“Thugs will be Thugs”
By Jim Culp
January 28, 2023
This morning, I poured my coffee
and sat down at the table that holds my laptop and necessary items. I had not seen
the Tyre Nichols videos yet, so I searched for a good link and watched all of
them. They were disgusting to say the very least. There was a video of the
stop, then the struggle between him and the cops, and several other ones from
cameras with different angles or views. I watched them twice, trying to make
heads or tails out of the savage beating that Mr. Nichols endured. The stop was
first…you see one of the cops jerk his door open before he even started to
question him about his driving. He’s tackled and pepper sprayed, then tries to
run again. Why? I fully believe that the “police officers” (and I used the term
simply to identify them) were going to beat him anyway, and he kept trying to
get away because he could sense their anger or was afraid for his life. He runs
a short distance again and is tackled again. He receives pepper spray, tasing,
and punched three times. The officers hold him while one of them delivers
directed punches to his face.
The
second video, taken from the street, shows some of the more violent
moments of the encounter after police have chased down Nichols. One officer
takes Nichols to the ground while another knees him in the torso. As the first
two officers bring him to the ground, they continue to punch and knee him, and
a third officer walks up, pauses to swing his leg, and kicks Nichols in the
head.
Finally,
Mr. Nichols ins successfully handcuffed, and leaned up against a car. The
ambulance arrives (late…but to be fair, Memphis is a big city) and the EMTs
start evaluating him. However, the twenty-two minutes that passed while he was
left alone to bleed and suffer was pure negligence in my opinion. During that
time, the “police officers” were talking about everything that had occurred and
did not check on Mr. Nichols at all.
The
videos that I have seen do not show him being treated, placed in the stretcher,
or anything of the type. Two of the officers claimed that Mr. Nichols had tried
to reach for their guns during the stop. They also claimed that he had been
driving recklessly…but there is no evidence to support that.
My
final point. Cops called a “scorpion unit” place deep fear in citizens…much the
same as Nazi storm troopers did to the citizens they were brutally engaging with.
These five guys were thugs, and nothing more. They are now facing second degree
murder, and I hope they are convicted. Was Mr. Nichols a saint? I don’t know…but
her certainly did not need a sentence of death that ultimately ended his life.
JimC
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