I can only imagine how bad the video is going to be. Cops got fired and charged before it was even released….

Edit: spelling

Edit 2: If anyone is interested, this channel on YouTube is where I usually go to watch police body cam footage. All they do is put up whatever official footage is released by police departments and they usually do it very quickly. It's all uncut, unedited footage, and doesn't include commentary unless the police released it that way. Lots of boot lickers in the comments, but it's a good source of unbiased footage. Should also go without saying that the channel is VERY NSFW.

Edit 3: Just watched a couple of the videos they released. It’s bad.

Cops would be on paid leave if they were white but still, they’re really hyping this shit up to be catastrophic

Edit: Y’all wild for the downvotes, keep ‘em coming ya fucking bootlickers

Was Tyre a student there? I haven't been following the story much tbh

MPD Captain herself is also warning people about how bad it is.

PDs across the country are on high alert for the public finally seeing this video MPD is carefully planning the release so people can be off work and children out of schools, imho really shouldn't be taken lightly.

“Sorry we keep brutally murdering people, please don’t try and resist the boot of our authoritarianism” ridiculous. The response to state violence should be violence against the state.

Update: VCU sends out text alert:

VCU ALERT: VCU Statement on Memphis Tragedy Please check your VCU email for an important message, as well as links to available counseling resources.

I don't think so. It happened in Memphis. But apparently we're about to see a bunch of cops straight up beat a guy to death, and there is a lot of concern that it might get wild once the video goes public.

Could you quote that email too, please?

Things probably should get wild, this is unacceptable.

Dear VCU community,

This evening, authorities in Memphis will release video from the tragic death of Mr. Tyre Nichols. Five Memphis police officers are charged with second-degree murder for his death.

Memphis officials have described the video and circumstances as “horrific.”

President Rao and I have spoken at length about this painful situation. It is senseless and heartbreaking that another African American has lost their life at the hands of those who had a responsibility to protect and serve them; not to cause harm to them. 

It is natural to hold feelings of outrage, anger, pain and even disbelief over this situation. It also revives memories from the past few years that can be hard to cope with and to comprehend. For those of you who need them, VCU has resources to support you – please visit University Counseling Services or TimelyCare. VCU faculty members and staff can access a list of support resources on ramstrong.vcu.edu/. 

We truly care about you and each of your lived experiences at VCU. We are here to support all of our students, faculty and staff in the coming days.

Sincerely,

Aaron J. Hart, Ed.D.
Vice President
Division of Student Affairs
Virginia Commonwealth University
dsa@vcu.edu

I've heard that this instance of police brutality is bad, like, worse than Rodney King. Be safe, be kind.

Well they've been charged with murder, so that's exactly what should happen when there's been a murder.

You're right, regular people should sit at home in quiet comfort and trust that the justice system works. Definitely don't do anything like the French when they try and raise the retirement age.

Maybe, just maybe, we could also take this as an opportunity to limit police power in general and require them to be even somewhat qualified ?

Like so many other things, long ago police reform was blanketed in a quickly whipped out nice pretty "political" card, so likewise it can be placed on the hot potato backburner and never effectively dealt with much less discussed by so many of us. Some politicians get elected running on it as an issue and never approach it once in office, and supporters never hold their feet to that fire.

The five officers involved in the stop were placed on administrative leave immediately following the incident.

You are getting downvoted because you are wrong.

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Bruh so they didn’t even get fired on the spot what the fuck lol, fuck the police

How have you been on Reddit for 4 years, with no submitted posts, made 1 comment 2 years ago, made 1 comment 4 months ago, made 1 comment 4 weeks ago, and then make 8 comments in the past day? With 2713 karma? My guy, you are super fucking suspicious

I've heard the same, tonight may be an interesting night and not in a good way.

It reminds many of us who were alive and remember it very clearly, of the 1991 Rodney King video release. Most of us will never forget it.

I read a quote from someone who watched it that said it made Rodney King video look like a game of tag.

Yeah that's right make the world worse. What a stupid take. Evidently the cops were fired and charged which is what should happen

Whether he's suspicious or not he's right. The assholes who like to set fire to things and destroy society are equally bad

Lock up all the assholes police or not. Civilization will be the better for it

Memphis videos: (videos are marked with warnings) https://vimeo.com/CityofMemphis

These people aren’t trying to destroy civilization. They’re trying desperately to have their outrage seen and heard in a society that systematically quiets and downplays all the fucked up corrupt shit that goes on and on and ON, and nothing ever changes. It’s not fair that small businesses get targeted, but guess fucking what, it’s even less fair that black men and women have to justifiably FEAR FOR THEIR ACTUAL FUCKING LIVES at the hands of the police.

Seems like misuse of the VCU alert system

Break a few more of our windows, that’ll show us

They’re degrading him while beating him. It’s sickening

A cop who murders someone in cold blood isn’t just some asshole, they used power and privilege to bring pain and suffering to the world. Based on the video, they really thought they would get away with this crime without consequence. Which is very telling for the general mindset of police. The cops tried to manipulate the situation so that it seemed like Tyre was resisting arrest (to justify their violence against him). Thanks to the sky cam footage their lies were uncovered. How many other police have lied and gotten away with violence and murder?

One could argue that the BLM protests and riots are the ONLY reason these cops are facing severe consequences. But even then it’s not enough, they’re just a tiny part of a much bigger problem.

This won’t be the last time someone is killed or maimed. So yeah, people are understandably upset and outraged (and also exhausted and heartbroken by a broken system). There is very little any of us can do in this moment to stop the future killings. What do you do when nothing changes? Do you think revolution happens quietly and peacefully? That would be nice but let’s be real.

You’re forgetting the part where the Police are just a defense force for the rich when everything goes sideways, they will NEVER take their power.

Of course it’s worse than Rodney King. King survived.

Idk why you’re getting downvoted either. I mean I would like to say too that the cops would all be fired and charged right away if they were white but I don’t trust the police and based on their numerous criminal and murderous actions how could we possibly believe they would do the right thing? Whole police system needs to be abolished. Bunch of good for nothing bastards.

FUCK THE POLICE

FUCK THE COPS. ABOLISH THE POLICE.

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

Well, by that logic all the murders by police after Rodney King beating were worse. Rodney King is actually a rare case of the victim surviving. Most of them die. You think the cops want a witness? Take off the uniforms and this would be called a gang beating

Well yeah, I’m not taking anything away from the King beating and how despicable it was, but yes any police beating after King or even before is automatically worse when it results in the death of the victim.

>official footage is released by police departments

>unbiased footage.

Hang on, hang on, hang on. Those two things are mutually exclusive. Footage gets "lost" all of the time or cameras were off "by accident". The only footage they'll have to put up is stuff that helps police narratives or what the police are required to release by outside authorities.

Just so we're clear: you're saying a human being being beaten to death by authority figures and destroying "society"(?) and "things" are equivalent?

[deleted]

They are trying to destroy civilization. Let's hear what the NAACP says... whatever happened to "listen to black people"

“We cannot allow folks to come back into our city, throw bricks at humans, throw bricks at the police department, setting things on fire. That is not the way we do things,” James Minor with Richmond NAACP said.

this is why cams are good. And police training is an issue.

One could make your arguments, but the data doesn't back them up.

Revolution would make things worse. But the idiots don't want to do the hard and boring work of fixing the system. We need to pay police more, and train them better.

The riots make them worse.

absolutely. they both suck and all the assholes, left and right, need to be locked up. They are just narcissists trying to hurt the world

Body cams didn’t stop the murder of Tyre Nichols. Training is just one aspect of the issues with police.

Revolution is pretty much the only way for ‘The People’ to create real, lasting change when change is needed on a massive, urgent scale.

Bud... the world is hurt. Again: a person was beaten to death by authority figures. Is that part of the world worth preserving or destroying?

And how do you lock up authority figures, when they have, you know... authority? Wouldn't they need to be forcibly removed from those positions of power to be held accountable?

body cameras got the cops arrested.

Anyone who is advocating for revolution should go move to North Korea and report back. You have to be wretchedly stupid to think that would make the world better. You and the January 6 people are the same

It's worth fixing. Destroying is a rather juvenile way of looking at it.

Who fixes it? Because the only people with authority to do that are clearly corrupt and malicious as all hell and they're not going to listen to public demands unless they are forced to. And even then, that's not corporation to fix things, that's a Mexican standoff.

They have to be removed from authority. And how do you remove them in a way you wouldn't categorize as "destructive"?

Welp, guess I’m wretchedly stupid then!!

the cops were arrested. They are charged with murder. Seems like things are working.

How did they get to those positions of power in the first place?

Would the outcome have been the same if a traffic camera hadn't caught them?

How many similar instances have already happened and are going to happen without being caught if things don't change?

If drastic changes aren't made, it will happen again and again and again. The king is dead, long live the king.

changes yes. Drastic changes just mean more people dying

Arresting and charging the officers here is a big change

>Drastic changes just mean more people dying

Theoretically. And if the changes are done well and stick, deaths will stop.

Allowing things to continue as they will absolutely cause further deaths, continually, until things are drastically changed.

The halfway point between justice and injustice is injustice. Taking half measures is how chattel slavery continued out of the 3/5ths compromise, it's how segregation came out of reconstruction, it's how the prison industrial complex came out of desegregation, etc. Half measures do not work.

>body cameras got the cops arrested.

...no they didn't. A traffic camera controlled by the highway department and out of police's jurisdiction got them arrested.

Body can footage is controlled by the police. They knew they were recording themselves and I guarantee that footage was going to wind up "lost" or "corrupted". That's why they were telling an unconscious man to stop resisting as they beat him to death, because the audio implying a confrontation can exonerate them, so long as contradictory footage isn't made public.

And again: who decides footage is the cops. If they were caught on a private camera, they'd seize and wipe the footage. It was only because the footage belonged to someone they had zero authority over that they thrown under the bus so the department could cover their ass for what is clearly a regular occurence with how casual they acted about it and how they were prepared to fake audio.

They got caught over a technicality. That's it. That is the only reason we know what actually happened. You need to realize how depraved and one-sided policing is. The officers being caught wasn't the system working, it was their system breaking. Beating a man to death in a manner they clearly expected to get away with it was the system working as intended.