RIP Tyre Nichols

[Mark17]

There are many thousands of police officers in this country, so it's inevitable at least a handful will be murderers. I'm not excusing it or rationalizing it. It's a math thing. There are murders committed by accountants, dermatologists, plumbers, shoe salesmen, realtors, and people employed in law enforcement.

Difference is, when it's a cop it gets national spotlight headlines, as it should, because police are legally empowered to use force, so when they abuse their authority, it is a serious breakdown in our civilization.

My point is, there are lots of murders every day in this country, but nobody ever says, "Geez, another murder by a mailman."

[Hxcmilkshake]

Originally Posted by Mark17

There are many thousands of police officers in this country, so it's inevitable at least a handful will be murderers. I'm not excusing it or rationalizing it. It's a math thing. There are murders committed by accountants, dermatologists, plumbers, shoe salesmen, realtors, and people employed in law enforcement.

Difference is, when it's a cop it gets national spotlight headlines, as it should, because police are legally empowered to use force, so when they abuse their authority, it is a serious breakdown in our civilization.

My point is, there are lots of murders every day in this country, but nobody ever says, "Geez, another murder by a mailman."

I just wonder what's in those 5 officers minds...this crap came to light with Rodney King....you wear BODY CAMERAS....theres STREET CAMERAS all over.... everyone has a cell phone... theres so much scutiny around what they do....yet you're gonna wail on a guy while he's handcuffed??

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[chalupacollects]

A sad result of the defund the police movement. Memphis decided to defund the police not by cutting funding or budgets but by taking away the pensions/retirement accounts of the officers. Thus, hundreds of experienced officers retired leaving a serious leadership gap of experienced officers and supervisors. So basically, these guys were out on their own with little or no supervision. Now Memphis is currently down 700+ officers so you can see the plight and frustration of the police not to mention that Memphis is one of the worst cities in the USA in terms of crime statistics. Watching that video, these clowns were looking to give a beatdown to the first unlucky person they came across. Hopefully they get life terms in general pop...

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by chalupacollects

A sad result of the defund the police movement. Memphis decided to defund the police not by cutting funding or budgets but by taking away the pensions/retirement accounts of the officers. Thus, hundreds of experienced officers retired leaving a serious leadership gap of experienced officers and supervisors. So basically, these guys were out on their own with little or no supervision. Now Memphis is currently down 700+ officers so you can see the plight and frustration of the police not to mention that Memphis is one of the worst cities in the USA in terms of crime statistics. Watching that video, these clowns were looking to give a beatdown to the first unlucky person they came across. Hopefully they get life terms in general pop...

Your first sentence has it backwards. The calls to "defund the police" were/are a response to a system that has failed to prevent events like this from happening over and over again.

The formation and publicization of "elite" units like SCORPION in Memphis (the members of which killed Nichols and which has now, thankfully, been disbanded) are short-sighted political acts intended to make it look like leaders are "tough on crime" - but the truth is that these teams are, as you say, inadequately supervised, typically attract the worst police officers, and disproportionately target residents of poor black neighborhoods. There is much evidence that these units (in Memphis and elsewhere) actually do more harm than good.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

Y
The formation and publicization of "elite" units like SCORPION in Memphis (the members of which killed Nichols and which has now, thankfully, been disbanded) are short-sighted political acts intended to make it look like leaders are "tough on crime"

First off, what an absolutely moronic name to call a unit of policemen who are sworn to protect and serve. It sounds like this unit was nothing more than a bunch of bad cops beating the shit out of anyone and everyone. Just three days before they killed Nichols they beat the hell out of another guy who they snuck up on in an apartment parking lot. They didn't identify themselves as cops and he thought he was getting jumped so he tried to flee and they beat him. That's going to be many more millions of dollars out of the pockets of Memphis citizens.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

First off, what an absolutely moronic name to call a unit of policemen who are sworn to protect and serve.

They didn't beat anyone to death but the 'Red Dog Unit' was disbanded soon after this sordid event in Atlanta over a decade ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Eagle_police_raid