you have a site for rioting by ANYONE, let alone the non-existent ANTIFA? I have seen reports of some protesters getting out of hand and being arrested for their actions. But mostly any and all protests of been free form violence.
LikeLiked by 1 person
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11685421/Antifa-tells-protesters-BURN-braces-riots.html
LikeLike
Yet the protests more mostly peaceful. This article actually confirmed 2 things.
1) Reports of SOME protesters getting out of hand and being arrested.
2) ANTIFA doesn’t really exist as an organization. If they did, then cities all across the country would have been on fire.
I say your claim about ANTIFA ginning up riots is the usual right wing hyperbole.
And I did post this, but on another thread.
LikeLike
“ I can’t speak to why the right cares more about Nichols than about Floyd.”
Because the cops were Black. A huge sigh of relief from conservatives. Proof positive that prove killings of Blacks is not a racial issue.
Hey, it could have been a White citizen driving that night and I am sure the squad would have beat him to death also.
Uh, no.
We have around 1000 citizens killed by police annually. I recall that UK didn’t have that many in several decades or more. May a few dozen in twenty years.
We just love to kill people more than any other civilized First World nation. And we sing hosannas about guns, guns and more guns. Yeah man.
Boom!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not a racial issue? That is far from what the narrative of Floyd was. It was squarely a racial issue with screams over white supremacy, white cops, etc along with defund police. I would say you liberals breathed a sigh of darn over these cops being black because you have to change the narrative when anti-white was working just fine. Nice try.
LikeLike
I have to admit, but I have no idea what your point is.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You don’t understand what you wrote in your own post and a simple reply to it?
LikeLike
I guess I should have made my sarcasm more obvious.
I said conservatives would be relieved to see Black cops killing Black civilians. The sarcasm was the “proof” part.
I usually put a 😇 emoji since sarcasm often falls flat in written comments.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Because the cops were Black. ”
And fired, arrested, and charged in about two weeks. How long was it after Mr. Floyd was murdered did it take for Minneapolis to bring charges?
LikeLike
What I have noticed is that this case is not producing near the same amount of destructive violence like burning private property, looting, assaults, torching public property like police stations, toppling statues of black people, etc. Is it because the officers were black? I’ve hardly heard a peep of this but an occasional update vs the hourly news saga of Floyd and aftermath.
LikeLike
But Mr. Roberts claimed that ANFIA Brown shirts were rioting in the streets.
LikeLike
Not exactly. I said that Antifa is ginning up riots again, and gave you a substantiating source that you could have found on your own.
LikeLike
I am not keen on reading Murdoch owned newspapers. They tend to delve into rhetoric that is not helpful in the context of meaningful discussions.
They lie a lot. And say things in an attempt to fire up those who really do want to do harm in this country in the name of Nationalism, racism, and white supremacy.
And yet almost ALL of the protests were peaceful with a couple of bad actors getting arrested (as they should).
LikeLike
I believe there were 6 people arrested in the Atlanta unrest a few days back.
I think they were 3 women, 3 men, all White and had some black clothing on. Only one was from GA. They will be prosecuted and are held in jail or with ankle bracelets.
I don’t have details, but apparently a man shot a state trooper in the abdomen and return fire from other troopers killed the assailant. The protest started peacefully enough, but escalated to violence.
LikeLiked by 1 person
But the call was to burn it all down. A call not heeded. While the wishes of Mr. Nichols’ mother WERE heeded.
LikeLike
Saw this on Twitter this morning, unverified but changes the narrative if true.
Revenge for affairs with Ex and current baby mama of Officer Haley
If, in fact, this was a jealousy revenge, and not a traffic stop, it explains why Nichols fled, and it becomes premeditated murder.
Nothing to do with race or policing, just a triangle(quadrangle?) escalated to murder.
LikeLike
…”unverified”…
You are doing the same thing you did with the attack on Paul Pelosi. Posting UNVERIFIED ideas is dangerous. And when proven wrong, like Ted Cruz, you just pretend you did not feed into the false narrative.
LikeLike
I labeled it as un verified for that purpose.
But before people get too far out on a limb with other theories, I think it is useful for them to know it might have been personal.
LikeLike
I posit that it wasn’t worth posting in the first place.
Have you owned up to spreading the vitriolic BS concerning Paul Pelosi’s attack? Because you referred to similar unverified material and made it sound like it was a real possibility when it was further from true than the moon is made of green cheese. And still no remorse over spreading it.
LikeLike
NOW will you admit you were reckless and wrong for sharing this misinformation?
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/feb/02/facebook-posts/claims-that-tyre-nichols-was-dating-a-police-offic/
LikeLike
The Memphis police are aware if the rumor and are investigating, per Newsweek,
I will wait and see,
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/athena-thorne/2023/02/02/was-it-personal-authorities-investigating-rumor-that-tyre-nichols-was-in-a-relationship-with-officers-ex-n1667230
LikeLike
PJMedia is a known purveyor of BS conspiracies. I’ll take politifact over them EVERY time.
And yet you still say NOTHING about your reckless rumor mongering of the Pelosi attack.
LikeLike
If the tweet were true, then it should be first degree murder. They used the pretense of legal force to commit murder on behalf of another cop.
If it were an ex-wife, then there is not even a domestic excuse.
It’s funny, the call to defund the police should really mean fund the police with much better pay in return for better quality through screening and educational requirements.
LikeLiked by 1 person
First degree murder indeed.
LikeLike