Downing Street indicates Netanyahu faces arrest if he enters UK    London's Gatwick airport reopens terminal after bomb scare evacuation    Civil Defense warns of thunderstorms across Saudi Arabia until Tuesday    Saudi Arabia, Japan strengthen cultural collaboration with new MoU    Slovak president meets Saudi delegation to bolster trade and investment ties    Saudi defense minister meets with Swedish state secretary    Navigating healthcare's future: Solutions for a sustainable system    Sixth foreign tourist dies of suspected methanol poisoning in Laos    Al Khaleej qualifies for Asian Men's Club League Handball Championship final    Katy Perry v Katie Perry: Singer wins right to use name in Australia    Trump picks Pam Bondi as attorney general after Matt Gaetz withdraws    Al-Jasser: Saudi Arabia to expand rail network to over 8,000 km    OMODA&JAECOO: Unstoppable global cumulative sales over 360,000 units    Al Hilal doesn't need extra support to bring new players, CEO says    Saudi Arabia sees 73.7% rise in investment licenses in Q3 2024    Rafael Nadal: Farewell to the 'King of Clay'    Indonesia shocks Saudi Arabia with 2-0 victory in AFC Asian Qualifiers    Sitting too much linked to heart disease –– even if you work out    GASTAT report: 45.1% of Saudis are overweight    Denmark's Victoria Kjær Theilvig wins Miss Universe 2024    Order vs. Morality: Lessons from New York's 1977 Blackout    India puts blockbuster Pakistani film on hold    The Vikings and the Islamic world    Filipino pilgrim's incredible evolution from an enemy of Islam to its staunch advocate    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Tyre Nichols: Memphis reckons with police killing by black officers
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 28 - 01 - 2023

At the VIP Barbershop less than a mile away from where Tyre Nichols was attacked by five Memphis Police officers, PJ, the shop's owner, described the moment he realized that Nichols was from his community.
He recognized him as the quiet young man who would skate through his shop's parking lot.
"He would ride his skateboard with headphones on, just coasting and minding his business," he said. "He never bothered anyone."
As PJ spoke about Nichols, 29, his violent death and the video of his beating that's soon to be released, the barbershop's lunchtime crowd nodded in agreement.
"It's a shame, it's embarrassing," said a man named London, adding that it's painful to add yet another name to the long list of unarmed black men killed by police.
More difficult to discuss perhaps, was the race of the police officers themselves. All five of the men, now facing murder charges, are black too.
"I heard a couple of them were just standing around looking instead of saying, 'Hey man don't do that, stop!' You're just as guilty if you just stand there and let that happen," PJ said.
It makes Nichols' death feel different, he added.
It looked different, too, from some of the most infamous cases of police violence or killings involving black victims and primarily white officers: Rodney King in Los Angeles, Michael Brown in Ferguson, and George Floyd in Minneapolis.
But experts on race and policing told the BBC that the involvement of black officers in Nichols' death was unsurprising.
"I wasn't surprised because Memphis is a majority black city," said Alexis Hoag-Fordjour, a professor at Brooklyn Law School and co-director of the Center for Criminal Justice.
She practiced law in Memphis for a decade. "The elected officials, those that work for the city, the county, there's a lot of black leadership."
Indeed, under Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis — the first black woman to serve in that role for the city — the majority of the force is black, according to the city's website.
But there is no clear answer as to why these officers attacked Nichols and how, exactly, the race of all six men may have led to his death.
Chief Davis told the BBC News she still struggles to explain what happened, two weeks after she first saw the video of Nichols' beating.
"The mentality of what I saw, it's very difficult to explain," she said, adding that she "can't answer" if the encounter would have ended differently had Nichols been white.
"It doesn't matter what color these officers were, doesn't matter what color the driver was. If you look at the video, race has nothing to do with it," she said.
Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, told the BBC that it was the race of the victim — in this case her son — and not the race of the perpetrators that mattered.
"It's not about the color of the police officer. We don't care if it's black, white, pink, purple. What they did was wrong," she said.
"And what they're doing to the black communities is wrong. We're not worried about the race of the police officer. We're worried about the conduct of the police officers."
Professor Hoag agrees. The race of police officers is not the primary issue, she said. Instead, it's a problem of policing.
"Policing in this country is focused on control, subordination and violence — regardless of the race of the officer," she said.
"Society views black people as inherently dangerous and criminal... even if you have black people in the position of law enforcement, that doesn't mean that proposition goes away."
According to data collection by Mapping Police Violence, black people in the US are approximately three times more likely to be killed in comparison to their white counterparts.
Media caption,
The picture is less clear on the race of officers who perpetrate police brutality.
"We do know that there is more anti-black bias among white officers than black officers but we also know that black people and black officers have anti-black bias too. We're talking about a difference in degree," said Khalil Gibran Muhammad a professor of race and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School.
The Stanford prison experiment tells us that "bad things happen in places built to do bad things", he said. "Anyone who dons the uniform is more likely on average to engage in abusive behavior directed toward a black person."
Rodney King, in his memoir, talked about being abused by white and black officers alike.
Frank Sykes, a former Tennessee deputy sheriff, who is also African American, told the BBC this abusive behavior comes down to how officers are trained — something that caused him to leave the force.
Officers "will judge a person off a look because you've been trained if 'they look this way, they're bad'," he said. Until Americans take a closer look at how officers are taught, he said, these tragic incidents of police brutality would continue to happen.
"It's bigger than just the personal officers, it's something that within the whole process of training, that keeps pushing these things to happen," he said. "And it's going to continue creating the same outcome of us vs them."
On Friday afternoon, the family of Nichols held a press conference. As their lawyer, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, spoke, PJ turned the volume up on the barbershop TV.
But if he and the VIP patrons were looking for a straightforward answer to this latest incident of police brutality, they wouldn't get one.
Crump urged the country to focus on changing the culture of policing that allows any officer — regardless of race — to have such a callous disregard for the citizens they are sworn to protect and serve.
As Crump spoke, one man shook his head. "Memphis is complicated man," he said. — BBC


Clic here to read the story from its source.