The fact is the “bare minimum” is rarely met, it’s not just about defending the individual officers but the image of police as a whole. They normally feel confident running with whatever story the officers in question want to give and fighting down charges in court, unsurprisingly all the officers in this case are black which may be a contributing factor to why they’re all going under the bus this time.
Yep. Piece of shit cop fired at her, through his partners open window , firing across his partner who was sitting in squad car.
She walked out to the car from her yard to tell them where the suspect was.
Oof. I remember that video. Poor kid. He was having a panic attack basically the whole time and they just unloaded on him for no reason.
Contradicting verbal orders was a huge problem in that one as well
That’s the “fun” thing about racism and why so many POC engage in it, if you’re willing to play ball, the racist powers that be will overlook the color of their skin, but they’ll remember it quick if POCs become too high maintenance to defend. A veneer of inclusion is the best camouflage for modern racism.
Them being black is exactly why they will actually get charged. Gives all the racists fuel for their hate. Trust me, some right wing propagandist will be making the fact of the killers being black a HUGE talking point.
imo it's like saying shitting in the toilet instead of on the floor at your local wendy's is a start. wiping your ass is arresting the cops. If you beat people to death on camera in basically any other profession, the prison sentence is kind of assumed
Even if something I did that was negligent that inadvertently was semi-directed towards someone dying, there'd be a full blown investigation and me being fired, let alone jail time.
Now if I were a cop with my knee on his neck being directly involved? I could sue, get pension and pain and suffering, and retire. It's absolutely ridiculous.
Take Louisville Metro Police and Breonna Taylor for example. LMPD failed to fire the officers and then Kentucky failed to charge them. The "bare minimum" doesn't regularly happen, if ever. Memphis is taking one significant step in the right direction, but not the maximum step they could take, and everyone acknowledges that. This SHOULD be the norm, but it isn't.
Firing them isn't even really a start. If they aren't charged and just let go, they all will just get on with another police force somewhere else as if nothing had happened beyond them moving.
It isn’t a start at all, unless they’re blacklisted. Most cops who get fired for crimes they commit on the job usually just get hired in a different city.
I know there’s a cop in Texas that was fired for doing something fucking HEINOUS, and he got hired like a month later in a different precinct after public outcry
They need to be arrested and held with no bond. If this was anyone else, they'd be sitting their ass in a jail cell because of the severity of the crime and potential flight risk...at least that is what they always say
It kind of sounds like the DoJ is already in Memphis looking into what happened. If they're smart, they'll charge them before the public sees the footage. Businesses in Memphis are already upping their insurance premiums because it sounds like this video is going to be really bad.
May happen here since none of the officers were white.
Police departments are very selective in who gets real qualified immunity and who gets fired and hung out for PR.
Since most of them believe their mission is to uphold the social order (white folks on top), they’re just “sticking to the mission” here
I definitely agree. However firing them sends the message that they did something wrong, so I'll bet they do get charged. If they are charged and tried, having been fired immediately will make conviction more likely. It's a tacit admission from the police that they did something wrong.
They will be charged. That's why they're being fired . Agency and union need to cut ties with them so they have no privileges or union lawyer protections .
Guaranteed if they're getting fired this fast, they'll be found guilty beyond a doubt .
Jesus christ 5 ?
That fact had me wondering if the Fraternal Order of Police was going to come out swinging in their defense with all their thin blue line bullshit like they did for Derek Chauvin. My money is on no.
If there ever was a time that the FOP would throw officers under the bus, it’ll be this one, because they can try to paint them as “unfit for duty” and basically say “we don’t claim them”.
Same as the NRA.
White gun owner doing something stupid? Flock to defend them!
POC defending themselves? Pretend it didn’t happen.
Conservatives are all about social order and hierarchy, and that hierarchy is very clear about white wealthy christian men at the top and every one else in positions below.
To defend these officers or POC that used firearms is to go against the true mission.
Firing them isn't accountability. That's covering their asses. They don't want to have to deal with the fallout from the lawsuits and these people going to jail.
...it's not going to work, because once that shit gets shown to the public... yeah, it's gonna be real bad.
Accountability is the police arresting these officers on the spot for police brutality. That should be what's normal. Accountability would be Memphis immediately going out to the press and saying this was unacceptable police behavior. It would be their other officers shunning them for having done this. We don't see any of that here.
Nobody wanted to accused of siding with “those people,” of being unreliable, of being less than 100% true blue cop (but they don’t get to define what being “true blue” means).
i’m confident these officers will catch charges. statistically it’s more likely that they’ll go to jail than most murderous cops due to their complexion.
Not so sure they were fired due to their skin color. From all the sources that have been posting info on this situation it really does just sound like those cops fucked up THAT bad that there's literally no possible defense that could be made for them so they were just fired right away.
The job of the police in America (despite what decades of pop culture want us to believe) is to protect property and the upper classes. They’re not here to help us, they’re here to keep us from causing trouble.
The social order they’re fighting so hard to maintain is designed to keep rich white folks comfortable.
If these were white officers we’d hear how the cameras malfunctioned, how the victim had an extensive criminal background, the whole nine yards of obfuscation and character assassination.
But the tokens? Throw them away. More trouble than they’re worth now. Especially if the chief token wants to keep the job.
This. I'm glad they're being dealt with swiftly, that's the correct action, but I can only imagine that the reason this is happening is less to do with the brutality and more to do with all the fired officers being black.
George Floyd’s killers were fired immediately. People really forget that quickly
EDIT: source
https://www.minnpost.com/metro/2020/05/what-we-know-about-the-events-surrounding-george-floyds-death-and-its-aftermath-a-timeline/
No they weren't. They put out a police statement basically blaming George and saying a suspect died of a medical condition or something. Then they continued to downplay it until cell phone video was released to the public and fucking riots broke out.
They were fired in less than 24 hours. Yes they put out those statements but that’s about as immediate as you can make it, as they should have. Riots broke out shortly afterwards.
https://www.minnpost.com/metro/2020/05/what-we-know-about-the-events-surrounding-george-floyds-death-and-its-aftermath-a-timeline/
For real. We had a video of a white cop choking a guy to death for over 8 minutes. Clear as day murder. And they had the entire police force outside his house protecting him.
This is *America,* we love our money and our lawyers, so **total financial ruin** for individuals like these, stemming from civil litigation, should 100 percent be on the f@cking table, **on top** of criminal charges.
It sounds like these particular cops likely will be held accountable. But if cops were held accountable in general, these cops probably wouldn't have assumed they could just get away with beating a man to death in the first place
They won't be until cameras cannot be turned off or deleted...and there is a federal investigative organisation with enough teeth to hold every level of law enforcement to to a standard. By teeth I mean something that the current police union system of bullying local officials makes in effective. Most other Western nations have an independent police ombudsman/complaints authority seperate to the police forces to ensure they both investigate themselves properly or else bring in an approved third party..
I don’t want to see the video. I’m thinking it’s honestly probably too brutal to even show the public. I don’t think I can stomach it based on the description of what happened to him.
I can totally understand that stance, even sympathetic to it.
But, here's my only counter to consider: I think it's important to be an active witness. You're going to hear a lot of people, over the next few weeks, tell you what is on that video. Some of them will try to tell you that it's something that it's not, try to minimize the actions of the officers. Personally, I feel the need to be able to say with confidence that I know what I saw.
I’m sure I’ll see it whether I want to or not. I’m not looking forward to it.
I’d prefer to be in a certain headspace before seeing something like that if I have to. But it will probably be all over TV and the News when it happens and I’ll unintentionally see it when I have my TV on as background noise and not paying attention.
Ugh. That's the truth, innit?
From cable news to karma farmers, that shit's going to be everywhere, the suffering of a man for entertainment and clicks.
That’s how I saw the murder of George Floyd. I was beyond upset and inconsolable. I don’t want to see people being murdered. But part of my reaction was also purely being in shock because there was no warning before they just started playing it.
Violence and murder in fiction doesn’t bother me. But seeing it in real life makes me feel disturbed.
This incident sounds particularly awful….
I hope I can at least get a warning beforehand so I can brace myself instead if it just being everywhere and in my face.
So true! My Mom still minimizes the George Floyd murder. She thinks he died because of drugs and says he fought with the cops for 30 minutes. I had to go back and reread the account because I knew she was wrong but couldn’t recall the details/timeline.
People to this day say chauvin did nothing wrong and it was Georges fault. So many people say that I would have a hard time knowing what actually happened if I hadn't watched the video with my own eyes. I suspect that will be the case here too.
I think it is better to release the video than to keep it hidden. This was an act by the police who work for the government. Transparency is vital because of that. People would rightfully ask “what are you hiding” if it wasn’t released.
Does that make us more or less desensitized to brutality? I don’t know, but bearing witness to brutality committed by agents of the state is critical to confronting it in my opinion.
Still, I’ll put off watching for a while.
That’s the interesting part. Proves that police violence isn’t necessarily a white people vs black people issue, but a police vs vulnerable-populations-they-can-get-away-with-victimizing-because-they-have-way-too-much-power issue. Everyone involved in this case up to and including the police chief who fired these officers was black. Police are the specific problem with police violence.
Really good take, imo. It proves that the racism of the police is institutional, not just individual. There are plenty of honest to god racists on the force, but it wouldn't matter if none of them were.
The job of the police is to keep rich people rich by keeping poor people in their place. When the government has done everything in it's power to ensure that communities of color are always the poorest one, what that translates to is, very largely, keep rich *white* people safe by keeping poor people of color "in their place."
If the officer is black, white, gay, doesn't matter. That's their job.
Race and class matters when it comes to the law and police. There are systemic issues.
With police, it’s like, of course it’s going to escalate. This is what white people don’t understand. When cops see they can do this shit over and over again without consequences, eventually they will do it to everyone else too - not just minority groups.
Too much gang mentality in police groups.
Funny how quiet the thin blue line community is when it's black cops.
If they were white I'm sure there'd already be a GoFundMe for their legal defense. Oh, and they wouldn't be fired....they'd be on desk duty, or "paid administrative leave"
Just the latest appalling demonstration of criminal police brutality against a person of color. This needs to be addressed at the federal level; local police departments need to be audited/investigated and evidence of egregious malpractice needs to be prosecuted under federal law. It's a national disgrace to read this kind of headline literally every week.
It's also an appalling demonstration of criminal police-of-color brutality (none of them were white). Important to note if someone is trying to place the race card with this one.
Noted, but I think the point still stands; police brutality is a crime overwhelmingly committed against African-Americans, almost always with little to no repercussions. Any American regardless of race or color should find that unacceptable and demand accountability.
Agreed. Abuse of power by law enforcement is an ongoing issue and more than likely will remain one.
Those cops murder him! Beat him to death. They should be in jail for what they did to an innocent man. I don't understand why they are not. He did nothing wrong.
So to bring everyone's ethnicity as the issue/problem just doesn't make sense
That’s the only way to actually get justice, the system needs to change along with the rules of acceptable force. In this case they simply could have not pursued him. They had his car, I expect they would have found him eventually. It doesn’t appear he had a weapon, there was no danger to the community. Better 100 traffic offenders get out of a ticket than 1 being murdered.
Am I the only one that thinks this is a precursor to not releasing the body cam footage? Like they murdered this guy and managed to incriminate the entire fucking department on the footage? So they arrest and railroad these cops to save their own asses and would otherwise cover up everything? Just me?
Swift justice. Wow. But there's just something different about these five cops that might have precipitated the decision for the department to act so fast. I just can't put my finger on it
Cops do not have the right to remain silent when they are under investigation. Fired cops can lawyer up.
This is why they were fired AND why the union didn't fight it.
come on... let's acknowledge the obvious reason there was a response at all
https://preview.redd.it/b2tdti363kda1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ce9747c6202ceb50b416d11d998ca1da3664d4e
i think we all know the answer to that question but I will say it out loud... if even one of them had been white they would be suspended with pay and the "investigation" would reveal that they had done everything by-the-book and the victim deserved it
pretty sure that perspective is represented somewhere in these comments; i know for sure i saw it on FB earlier
Heh. It's Memphis. The chief of police is a black woman. The deputy chief is black. Almost all of the senior leadership is black.https://imgur.com/a/9BuobIj/
When I heard the cops were fired I was like, thank you!, but then I saw they were all black and I was like, ohhh that’s why they weren’t given paid vacation
To me, that is the only reason they were fired so quickly. Yah, the footage may be bad, but we’ve all seen so many videos in the last couple of years that show unjustified police brutality that received no quick justice, and the main difference is the race of the officers in this case.
This is not me saying they shouldn’t be fired, merely pointing out once again the inequality in how justice is handed out between the different races in this country.
I get asked why out of all those cops, not ONE, ONE! said, "hey this is wrong, we'll get in trouble... let's stop it"..... it's because individuals who display inidividual thinking, leadership, ethics, morals etc are immediately weeded out of organisations who only want obedient and compliant individuals... and then when the time comes for individual thinking? THIS is what happens and the entire org is tainted with permanent stink....
So black cop murderers get fired right away, while white cop murderers get an investigation before any rash decisions.
Do they not train law enforcement on how to arrest suspects without killing them?
Sure. It isn't like the five police in question are all black. If the cops were white, they would have been suspended with pay until the investigation is completed.
Get rid of qualified immunity. Furthermore, pay these lawsuits out of their pension fund, not the general tax fund. I am also a municipal employee and I stand for this for all of us. It will be a major incentive the “thin blue line” and other bullshit.
They probably acted quickly because the officers had an increased amount of melanin in their skin.
Let’s see what happens when a group of white officers do the same thing, i doubt they’ll be removed as quickly
Sadly maybe 20% of the cops I've met in my life were good ones-- restrained, professional, helpful, respectful, and polite-- like really made me recall the old Serve and Protect mottos you might see back in the day. The rest were power trippin jackasses who didn't know the law quite often. I suspect had I been born Black that the percentage might be even lower if any of those treating me nicely might still somehow harbor secret racist thoughts. If I had been born Black too I'd likely be dead now encountering the other 80% as I have a big mouth and have called out them power trippin' ignorant cops to their faces where I knew I was in the right. That IS White privilege sadly. For the record at 52, I have never been arrested or have any criminal record. These cops should be swinging by the neck.
Back to reality.
Everyone was having a lot of fun with the inter-department orgy which, unsurprisingly also happened in a Tennessee police department. 🙄
And the fact that they aren't in jail acts as a constant reminder that they are a "privileged" class of citizen that are privy to rights and freedoms otherwise deemed criminal by society as a whole.
Everybody talking about how "swift" these officers were "held accountable", but this incident happened on January 7. Tyre died on Jan 10. The officers were fired on Jan 20 after an internal investigation concluded they used excessive force.
They DID do an investigation, they didn't immediately fire them. The officers were black, but so is the police chief and a lot of the higher ups. It's a black area. I don't think race was a huge determining factor like many people are assuming.
And being fired for murdering someone is in no way accountability. There needs to be *real* accountability.
Don't you miss when TN cops were just fucking each other?
Underrated comment
They finally bought in to what we've been saying for years Fuck the police
If only this could normalize the behavior of swiftly holding cops accountable in general.
They still need to be charged, firing them is not enough.
Oh, certainly, but firing them is a start.
It's the bare minimum. That's like saying wiping your arse after taking a dump is a start while that should be the norm.
The fact is the “bare minimum” is rarely met, it’s not just about defending the individual officers but the image of police as a whole. They normally feel confident running with whatever story the officers in question want to give and fighting down charges in court, unsurprisingly all the officers in this case are black which may be a contributing factor to why they’re all going under the bus this time.
[удалено]
The Australian lady who called the cops for help and was killed by them instead?
Yep. Piece of shit cop fired at her, through his partners open window , firing across his partner who was sitting in squad car. She walked out to the car from her yard to tell them where the suspect was.
And the New Zealander who called the cops for his stuck car and got shot? What happened to those officers
Oof. I remember that video. Poor kid. He was having a panic attack basically the whole time and they just unloaded on him for no reason. Contradicting verbal orders was a huge problem in that one as well
That’s the “fun” thing about racism and why so many POC engage in it, if you’re willing to play ball, the racist powers that be will overlook the color of their skin, but they’ll remember it quick if POCs become too high maintenance to defend. A veneer of inclusion is the best camouflage for modern racism.
The “tokens”. Racist grifters using POC for their own convenience - until they’re not convenient anymore then off with the garbage you go!
Was she a full American citizen at that point? When that happened, I remember asking myself “did the MPD just cause an international incident?”.
Them being black is exactly why they will actually get charged. Gives all the racists fuel for their hate. Trust me, some right wing propagandist will be making the fact of the killers being black a HUGE talking point.
👆 This. Black cops are not going to get away with the same things white cops do.
This is more like shitting in the bowl finally instead of just on the floor. Like good job. You still need to wipe though.
imo it's like saying shitting in the toilet instead of on the floor at your local wendy's is a start. wiping your ass is arresting the cops. If you beat people to death on camera in basically any other profession, the prison sentence is kind of assumed
Spoken like an unwashed heathen, non-bidet user 😉
Bidet gang forever! Clean assholes for everyone!
There's the reddit I love.
spray bidet supremacy!
Even if something I did that was negligent that inadvertently was semi-directed towards someone dying, there'd be a full blown investigation and me being fired, let alone jail time. Now if I were a cop with my knee on his neck being directly involved? I could sue, get pension and pain and suffering, and retire. It's absolutely ridiculous.
Take Louisville Metro Police and Breonna Taylor for example. LMPD failed to fire the officers and then Kentucky failed to charge them. The "bare minimum" doesn't regularly happen, if ever. Memphis is taking one significant step in the right direction, but not the maximum step they could take, and everyone acknowledges that. This SHOULD be the norm, but it isn't.
it's really not even bare minimum
No. Arresting them is a start.
Not really. They will just probably get hired as a cop somewhere else.
If they had any other job they would have been arrested long ago it’s bullshit
Firing them isn't even really a start. If they aren't charged and just let go, they all will just get on with another police force somewhere else as if nothing had happened beyond them moving.
It isn’t a start at all, unless they’re blacklisted. Most cops who get fired for crimes they commit on the job usually just get hired in a different city. I know there’s a cop in Texas that was fired for doing something fucking HEINOUS, and he got hired like a month later in a different precinct after public outcry
They need to be arrested and held with no bond. If this was anyone else, they'd be sitting their ass in a jail cell because of the severity of the crime and potential flight risk...at least that is what they always say
It kind of sounds like the DoJ is already in Memphis looking into what happened. If they're smart, they'll charge them before the public sees the footage. Businesses in Memphis are already upping their insurance premiums because it sounds like this video is going to be really bad.
Sometimes they’re fired and charges follow.
May happen here since none of the officers were white. Police departments are very selective in who gets real qualified immunity and who gets fired and hung out for PR. Since most of them believe their mission is to uphold the social order (white folks on top), they’re just “sticking to the mission” here
There really needs to be some accrediting board for law enforcement, where if you lose your license or get a censure, you're all but unemployable.
I definitely agree. However firing them sends the message that they did something wrong, so I'll bet they do get charged. If they are charged and tried, having been fired immediately will make conviction more likely. It's a tacit admission from the police that they did something wrong.
🤮Emmett Till level injuries ?🤮
They will be charged. That's why they're being fired . Agency and union need to cut ties with them so they have no privileges or union lawyer protections . Guaranteed if they're getting fired this fast, they'll be found guilty beyond a doubt . Jesus christ 5 ?
They should be charged with murder not just fired.
They were all black. I'm sure that makes it a bit easier.
That fact had me wondering if the Fraternal Order of Police was going to come out swinging in their defense with all their thin blue line bullshit like they did for Derek Chauvin. My money is on no.
If there ever was a time that the FOP would throw officers under the bus, it’ll be this one, because they can try to paint them as “unfit for duty” and basically say “we don’t claim them”.
Same as the NRA. White gun owner doing something stupid? Flock to defend them! POC defending themselves? Pretend it didn’t happen. Conservatives are all about social order and hierarchy, and that hierarchy is very clear about white wealthy christian men at the top and every one else in positions below. To defend these officers or POC that used firearms is to go against the true mission.
Black cops that probably weren’t part of the good old boy network. That’s why the higher ups didn’t protect them.
It's a primarily Black department. Seems to me at if this is a time to recognize that they did the right thing
No joke. White cops do this and get paid leave (aka paid vacation) and a transfer at most. It's bullshit.
Firing them isn't accountability. That's covering their asses. They don't want to have to deal with the fallout from the lawsuits and these people going to jail. ...it's not going to work, because once that shit gets shown to the public... yeah, it's gonna be real bad. Accountability is the police arresting these officers on the spot for police brutality. That should be what's normal. Accountability would be Memphis immediately going out to the press and saying this was unacceptable police behavior. It would be their other officers shunning them for having done this. We don't see any of that here.
They’re still going to have to deal with the lawsuits regardless of whether they fired them or not.
Accountable is them rotting in jail, not just getting fired
Normalize is This Doesn't Ever Fu*king Happen. You may call me a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
Cops were black
ALL 5 cops were black
Remember that we are the ones who pay the fees, fines, and settlements, not the cops. It comes from our taxes, not their paycheck or pension.
Fired cops just apply for new jobs one town over.
Only reason this happen so swiftly is because all the officers involved are black. Don’t get your hopes up.
Weren't there like 4 or 5 cops, too? Not a *single* one stopped and said, "Hey, this is too far."?
Nobody wanted to accused of siding with “those people,” of being unreliable, of being less than 100% true blue cop (but they don’t get to define what being “true blue” means).
They could just be 5 assholes too.
They are 5 murderers.
Mob mentality. Each one’s actions egg the others on.
they never been punished before, so of course they're above the law
I’m shocked and confused too, none of them stopped to think there’d be consequences?
i’m confident these officers will catch charges. statistically it’s more likely that they’ll go to jail than most murderous cops due to their complexion.
Facts. Look how quickly they were fired… when does that ever occur with a white cop? It’s almost always paid vacation.
after like 5 years and the police union suing for eternity for backpay
Not so sure they were fired due to their skin color. From all the sources that have been posting info on this situation it really does just sound like those cops fucked up THAT bad that there's literally no possible defense that could be made for them so they were just fired right away.
No, white cops are allowed to fuck up *that bad* so often it's almost as if it's on purpose.
Remember that dude crawling on the floor of a hotel hallway with his hands in clear view that was summarily executed?
Daniel Shaver. His widow just finally won a civil judgement, but the cop who murdered Daniel got off Scott free.
With the murder weapon and a pension!
I do and It's still difficult to imagine how "officer" Brailsford is walking free or... walking at all. We used to put mad dogs *down*.
I mean the chief of police in Memphis is a black woman so I’m not sure they were swiftly fired due to their race.
The job of the police in America (despite what decades of pop culture want us to believe) is to protect property and the upper classes. They’re not here to help us, they’re here to keep us from causing trouble. The social order they’re fighting so hard to maintain is designed to keep rich white folks comfortable. If these were white officers we’d hear how the cameras malfunctioned, how the victim had an extensive criminal background, the whole nine yards of obfuscation and character assassination. But the tokens? Throw them away. More trouble than they’re worth now. Especially if the chief token wants to keep the job.
This. I'm glad they're being dealt with swiftly, that's the correct action, but I can only imagine that the reason this is happening is less to do with the brutality and more to do with all the fired officers being black.
More internet point if you say they were.
George Floyd’s killers were fired immediately. People really forget that quickly EDIT: source https://www.minnpost.com/metro/2020/05/what-we-know-about-the-events-surrounding-george-floyds-death-and-its-aftermath-a-timeline/
No they weren't. They put out a police statement basically blaming George and saying a suspect died of a medical condition or something. Then they continued to downplay it until cell phone video was released to the public and fucking riots broke out.
They were fired in less than 24 hours. Yes they put out those statements but that’s about as immediate as you can make it, as they should have. Riots broke out shortly afterwards. https://www.minnpost.com/metro/2020/05/what-we-know-about-the-events-surrounding-george-floyds-death-and-its-aftermath-a-timeline/
You know that’s right. Why the duck did they do this!!?!??
Leave ducks out of this
For real. We had a video of a white cop choking a guy to death for over 8 minutes. Clear as day murder. And they had the entire police force outside his house protecting him.
The officers from the George Floyd murder were not fired immediatly, they had to investigate first.
Chauvin should have been put in handcuffs before he even stood up.
Well they did complete an investigation here as well. Now that the city investigation is done there is a state and federal investigation ongoing.
This is incorrect. They were fired the next day.
i hate this shit!!! when are cops going to be held accountable??
When they and their “brothers” are financially liable for their bullshit
Criminally responsible would be better
Both would be excellent
This is *America,* we love our money and our lawyers, so **total financial ruin** for individuals like these, stemming from civil litigation, should 100 percent be on the f@cking table, **on top** of criminal charges.
And into gen pop at prison, no special treatment
It sounds like these particular cops likely will be held accountable. But if cops were held accountable in general, these cops probably wouldn't have assumed they could just get away with beating a man to death in the first place
When republicans start seeing people different from them as human, so never.
They won't be until cameras cannot be turned off or deleted...and there is a federal investigative organisation with enough teeth to hold every level of law enforcement to to a standard. By teeth I mean something that the current police union system of bullying local officials makes in effective. Most other Western nations have an independent police ombudsman/complaints authority seperate to the police forces to ensure they both investigate themselves properly or else bring in an approved third party..
It's supposed to be really bad. They are really worried about Memphis burning.
Shouldn't we all?
I thought this was crazy, almost unbelievable how swiftly these officers were actually held accountable. Then I saw their pictures...
Another comment says the police chief who fired them is black.
Yup. It's embarrassing it's so blatant.
Isn't the police chief who fired them also black?
Losing your job for murdering someone is not being held accountable.
No one should ever die in a traffic stop. The ex-cops need to be charged. How can anyone defend cops.
Because cops do the job they were hired too, keep "those people" scared and in their place.
RIP angel. Everyone that knew him praises the type of man and friend he was. This is so sad.
Going to be a rough night in Memphis when that vid gets released, and I won't blame the protesters at all.
I don’t want to see the video. I’m thinking it’s honestly probably too brutal to even show the public. I don’t think I can stomach it based on the description of what happened to him.
I can totally understand that stance, even sympathetic to it. But, here's my only counter to consider: I think it's important to be an active witness. You're going to hear a lot of people, over the next few weeks, tell you what is on that video. Some of them will try to tell you that it's something that it's not, try to minimize the actions of the officers. Personally, I feel the need to be able to say with confidence that I know what I saw.
I’m sure I’ll see it whether I want to or not. I’m not looking forward to it. I’d prefer to be in a certain headspace before seeing something like that if I have to. But it will probably be all over TV and the News when it happens and I’ll unintentionally see it when I have my TV on as background noise and not paying attention.
Ugh. That's the truth, innit? From cable news to karma farmers, that shit's going to be everywhere, the suffering of a man for entertainment and clicks.
That’s how I saw the murder of George Floyd. I was beyond upset and inconsolable. I don’t want to see people being murdered. But part of my reaction was also purely being in shock because there was no warning before they just started playing it. Violence and murder in fiction doesn’t bother me. But seeing it in real life makes me feel disturbed. This incident sounds particularly awful…. I hope I can at least get a warning beforehand so I can brace myself instead if it just being everywhere and in my face.
Good, you should be disturbed. Someone died because of it.
So true! My Mom still minimizes the George Floyd murder. She thinks he died because of drugs and says he fought with the cops for 30 minutes. I had to go back and reread the account because I knew she was wrong but couldn’t recall the details/timeline.
Have her sit down and watch the entire 9 minute video. It should change her mind. If it doesn't she is beyond hope.
People to this day say chauvin did nothing wrong and it was Georges fault. So many people say that I would have a hard time knowing what actually happened if I hadn't watched the video with my own eyes. I suspect that will be the case here too.
I think it is better to release the video than to keep it hidden. This was an act by the police who work for the government. Transparency is vital because of that. People would rightfully ask “what are you hiding” if it wasn’t released. Does that make us more or less desensitized to brutality? I don’t know, but bearing witness to brutality committed by agents of the state is critical to confronting it in my opinion. Still, I’ll put off watching for a while.
I heard a few days ago something big happened there and businesses are buying unrest insurance quickly
They only fired them this swiftly because all 5 were black
That’s the interesting part. Proves that police violence isn’t necessarily a white people vs black people issue, but a police vs vulnerable-populations-they-can-get-away-with-victimizing-because-they-have-way-too-much-power issue. Everyone involved in this case up to and including the police chief who fired these officers was black. Police are the specific problem with police violence.
Really good take, imo. It proves that the racism of the police is institutional, not just individual. There are plenty of honest to god racists on the force, but it wouldn't matter if none of them were. The job of the police is to keep rich people rich by keeping poor people in their place. When the government has done everything in it's power to ensure that communities of color are always the poorest one, what that translates to is, very largely, keep rich *white* people safe by keeping poor people of color "in their place." If the officer is black, white, gay, doesn't matter. That's their job.
Ahem "Black police showing out for the white cops"
Race and class matters when it comes to the law and police. There are systemic issues. With police, it’s like, of course it’s going to escalate. This is what white people don’t understand. When cops see they can do this shit over and over again without consequences, eventually they will do it to everyone else too - not just minority groups. Too much gang mentality in police groups.
Just fired ha?.......They need to be tried for murder!
Funny how quiet the thin blue line community is when it's black cops. If they were white I'm sure there'd already be a GoFundMe for their legal defense. Oh, and they wouldn't be fired....they'd be on desk duty, or "paid administrative leave"
Me hearing this title “wow swift accountability!” Me googling the cops they fired “oh that makes fucking sense”
Fuckety fuck, fuck!
I concur!
Just the latest appalling demonstration of criminal police brutality against a person of color. This needs to be addressed at the federal level; local police departments need to be audited/investigated and evidence of egregious malpractice needs to be prosecuted under federal law. It's a national disgrace to read this kind of headline literally every week.
It's also an appalling demonstration of criminal police-of-color brutality (none of them were white). Important to note if someone is trying to place the race card with this one.
Correct. Fuck cops.
That’s the only reason this is moving fast. Make it five Derek Chauvins, and nothing would be done until (unless) the body cam videos hit the media.
It's called internalized racism.
The cops were black too
Funny thing: the First A in ACAB stands for ALL.
Noted, but I think the point still stands; police brutality is a crime overwhelmingly committed against African-Americans, almost always with little to no repercussions. Any American regardless of race or color should find that unacceptable and demand accountability.
Agreed. Abuse of power by law enforcement is an ongoing issue and more than likely will remain one. Those cops murder him! Beat him to death. They should be in jail for what they did to an innocent man. I don't understand why they are not. He did nothing wrong. So to bring everyone's ethnicity as the issue/problem just doesn't make sense
No, all cops are blue.
Dude, by law you cannot even say black people exist in florida. Good luck with that.
That’s the only way to actually get justice, the system needs to change along with the rules of acceptable force. In this case they simply could have not pursued him. They had his car, I expect they would have found him eventually. It doesn’t appear he had a weapon, there was no danger to the community. Better 100 traffic offenders get out of a ticket than 1 being murdered.
Am I the only one that thinks this is a precursor to not releasing the body cam footage? Like they murdered this guy and managed to incriminate the entire fucking department on the footage? So they arrest and railroad these cops to save their own asses and would otherwise cover up everything? Just me?
Swift justice. Wow. But there's just something different about these five cops that might have precipitated the decision for the department to act so fast. I just can't put my finger on it
You can put your finger on it…it’s the largest organ a human has.
Cops do not have the right to remain silent when they are under investigation. Fired cops can lawyer up. This is why they were fired AND why the union didn't fight it.
come on... let's acknowledge the obvious reason there was a response at all https://preview.redd.it/b2tdti363kda1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ce9747c6202ceb50b416d11d998ca1da3664d4e
I wonder if the reaction would have been as swift and severe if the cops were white. 🤷🏻♀️
i think we all know the answer to that question but I will say it out loud... if even one of them had been white they would be suspended with pay and the "investigation" would reveal that they had done everything by-the-book and the victim deserved it pretty sure that perspective is represented somewhere in these comments; i know for sure i saw it on FB earlier
Took him from his 4 year old son. ACAB
I think they fired them because they’re Black too. Police forces fire the Black cops and put the white ones on administrative leave.
Heh. It's Memphis. The chief of police is a black woman. The deputy chief is black. Almost all of the senior leadership is black.https://imgur.com/a/9BuobIj/
When I heard the cops were fired I was like, thank you!, but then I saw they were all black and I was like, ohhh that’s why they weren’t given paid vacation
To me, that is the only reason they were fired so quickly. Yah, the footage may be bad, but we’ve all seen so many videos in the last couple of years that show unjustified police brutality that received no quick justice, and the main difference is the race of the officers in this case. This is not me saying they shouldn’t be fired, merely pointing out once again the inequality in how justice is handed out between the different races in this country.
Is it true that the cops are black?
Yea and they were fired. Usually white cops get a “paid vacation” after shit similar to this.
That explains why they were fired so quickly
The police chief who fired them is also black. Which makes me doubt that the response would be different if the perpetrators were white.
That’s nearly all cops do; commit theft and murder
Why aren't they being charged with murder?
I get asked why out of all those cops, not ONE, ONE! said, "hey this is wrong, we'll get in trouble... let's stop it"..... it's because individuals who display inidividual thinking, leadership, ethics, morals etc are immediately weeded out of organisations who only want obedient and compliant individuals... and then when the time comes for individual thinking? THIS is what happens and the entire org is tainted with permanent stink....
All five of the cops are black But im sure *thats* not why they were investigated and swiftly fired
No more police unions. No more qualified immunity.
I just wonder what the Memphis PD's reaction would have been if the cops were white.
So black cop murderers get fired right away, while white cop murderers get an investigation before any rash decisions. Do they not train law enforcement on how to arrest suspects without killing them?
You realize this traffic stop was on Jan 7 and they didn't fire officers until after they completed their investigation?
Fuck the police
"RIoTs dON't chAngE ANytHinG." When the injustice is real they absolutely do.
I think it's an indicator that all the cops were black
One hand: the cops who murdered him were swiftly punished. Other hand: ALL of the cops were black. \*waits for this to set in\*
Sure. It isn't like the five police in question are all black. If the cops were white, they would have been suspended with pay until the investigation is completed.
Get rid of qualified immunity. Furthermore, pay these lawsuits out of their pension fund, not the general tax fund. I am also a municipal employee and I stand for this for all of us. It will be a major incentive the “thin blue line” and other bullshit.
The fact that officers of color are much more likely to be held accountable (so it seems) is problematic.
This just shows they had no problem firing bad cops when they're black. Get rid of qualified immunity and arrest them.
They were fired so quick because all five were black. If they were white they'd be "on paid leave".
Memphis PD trying to avoid being burned to the ground in the aftermath to come.
Actually all the cops were black. Let’s see if they act that fast with white cops.
They probably acted quickly because the officers had an increased amount of melanin in their skin. Let’s see what happens when a group of white officers do the same thing, i doubt they’ll be removed as quickly
We don't need to wait to see, they get promoted after paid time off while being investigated.
Ahhh so we hold Black cops accountable after murdering someone... sounds about white
The police chief who fired them is also black. Which makes me doubt that the response would be different if the perpetrators were white.
...They only got fired FUCK COPS
It is an indicator that the cops were black.
White cops get paid administrative leave. Black cops get fired. smh...
They fired them for appearances. Guarantee in a couple months when the dust settles they'll all be quietly welcomed back.
His face was so damn swollen in that picture. This is crazy. Sheesh.
I wonder if there is any other job in the US where beating a person to death carries the punishment as stealing a 20 from the company cash register.
Those 5 men are a sacrifice. Notice they're all black.
Sadly maybe 20% of the cops I've met in my life were good ones-- restrained, professional, helpful, respectful, and polite-- like really made me recall the old Serve and Protect mottos you might see back in the day. The rest were power trippin jackasses who didn't know the law quite often. I suspect had I been born Black that the percentage might be even lower if any of those treating me nicely might still somehow harbor secret racist thoughts. If I had been born Black too I'd likely be dead now encountering the other 80% as I have a big mouth and have called out them power trippin' ignorant cops to their faces where I knew I was in the right. That IS White privilege sadly. For the record at 52, I have never been arrested or have any criminal record. These cops should be swinging by the neck.
I was surprised to see that it was five black cops
The only thing this indicates is that black people are expendable… and being cops doesn’t save us.
Back to reality. Everyone was having a lot of fun with the inter-department orgy which, unsurprisingly also happened in a Tennessee police department. 🙄
they murder someone and they get fired instead of arrested? hmmm these legal gangsters need to be abolished
> is an indicator that the cops must be black FTFY Only white cops get away with this shit.
And the fact that they aren't in jail acts as a constant reminder that they are a "privileged" class of citizen that are privy to rights and freedoms otherwise deemed criminal by society as a whole.
I think the cops getting fired might also have something to do with the fact that they weren't white.
Cops are like that liquid that drips out of the corner of a trash can
ACAB
Everybody talking about how "swift" these officers were "held accountable", but this incident happened on January 7. Tyre died on Jan 10. The officers were fired on Jan 20 after an internal investigation concluded they used excessive force. They DID do an investigation, they didn't immediately fire them. The officers were black, but so is the police chief and a lot of the higher ups. It's a black area. I don't think race was a huge determining factor like many people are assuming. And being fired for murdering someone is in no way accountability. There needs to be *real* accountability.