Transcription from body camera footage of Memphis PD (MPD) Officers filmed during the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, January 7, 2023 – traffic stop.
MPD Officer: “Get the fuck out of the car.”
Nichols: “Alright, I am on the ground.”
MPD Officer: “Bitch, put your (hands) behind your back before I break them.”
Nichols: “You guys are doing a lot right now…I’m just trying to get home.”
(Two officers hit and kick Nicholas as he is on the ground)
Nichols: (screaming) “Mooooom!”
(Nichols continues to call for his mother for a while)
“I am going to baton the fuck out of you. Give me your fucking hands.”
– (MPD) Officer, transcribed from body-cam footage recorded during the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols.
“I was hitting him with straight haymakers, dog.”
– (MPD) Officer, transcribed from body-cam footage recorded during the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols.
“You are going to see acts that defy humanity.”
– Cerelyn (C.J.) Davis, Chief of Police, Memphis Police Department
“Yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day.”
– Joseph (Joe) Biden, President, United States
“It was clearly excessive force. What’s even more troubling is no officer was willing to intervene and say, Stop.”
– Lt. Darin Porcher, NYPD (Retired) and CNN commentor.
“The Memphis Police Association would, again, like to extend condolences to the family of Mr. Tyre Nichols. The Memphis Police Association is committed to the administration of justice and NEVER condones the mistreatment of ANY citizen nor ANY abuse of power. We have faith in the Criminal Justice System. That faith is what we will lean on in the coming days, weeks, and months to ensure the totality of circumstances is revealed. Mr. Nichols’ family, the City of Memphis, and the rest of the country deserve nothing less. We pray for justice, healing, and eventual closure for all involved.”
– The Memphis Police Association, Official statement issued January 27, 2023, via Facebook.
“I am still trying to understand all of this and trying to wrap my head around all of this. I will never have my baby. I’ll never have my baby again.”
– RowVaughn Wells, mother of Tyre Nichols
“I don’t want us burning up our cities, tearing up the streets, because that’s not my son stood for… “And if you guys are here for me and Tyre, then you will protest peacefully.”
– RowVaughn Wells, mother of Tyre Nicholas, statement given before footage was made public.
My Dear Readers,
Here we are again. Barely two years following the death of George Floyd, three years following the death of Breonna Taylor and, 30 years following the brutal beating of Rodney King. Once again there is the death of another Black man due to police brutality and misconduct. The numerous deaths of African Americans people by the police have been “normed” meaning “accepted” in both Black and White communities.
Although the African American community has been identified as among the most economically and politically powerful people of African descent in the world today, psychologically speaking we remain unable to protect our community members from the oppression of others outside of our community. We remain psychologically mired in what I have defined in my clinical practice as two distinct groups “Existers” i.e., existing as in “The Waiting Dead” and “Survival-ship” i.e., survivors as in “Walking Wounded.”
The tragedy of the beating death of Tyre Nichols is affirmation of the “Survival-ship” status that mires the African American community. This community is policed and law-and- order enforced by a system that is steeped in systematic and structural racism. During the 1950’s and early 1960’s the civil rights movement challenged police brutality and other forms of racial segregation and discrimination in the urban North and the Jim Crow system in the American South.
The brutality by the five Black officers on a helpless individual brings memories to when law enforcement on Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, attacked 600 unarmed protestors using Billy clubs, tear gas, and police dogs. The common theme of the time was the prevalence of all white policing in African American communities and the police brutality that was the result.
The five Black police officers responsible for the death of Tyre Nichols are continuing the tradition of a system that is steeped in systematic and structural racism. The media seeks to portray this as a situation in which five Black police officers beat to death a Black man. Yet the news media is intentionally omitting the systemic and structurally racist system that these men work within and committed to “serve and protect.”
This systemic and structurally racist system of policing began in the 18th century as slave catchers. These were organized groups of armed men who monitored, controlled, and enforced discipline upon enslaved people. Policing today has not changed in the way it interacts with African American communities. When compared to White communities, who continue to receive community protection and policing services, African American communities and African Americans continue to be treated with a heavy hand i.e., enforcement, regulation, and control.
Broken Trust…
I recently published a post on social media, specifically LinkedIn, as to my pointed remarks following the death of Tyre Nichols.
I work as a clinical traumatologist. My clinical caseload consists primary of African American patients.
I have patients who feel violated and betrayed. There are individuals who don’t understand the meaning of systematic and structural racism. What they see and understand are five Black police officers beating to death another Black man. The trust that was there in “the Black wearing the Blue” has been shattered.
Below are my writings on social media:
Time Heals Wounds…
To those who state that time heals wounds. Not true. Time is merely time. It is what one does with time. Trust is an individual gift not a collective quality to be assigned, assumed, or simply given away. If the police accept what is real, trust with the African American community is a one-on-one relationship.
There is a knife cutting deeply and silently into the hearts of the African American community. There lies deep the psychological wounding of Betrayal Trauma. There was a time in which Black police officers were extended grace, given the difficult position of being police and working in police departments, where they too, like other members of the African American community, were in hostile work environments.
The grace Black police officers had, given the actions of five police officers in Memphis, TN is gone. These horrific acts caught on video, have been seen and witnessed by millions.
Trauma has permanency… Trauma never ever goes away.
The vision of Black police officers as “our guardians or protectors” evaporated in the beating death of Tyre Nichols by five BLACK police officers. Instead of screaming racism (yes, structural and systemic racism is alive and well), will the African American community, not the politicians or the pastors, but the community look within itself to question and seek solutions? Or do we continue to look for politicians and pastors to speak for us.
Hopefully, the police and the African American community will accept the challenges that now exists.
Time does not heal wounds… People and actions do.
Sharing Images of Police Brutality …. Taking Care of SELF
True… Sharing images of police brutality is not allyship. It’s exposing the truth.
True… Sharing images of five Black police officers laughing after severely beating a helpless Black man who subsequently dies from the beating is traumatizing.
And now what? What do we do, understanding the psychological trauma we have been exposed to. We remember the severe beating of Rodney King suffered by the police in 1991. Now 31 years later, another young Black man beaten, tortured and this time, dead as a result of police misconduct. Again, what actions will you take? Please support BLM. Although this man’s life did not matter to those who took it… by your actions, say how it matters to you.
As for therapy, the time for ending the holding of secrets, pain, and emotional suffering can be now. Become the master of your destiny, seek the journey of self-discovery. Stop following the Groupthink about the negativity associated with psychotherapy.
Trauma is permanent. It never ever goes away. One cannot unseen what has been seen.
Stop looking towards your community and society to move you from “Survival-ship” to empowerment.
The time can be now. The choices of continuing to run the hard race or begin running a smart race remains. The decision is yours.
Reflections…
My Dear Readers,
In writing this blog, recent news media stories have indicated that two additional Memphis Police Department officers and two Shelby County Sheriff deputies were placed on administrative leave while an internal investigation has been launched into their conduct following the police assault on Tyre Nichols. Furthermore, three Memphis Fire Department emergency medical technicians, including a lieutenant, command level and supervisory officer were terminated for violation of numerous policies and protocols in responding to the medical call in the provision of aid to Tyre Nichols.
James Baldwin, a prolific African American writer, in his 1985 book, The Evidence of Things Not Seen, wrote this about “Black cops”:
“Black policemen were another matter. We used to say, “if you just must call a policeman”—for we hardly ever did— “for God’s sake, try to make sure it’s a White one.” A Black policeman could completely demolish you. He knew far more about you than a White policeman could, and you were without defenses before this Black brother in uniform whose entire reason for breathing seemed to be his hope to offer proof that, though he was Black, he was not Black like you.”
I am pained by these words. I come from a family steeped in public service to this country. My older brother served during the Vietnam War, returning psychologically traumatized and disabled. His life ended, dying in a drunkard stupor. My younger brother served 20 years in the California state correction system, rising in the ranks from Corrections Officer to Warden. He also was psychologically impacted by the horrors he observed during his watch. My father faithfully served his country in the US military, serving 20 years including three tours during the Vietnam War. Following his retirement, he went on to serve 20 additional years as a federal police officer. My father was proud to put on his uniform and badge and to “serve and protect.”
He once boasted that if he was shot in the line of duty, he would “bleed blue.” He loved being a police officer. Yet he never understood that he was being used, played, and manipulated by a system mired in systemic and structural racism. At his death and following his 20 years of faithful service to “serve and protect” his police department failed to provide either an honor guard, condolences to the family, flowers, or any acknowledgement.
Resentful? Nope. Just an acknowledgement of what occurs when one commits to a cancerous system that is racked with racism that devours those who seek to “serve and protect,” The actions of the five Black officers are indictive of James Baldwin’s concluding words… “this Black brother in uniform whose entire reason for breathing seemed to be his hope to offer proof that, though he was Black, he was not Black like you.”
The words of James Baldwin are psychologically impactful and reinforces the falseness of the oath to “serve and protect.” The oath is mired in the cancer of systemic and structural racism. And yet, the tragic death of Tyre Nichols and its brutality administered by five police officers of likewise racial and community belongings brings forth the reality within the African American community that Black in Blue is no longer recognizable. The death of Tyre Nichols is a profound statement… BLUE…BLUE and forever BLUE.
Concluding Words by Dr. Kane
In response to the actions resulting in the death of Trye Nichols, a reader stated:
“More poignant that we find this extreme behavior among Black policemen, but it is manifested across all institutions. For example, Black social workers make the same decisions regarding black children and families as do white social workers. This abusive behavior is driven by a mix of policy and social distancing.”
The reader makes a strong point, the failure would be for the African American community and others concerned, to target systemic and structural racism only within policing when in fact the policy and social distancing is inherently mired in the cancer of systemic and structural racism throughout the institutions of serving these communities.
I began this writing by defining the African American community as being psychologically mired in two distinct groups i.e., “Existers” as in “The Waiting Dead” and “Survival-ship” as in the “Walking Wounded”.
These two groups are the mainstream of Groupthink, which is the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility. It is a phenomenon that occurs when a group of individuals reaches a consensus without critical reasoning or evaluation of the consequences or alternatives. Groupthink is based on a common desire not to upset the balance of a group of people.
Groupthink in the context within the African American community occurs when two distinct groups “Existers” and “Survival-ship”, are reacting to the state of “living in fear.” A response or alternative to Groupthink is one that would encourage creativity and individual responsibility. This response will be the movement of a third group known as “Walking the Landscape”. The intent henceforth would be reinforcing driving (empowerment), striving (setting pace and direction) and thriving (accomplishing goals and objectives).
Groupthink is inherent within the African American community. Historically, change has been motivated, initiated, and directed by leadership designated by others including politicians, churches and civic leaders. For the community to move away from the status of existing and survival ship, new innovative programming must be developed coming from within the community at the grassroots level that will inspire and encourage the creativity and individual responsibility and move them toward the third group, “Walking the Landscape.”
The African American community is psychologically impacted and traumatized by repeated assaults of systemic and structural racism. Psychological healing of the wounded is essential for its members to achieve emotional wellness and empowerment of wellbeing.
The process of empowerment, known as “Journey of Self Discovery,” is an alternative to the downward spiraling of Groupthink currently mired within those who are pressured to conform, fearful of exposing any vulnerability, reacting to group censorship, and desiring to question values and belief systems. We all stand at the crossroads of life… facing choices in which we decide on the direction that is to be taken.
Walking the landscape
Returning To the Scene of The Crime
I want to return to the scene of the crime
I do not want to go back. I want to go forward
Going back can brings pain, suffering and unresolved memories
Returning, and moving forward…I am armed with wisdom and knowledge, which I now take into the future.
Whatever I was, I am no longer.
The past is what it was. It cannot be recovered.
I live for today. To understand and uncover.
I seek the tomorrow. To explore and discover…
Self.
Dr. Micheal Kane
Standing Alone… The Unspoken Truth
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/27/us/tyre-nichols-memphis-friday/index.html
Memphis Police Association Facebook Page
The Evidence of Things Not Seen – James Baldwin
Loving Me More 