Anyone who watched the video of Memphis cops fatally beating 29-year-old Tyre Nichols had to be horrified at the senseless brutality of officers sworn to uphold the law. Decent folks should be outraged, the cops held accountable.
Yet it would only compound the horror to smear all police officers for the sins of these few. Or to enflame the outrage by citing this as an example of “systemic racism” — and a justification for violence, as in 2020 after George Floyd’s death.
Key questions remain: Why was Nichols really pulled over? What prompted the cops’ virulent hostility? Yet so far there’s no evidence whatsoever that the cops targeted Nichols because he was black.
Where’s the logic in claiming racism, after all, considering the officers who delivered the blows — punches, kicks, whacks with a baton — were all black themselves? These cops were out of control, abusing their power, incompetent, poorly trained or all of the above. But racist?
Alas, the usual flamethrowers are already pouncing: A CNN piece by commentator Van Jones claimed the cops “might have been driven by racism.” Shaun Harper, a professor who describes himself as a “diversity, equity and inclusion” expert, blamed “institutional racism” in a Forbes column.
This tragedy will goose the anti-cop/Defund the Police movement, leading to less policing and more crime, which takes the greatest toll on minorities: A Heritage study last year found blacks were 54% of murder victims nationwide yet just 13% of the population.
George Floyd proved it: Following the riots, cities, including New York, cut police resources — and violent crime soared. Why repeat that mistake?
Read more of the Post’s coverage of Tyre Nichols’ beating death
Rather, let justice play out: Five of the Nichols cops were already fired and slapped with murder and other charges. If guilty, they’ll likely spend years behind bars, as they should.
Police departments also need to redouble efforts to properly train cops and weed out the bad few.
What was abundantly clear to anyone who watched the horrific videos was how bad these young cops were. They were pumped up, overly aggressive and repeatedly failed to restrain a compliant Tyre Nichols despite five of them on him. It should have been over in a minute.
We have to ask why was no supervisor on the scene? Where were the grown-ups who could de-escalate the situation? How many experienced officers who act as mentors have retired early because of the Defund madness and hatred of the last few years?
These are questions that must be answered. But for now, let justice peacefully run its course. The nation mustn’t let its rightful anger fuel an irrational attack on policing generally — and only add to the Nichols tragedy.
