Tyre Nichols’ death puts spotlight back on excessive police use of force

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• John Yang:

  Good evening. I'm John Yang. Across the nation tonight, people are struggling to come to grips with the shocking display of excessive force by Memphis police in the beating death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols. Officials warned in advance that the videos made public last night were graphic and disturbing, and they certainly are that. So, we want to issue that same warning to you now and tell you that we have carefully chosen which portions of the video to broadcast, choosing not to show you the most violent moments.

  It looked to be a routine traffic stop, but from the outset, police were aggressive and chaotic.

• Tyre Nichols:

  I didn't do anything.

• John Yang:

  Four different cameras show the fatal confrontation as it unfold in January 7.

• Police:

  Put your hands —

• John Yang:

  Memphis police officers from a special unit for combating street crime tackled Tyre Nichols.

• Police:

  Man, if you don't lay down —

• John Yang:

  Nichols eventually broke free. At least one officer deployed his taser as Nichols ran toward his mother's house nearby.

  One officer's body camera shows him in pursuit. Nichols was eventually apprehended about a block from the traffic stop. There, multiple officers punched and kicked him in the head and torso, and one officer hit him multiple times with a baton.

• Police:

  Give me your hands.

• John Yang:

  He could be heard crying out for his mother, whose house was just a short distance away.

  Nichols, mortally injured, sat on the ground, propped up on the side of a car for more than 20 minutes before paramedics arrived at administered aid.

  Nichols mother, RowVaughn Wells, spoke today with ABC's Good Morning America.

  RowVaughn Wells, Mother of Tyre Nichols: As a mother, you want to always be there when your children need you. So, when I heard that my son was calling my name and I wasn't there for him, that just hurt my heart.

• John Yang:

  Nichols died three days later. He was the father of a four-year-old son, an avid skateboarder and lover of sunsets and photography.

  Even before the video was released, protesters gathered in cities across the country. In Memphis, where protesters shut down the interstate highway bridge spanning the Mississippi River, reaction was especially raw.

• Marcus Randolph, Protester:

  Hurt, pain, anger. Every emotion you can feel, except for love for the people that did that to that man.

• John Yang:

  In New York City's Times Square, there were some scuffles between police and protesters, but the demonstrations across the country remained largely peaceful. Two weeks after the beating, five Memphis police officers were fired, and on Thursday each was charged with second degree murder. Rodney Wells, Nichols stepfather, told Good Morning America the charges should not stop there.

  Rodney Wells, Stepfather of Tyre Nichols: It looks as though it may be maybe five, six other police officers that should be charged in this case. There was also at the initial encounter with my son. There was a white officer that was tasing my son. We don't understand how come his name was not put out there or mentioned in this whole fiasco.

• John Yang:

  After the video was released, two Shelby County sheriff's deputies who were at the scene were put on leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

  Once again, the spotlight is on police policing and the use of force. Thaddeus Johnson is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and a Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University.

  Mr. Johnson, I think the video is very difficult to watch for anyone. But as a former Memphis police officer who taught the use of force, what stood out to you in that video?

  Thaddeus Johnson, Council on Criminal Justice: Well, for me in the video, of course, it's obviously upsetting. But it's more than a black mark on policing, and it's way outside of bounds of the law and any police training that I know of. I think what we witnessed was a deadly brew of incompetence, a deadly brew of aggression. Bravado, Machismo, one-upmanship of who can be the toughest person. We saw a subculture within a department, how it can impact within units, but not only within units. Also, the sheriff's department, also the EMT, and the Fire Department. And it shows how deeply subcultures can run. And so, they let down the city of Memphis. They let down their families, and they definitely let down Tyre and his family.

• John Yang:

  Do you think this was a subculture within this unit? It was called SCORPION. It was aimed at street crime. So, rather than the entire department, do you think it was just this unit?

• Thaddeus Johnson:

  That's an interesting question. So, I first saw it, I was thinking about how these particular units, research shows that they're more likely to use force than rental patrol units. They were more likely to have misconduct complaints filed against them. And it's a lack of accountability, a lack of supervision, and increased competition for arrest, traffic stops, and citations among this group.

  And I thought, well, maybe it's just the group and the subculture. But then, I saw that other officers were standing around. Then, I saw the EMTs did not render aid when they were on scene. We saw the sheriff's department deputies were also relieved because they did not intervene or step in.

  And so, to me, this is an issue at the city level because it includes the Fire Department. It includes the police department. And I will also say the mayor should not get a pass because this happened on his watch. And so, I think it's a subculture that permeates not with every officer, but definitely there's an underlying subculture that allows these things to happen if it doesn't encourage it, it definitely permits it.

• John Yang:

  How do you root that out?

• Thaddeus Johnson:

  It's a training. How do we train officers? Are we training officers of de-escalation? Are we training officers in how to be civil and professional? I didn't hear one verbal man given during that time, right? And I wasn't trained like that. If were to spray someone with pepper spray, it doesn't matter if we got into a scuffle, we would provide water to cleanse their face, wipe their face up, because at the end of the day, it's a community member.

  So, it starts with the leadership, it starts with the training, it starts with accountability and not letting bad officers slide. If you all notice that these officers had body cams and they were comfortable. And the sad part is that they were actually acting like this was real policing. And that would tell me, I would suspect that supervision permits that or they're not on top of it. And so, it starts with the supervisor from the front line all the way to the police chief.

  It also goes to with how we select officers, right? I'm not saying we necessarily have to have college education, but we need officers a great moral standard and we need to make sure we're conducting background checks. The last thing I will say is reward structures. High reward officers only represents about 10% to 15% of the job. Arrests, traffic stop, and many of these things don't even have much public safety value. And so, what we end up doing is putting citizens and police and adversarial situations unnecessarily.

• John Yang:

  You know, one of the things that was striking about the video is that from the moment the officers got out of their car, they seemed very aggressive. What did you think of that?

• Thaddeus Johnson:

  That aligns with the research about these particular units that oftentimes officers are so focused on arrests and traffic stops. And mind you, even police officers who behave in misconduct, it's a thing called noble cause corruption. They're thinking they are the real crime fighters. They believe that they don't take a heavy-handed approach to policing, that the justice system will hold them accountable. And so, it's for them to hold them accountable. And they're also chasing those stats. It's a competition. If you notice, it was a one usmanship. One person pulls out baton, another person sprays, another person kicks, another person punches. And you hear them bragging at the end about how many punches I got in. And they were sitting there as if they had just hunted someone and they were proud of what they saw. And so, this is how reward structures and the focus on non-evidence-based practices when it comes to combating crime can result in these issues.

• John Yang:

  You talk about the officers are being rewarded for making traffic stops. Why do so many traffic stops seem to go bad?

• Thaddeus Johnson:

  First of all, police resources because of systemic inequities are concentrated disproportionately in black, brown, in poor communities. And so, you already have differential exposure. Now, think about the fraud history between police, the government, and our black and brown citizens in the U.S. There is a higher level of fear of the police. And also, that will explain why police often see more resistance when it comes in black communities.

  And so, you're afraid, it's fight, flight or freeze. Those things can get you injured or hurt or be misinterpreted by police officers in those situations. Mind you, the officers are fearful and afraid as well. And so, you have this fear on both sides. And look at Tyre. He was trying to comply and de-escalate. And he got up and ran because he did not trust him. He was not confident and he wanted to get away because he feared for his life.

  And so, it shows how this trust in the community can actually, over time, lead to these situations. This is exactly what we see not only in this case with in Eric Garner, with George Floyd, in many other cases where it was small infractions, not for murder, not for rape, not for aggravated assault, for small infractions that we would consider less serious. And so, because you focus on these things, you're not thinking about as an officer, what does this mean to the person? How is this put forward public safety? You're thinking about your career and you're thinking about your reputation.

• John Yang:

  Thaddeus Johnson of Georgia State University, thanks so much for your insights.

• Thaddeus Johnson:

  Thank you so much for having me.

• John Yang:

  And a note, this afternoon, the Memphis Police Department announced they have deactivated the SCORPION Unit.