Memphis beat down and the limitations of identity politics: American Police remind us why they are pigs. Again.

I’ve never liked cops.

I love and respect teachers, nurses, drs, firefighters and many other public servants, but never cops.

Who the fuck wakes up and says ‘I want to tell people what to do”!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some defund the Police clown or think we should disband them, I acknowledge the job the have to do but detest the alpha bully personalities it seems to attract.

In my time I’ve met maybe 4 Police Officers I ever liked.

The Police are ultimately the physical force of the State and in a Democracy they have the monopoly on violence, but a modern democracy ensures there are multiple checks and balances over their Police forces.

Those checks and balances seem very weak these days.

In America the Police believe they have the right to shoot you for nothing more than mere disobedience.

You can be running away from them and they can shoot you in the back without any legal ramifications.

You don’t need to be causing an active threat, they can just gun you down.

New Zealander Christian Glass had a car accident and was stuck in snow, he called the Police for help to get him out and they arrived and shot him dead because he wouldn’t do what they told him after he started freaking out in fear that they were going to kill him.

Which they did.

Fast forward to the latest police violence obscenity of Tyre Nichols’ death.

Jesus wept…

Memphis releases video showing police stop that led to Tyre Nichols’ death

The city of Memphis has released police body camera and surveillance video showing the January 7 traffic stop and violent police confrontation that led to the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols.

One camera – a remotely controlled pole-mounted camera in a neighborhood where officers caught a fleeing Nichols after an initial confrontation – shows Nichols being hit by officers at least nine times without visible provocation.

When the camera first turns toward the scene, an officer is shown shoving Nichols hard to the pavement with a knee or leg. Nichols is pulled up by his shoulders and then kicked in the face twice.

After being pulled up into a sitting position, Nichols is hit in the back with what appears to be a nightstick. After being pulled to his knees, Nichols is hit again.

Once pulled to his feet, the video shows officers hitting Nichols in the face multiple times while his hands are restrained behind his body, after which he falls to his knees. Less than a minute later, an officer appears to kick Nichols. More than three minutes after the encounter is first seen on this camera, officers let go of Nichols, and he rolls on his back.

One minute later, Nichols is dragged along the pavement and propped up in a sitting position against the side of a car, where he is largely ignored by officers for the next three-and-a-half minutes.

Ten minutes into the video, a person who appears to be a paramedic finally engages Nichols.

Nichols screams for his mom as the video shows an officer arriving at a second location, in a residential neighborhood.

Officers tell Nichols to “give them his hand,” as a struggle ensues on the ground. An officer asks Nichols, “Do you want to get sprayed again?”

Two officers hit and kick Nichols as he is on the ground.

Nichols screams: “Mooooom!”

An officer then appears to pepper spray Nichols.

Nichols continued to scream for his mother during the incident.

Officers continue to tell Nichols to give him their hands as Nichols continues to scream for his mother.

…crying out for his mother, begging Police, ‘I’m just trying to get home’ as they beat him to death.

Respect my Authoritah!

This is where we see the real limitations of viewing everything through the lens of identity.

Since 2015 American Police have shot and killed 3622 white Americans, 1286 Hispanic Americans and 1905 Black Americans, of course it’s far more damaging to the African American community because it represents a far higher proportion of killings compared to their actual population base, but by allowing identity politics to define the problem as cracker police killing Black Americans we miss the vast number of white people also being killed which points to a far wider problem.

Here are the Officers who killed Tyre Nichols…

…that kinda undermines the whole identity politics lens.

That’s not to say race doesn’t play a part, it certainly does, but it’s bigger than that.

The two cultural forces that have collided within American Policing is one of white supremacy and one of their Military Industrial Complex.

The NZ Police Force was created out of the Mounted Constabulary who were formed to beat the Christ out of Māori as white settlers nervously started stealing land. Likewise, the embryonic American police force spooked by slavery revenge fantasies found early recruits in the south from ex-slave hunters.

Police founded by white supremacy to protect laws that were anti African-American took until the 60s and 70s to reform, but those blatantly racist laws were simply modified to ‘broken window’ policing that allowed the same level of racism under the old laws.

Add to this deep culture of racism the Military Industrial Complex who managed to get Billions out of Federal Budgets to sell surplus war equipment from the Gulf War into domestic Police forces.

Alongside this equipment transfer came the military culture of total dominance by use of over whelming force.

This blank cheque to use lethal force at anyone for any transgression is a terrifyingly brutal way to police your civilian population in a democracy, especially when those using that force have deep cultures of hateful white supremacy.

We need to acknowledge that racism, but also accept that we can’t limit our understanding purely through identity, there are bigger Capitalist and class forces at play fuelling Police violence that also need challenging if we are to stop it.

 

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.