On police murder of Tyre Nichols: there must be change, accountability

By Lieut. CHARLES P. WILSON (Ret.)

As a Black man and retired police officer, I have been crying quite a bit lately. Crying from a deep sense of outrage, grief, shame and fear.

Outrage because, again, yet another unarmed Black man has been brutally killed by police officers. In communities of color throughout the United States, police use of deadly force, acts of misconduct and abuse have now seemingly grown to epidemic proportions. While people of color should be able to rely upon law enforcement to keep them safe, they now may feel victimized in the streets and in their homes by the very people who are supposed to protect them, not knowing if their name will be the next to be added to the ever-growing statistics.

Grief, because of the pain that I know Tyre Nichols’s family and close friends must now be going through. From everything I have heard, he was one of those who should have been able to rely upon the police to protect and serve. That he was abused, disrespected and treated inhumanely must be considered as incontrovertible. Yet, in this one tragic and inhumane event, history has repeated itself and proven yet again that the acts of some in policing are inherently biased against men and women of color and against low income communities.

I have also experienced a great deal of shame because of the fact that each of the ones who killed Tyre looked exactly like me. They allegedly swore the same oaths that I did to protect and serve the community. They were supposed to uphold the 200-plus-year legacy of every Black law enforcement officer who has ever served. They brought unearned destruction upon the more than 50 years of work that Black law enforcement officers have exerted to bring about change in our communities. They debased and dishonored the badge that they carried.

We can only presume that these officers were intent on sending a message, not only to Tyre but also to all others in view: If you ran from them, disregarded their presumed authority, there would be consequences to pay.

But most of all, fear, because I worry that my grandsons, great-grandsons and sons-in-law may one day become victims of this insanity. I carry a badge in my pocket that I would hope will provide me with some level of immunity when approached by one of the rogues on the job. But my family members will probably not have that luxury. I can only pray that they will remember the things I have taught them about how to survive a police encounter, and that they are able to live to fight another day. Fear, because I know in my heart that Tyre Nichols will probably not be the last, or even the only death in this coming year.

As members of one of the nation’s oldest professions, we can no longer allow inappropriate or illegal actions of law enforcement to go unpunished and unaccountable. Nor can we continue to disregard the disproportional deaths of Black lives at the hands of those whose duty it is to protect and serve. No longer can it be claimed that these incidents are mere anomalies that rarely take place and are being taken out of context. Nor can we any longer say that these incidents are perpetrated singularly by our White counterparts.

The words of Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis after the brutal death of George Floyd, speak truth to power: “Being Black in America should not be a death sentence.” As members of a profession that, by its very mandate, is required to protect and serve, we must ensure that those among us who transgress are stripped of their anonymity and ousted in the most public fashion possible, regardless of who they are and what station they maintain.

As a profession, we must accept the historical facts of our founding and admit that the institution of policing, as it is currently practiced in these United States, is inherently biased against people of color

See POLICE MURDER on page 31

Can reimagining city budgets make our communities safer?

By SONALI KOLHATKAR

Last year was the deadliest on record for police killings in the United States. According to a Washington Post database, law enforcement officers shot and killed 1,096 people in 2022.

And that’s probably an understatement.

Elinor R. Tatum: Publisher and Editor in Chief

ed from asphyxiation.

In contrast, Campaign Zero’s Mapping Police Violence project includes any action that a law enforcement officer takes that results in a fatal encounter. Rad’s project counted 1,158 police killings in 2021 compared to 1,048 listed in the Post. (Final results for 2022 are not yet available.)

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Kristin Fayne-Mulroy: Managing Editor

Nayaba Arinde: Editor

Cyril Josh Barker: Digital Editor

Damaso Reyes: Investigative Editor

Siobhan "Sam" Bennett: Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Advertising

Wilbert A. Tatum (1984-2009): Chairman of the Board, CEO and Publisher Emeritus

According to Abdul Nasser Rad, a research director at Campaign Zero, the Post “only captures incidents where a police officer discharges their firearm and the victim is killed.” This means that it would not count the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, for example, which result-

The upshot is that in spite of the huge public attention to police violence since 2020, police are actually killing more people than before. We can expect 2023 to be even deadlier if the years-long trend continues.

Another clear conclusion is that communities of color face a much higher risk.

According to the Washington Post, Black Americans “are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans.” Mapping Police Violence puts the figure closer to three times. Police killings of Latinos and Indigenous people are similarly disproportionate.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, some activists called for “defunding the police.” They argued that over-funded police departments—which can often consume a third or more of city budgets—were using their resources to kill people. These advocates wanted to shift some of those funds to reduce poverty, improve mental health and take other steps to make people safer.

That seemingly reasonable call was greeted with a reactionary backlash. Politicians across the spectrum, including President Joe Biden, promised to increase police funding instead. Biden even begged local governments to use federal stimulus funds to bolster their police departments in 2022.

But does giving police more money result in greater public safety?

One recent study analyzing funding for hundreds of police departments over nearly

See CITY BUDGETS on page 31

The burden of the blue: Police mental health in the wake of Tyre Nichols’s murder

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the New York Amsterdam News. We continue to publish a variety of viewpoints so that we may know the opinions of others that may differ from our own.

Armstrong Williams

The atrocities that law enforcement officers witness on a daily basis can have a profound impact on their mental health. Officers are witnesses to the worst of humanity: disturbing images of women beaten by their husbands, dead children and bodies mitigated beyond recognition. These officers endure trials that no person should ever have to face, yet they continue to leave their homes and families every day, not knowing if they will return home alive or even return as the same person their loved ones once knew. Therefore, we must prioritize and invest in mental health resources for law enforcement to ensure that the individuals responsible for protecting our lives daily are in a stable and healthy mental state.

Tyre Nichols was beaten, battered and murdered by five law enforcement officers who took an oath to protect their community. Their job was to safeguard the citizens, not to take their lives. I have no sympathy for them, and neither should you—they killed a person in cold blood who was going about his daily business. He could have been you.

The question, therefore, is not only whether these officers, and others like them who commit such atrocities, should be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law but how we can further prevent such situations in the future.

Take away the uniform and a police officer is no different from a civilian. The actual difference lies in their mental state. Police have witnessed things that no sane person would ever want to experience or voluntarily choose to see. And they must continue to go out daily, knowing they will probably encounter similar situations.

To prevent further indiscriminate violence by police officers, it is crucial that they are equipped