You will not believe the video that was released Friday night showing Memphis police officers beating – ultimately to death — a young Black man.
I don’t really mean that, of course. If you live in the U.S., and participate in society, you likely have no difficulty believing that a gang of violent police officers fatally pummeled Tyre Nichols in what the city’s police chief accurately described as a “heinous” attack. Indeed, if you have an internet connection or a television, you have probably seen similar videos of police officers killing Black men, and women too, in other American cities. By choking, for example. Or shooting in the back. You may have seen videos of police not killing Black men — merely assaulting them while they are prone or otherwise defenseless.
Occasionally, videos surface of police killing or beating a white man. Statistically, those attacks are less common. But they’re just as real. Since 2015, police officers have fatally shot more than 1,000 people per year in the U.S., according to a database maintained by The Washington Post. That's nearly three deaths per day.
