Wesley Lowery, a former Washington Post reporter who covers police issues and race, and wrote the book They Can't Kill Us All, appeared on PBS’s news roundup Washington Week Friday to talk about the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of police after a traffic stop in Memphis.
The topic that dominated the show's entire half-hour runtime. So it was more like Memphis Week.
Both Lowery and emotional PBS host Yamiche Alcindor insisted anti-black racism was so widespread in America that it infected even the five black police officers charged with Nichols’ murder.
Alcindor: And, Wesley, I want to stick with you, because there’s something people have been talking about all week, which is the fact that the officers are black. And we know, as people who cover policing, frankly, that racial bias doesn't mean that you can't have racial bias if you’re an African-American police officer. But break down for people who are wondering how in the world do black officers do this, frankly, and what is this culture of policing that Ben Crump, who is the attorney for the Tyre Nichols family, is talking about, that is part of the reason why Tyre Nichols, unfortunately, is not with his family tonight?
After talking about the controversial, now-disbanded SCORPION police unit in Memphis the officers were part of, Lowery said:
It’s unsurprising to me that the officers involved here are black. What we know is that policing in the way it trains in the way it staffs, in how it resources, very often structures a dynamic where it is an us versus them….
Lowery underlined the odd idea that anti-black racism also infected blacks even when no whites were around. The idea of white supremacy is certainly flexible.
Lowery: I'll just say, again, I am not surprised the officers here were black, because when we talk about race and policing, we talk about the way black men, black women, black people are perceived and the way they are perceived by all of us. And so anti-black racism, the idea of thinking of black men and women as prone to violence, as dangerous, as bigger or stronger or more insidious than they really are, something that can affect all of our minds, and black people are not immune from that as well.
And so what we see very often, and I know I have friends who say this to their kids when they have the talk, right, that when you see a police officer, they’re not white or black, they’re blue. And police will often say that themselves, meaning something a little different. But in this case, what we saw here were agents of the state enacting severe violence against a man who, again, from what we can tell, did not seem to be posing much of a threat to them.
Yamiche Alcindor: Such important points, Wesley.
This Washington Week segment was paid for in part by Consumer Cellular.
A transcript is below, click “Expand” to read:
PBS Washington Week
January 27, 2023
8:04:55 p.m. Eastern
Host Yamiche Alcindor: So, Wesley, I want to start with you. I almost don't have the words after watching the video to talk about this but I am going to try, as we are all, I'm sure, watching this video with heavy hearts. What did you see that sticks out to you as someone who unfortunately along with me has watched videos like this where we have seen people get beaten by the police? What sticks out to you as you watched this video?
Wesley Lowery, Author, They Can't Kill Us All: Of course, a lot of things stick out to me as I watched this video. As you know, Yamiche, you and I have been on the ground in many cities after the release of videos like this, has spent time with a lot of families, like Tyre Nichols'. And so, of course, it is understandable that there's emotion that's evoked when we watch something like this.
And in some ways, I think it is important to note and underscore, as horrific as many of the images here are, we have seen many video like this. This isn't particularly terrible or particularly bad, not in any way take away from the horrific images.
But what we see in these videos captured by body cameras of the officers, another captured by a surveillance camera, is we see what was a traffic stop, according to the police, for reckless driving quickly escalated. We saw Tyre Nichols get pulled from his car. We see multiple officers pepper spraying him and tasing him as he attempts to say that he is already on the ground, they can have his hands. There is a struggle.
We hear repeated escalations from the officers, threats of physical violence if he doesn't comply. We hear what happens very often in these cases are contradictory instructions, lay down, roll over, show us your hands, put them up, put them down.
And, eventually, Tyre Nichols gets away and that's where the surveillance camera really comes in, where we see from above images of Tyre Nichols handcuffed, or appearing to be handcuffed, being held by multiple officers, as other officers kicked him, it seems, in the head and then throw wild punches at him as he is standing. I mean, this does seem extremely excessive. That's probably an understatement. It's almost too neutral of a way to describe.
And at almost no point, actually, I think at no point -- I obviously have only gotten to see the video once or twice because it just came out. It is hard to point to any moment in these videos where Tyre Nichols represents a threat to these officers. He does not appear to be fighting them in any active way. As we know, he was not armed with anything. But, again, at the point at which he is handcuffed and being held by multiple officers, we see kicks to his head and haymaker punches. And I think that those are clearly the reason that these officers have been fired and charged with serious crimes that they've been charged with.
Yamiche Alcindor: And, Wesley, I want to stick with you, because there is something people have been talking about all week, which is the fact that the officers are black. And we know, as people who cover policing, frankly, that racial bias doesn't mean that you can't have racial bias if you are an African-American police officer. But break down for people who are wondering how in the world do black officers do this, frankly, and what is this culture of policing that Ben Crump, who is the attorney for the Tyre Nichols family, is talking about, that is part of the reason why Tyre Nichols, unfortunately, is not with his family tonight?
Wesley Lowery: Of course. Well, first of all, and, obviously, this is early, there is going to be more reporting, and there are great journalists already doing some of that reporting, but this was a set of officers of the SCORPION unit, which is a specialized unit started recently in Memphis. Memphis is one of the cities that's seen an uptick in violence in recent years. And there is a lot of concern about crime. And this was one of the units that was set up especially to got target -- they call it hotspot policing, the types of places where crime rises. We see this playing out in cities across the country, where they say, well, we can focus very heavily on certain places.
But what we see very often with these specialty units is this type of impunity. It is notable, frankly, that -- and, again, I've only seen the video once or twice, but it appears these officers, at least the primary officer who perhaps conducted the traffic stop, is wearing a hoodie, not even a full uniform. It appears that he is in an unmarked car that just looks like a Dodge Charger or some other type of car like that. But we also see this hyper aggression from these officers.
It is unsurprising to me that the officers involved here are black. What we know is that policing and the way it trains and the way it staffs and how it resources, very often structures a dynamic where it is us versus them. As we see, right, there is very little in this video that leads us to believe that the men who were out there that night were concerned about the public safety. There wasn't a threat the public safety. It's very hard to point to a moment in that video and go, well, this is the point where, in order to keep the rest of us are safe, Tyre Nichols needed to be treated this way.
This was a traffic stop for I believe reckless driving, although that city officials have said they're not even sure they can substantiate that there was a valid reason to stop him in the first place. And we see escalating violence time and time and time again.
I'll just say, again, I am not at all surprised the officers were black, because when we talk about race and policing, we talk about the way black men, black women, black people are perceived in the way they are perceived by all of us. And so anti-black racism, the idea of thinking of black men and women as prone to violence, as dangerous, as bigger or stronger or more insidious than they really are, something that can affect all of our minds, and black people are not immune from that as well.
And so what we see very often, and I know I have friends who say this to their kids when they have the talk, right, that when you see a police officer, they are not white or black, they are blue. And police will often say that themselves, meaning something a little different. But in this case, what we saw here were agents of the state enacting severe violence against a man who, again, from what we can tell, did not seem to be posing much of a threat to them.
Yamiche Alcindor: Such important points, Wesley.
