Praying for a peaceful weekend
On anticipated violence in Memphis (and disruption, at least, in Ottawa).
Video of the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old man who died three days after a traffic stop by police, is set to be released by Memphis officials Friday evening.
Nichols, 29, was hospitalized in critical condition and died three days after Memphis police officers stopped him Jan. 7. Details about what occurred between Nichols and the officers have been sparse; police initially said that Nichols fled on foot during the reckless driving stop and that a "confrontation" occurred in an effort to detain him.
However, Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis said on CNN early Friday that an investigation and review of available camera footage could not "substantiate the reckless driving" claim.
"It doesn’t mean that something didn’t happen. But there’s no proof. The cameras didn’t pick up,” she said.
"As far as I know today, I do believe that the stop itself was very questionable," she said on ABC's "Good Morning America" Friday.
[…]
Romanucci described the video Monday as an “unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating” for three minutes. Crump has said it reminded him of “the Rodney King video,” referring to the 1991 bystander video of Los Angeles police officers beating a Black man.
“What we can tell you about the video: It is appalling, it is deplorable, it is heinous … violent,” Crump said. “And it’s very troublesome on every level, because you have to ask yourself, yet again, we’re seeing evidence of what happens to Black and brown people from simple traffic stops.”
I don’t think a Friday evening news dump will do much to quell the outrage. If the video is as bad as I am being led to believe, and if I lived in Memphis, I might be tempted to take to the streets myself.
Compared to other high-profile incidents of police brutality, the wild-card variable in this case is that all the officers are themselves African-American. And they’ve been charged with second-degree murder ahead of the video’s release, while the police chief - also Black, leading a “majority-minority” police department in a mostly Black city - has been making the media rounds, telling people to expect the worst when the footage comes out.
Honestly, that’s an improvement compared with incidents that were swept under the rug until they just couldn’t be ignored. That one of the officers was still on the force after being involved in the previous beating of a suspect shows how much remains to be done.
So, will we see violent protests reminiscent of 2020? It’s certainly possible, and yet the fact that everyone is bracing for them makes me think it’s less likely to happen, if that makes any sense.
The outrage over George Floyd’s murder kind of emerged out of nowhere. No one from the city nor the police department admitted what had happened, nor laid charges against Officer Chauvin and his colleagues and told the public to be ready for the release of a damning body camera video.
It was a video filmed by a bystander and posted to social media that got people into the streets, leaving authorities to limit the damage after the fact. (That everyone was still getting used to COVID lockdowns, and getting quite cabin-feverish, was another factor.)
I think back to the first anniversary of the Charlottesville “unite the right” rally, which had everyone preparing for another violent showdown involving neo-Nazis. It didn’t happen, maybe because this time around, we were ready for it.
In my experience, common and hotly anticipated fears usually don’t materialize the way people expect. Even the heated protests following the overturning of Roe v. Wade weren’t as violent as I’d feared, and I wonder if the leaked draft decision a couple of months earlier was part of the reason.
The really bad disruptions - 9/11, Columbine, the post-George Floyd upheaval, maybe even Trump actually winning the 2016 election - are the ones no one really saw coming.
There are exceptions, like the tense three or four months when Russia was massing its troops on Ukraine’s borders, and when people starting warning that this virus on the loose in China could soon cross the Pacific. But this general rule has served me well, and when I’m feeling anxious I try to keep it in mind.
In the meantime, I hope justice is done, and that long-overdue reforms to policing are implemented. I’m also very curious to see how the thin-blue-line-flag crowd responds to this case, compared to those in which the officers on trial had a different skin color.
Meanwhile, on this side of the border, we aren’t dealing with any shocking incidents of law enforcement brutality ᵗʰᵃᵗ ʷᵉʳᵉ ᶜᵃᵘᵍʰᵗ ᵒⁿ ᵛᶦᵈᵉᵒ. But I’m keeping a wary eye on this unwanted sequel:
Ottawa police and Bylaw Services are telling residents and visitors they will be taking a zero-tolerance approach to parking, noise and fireworks violations downtown this weekend, on the one-year anniversary of the 'Freedom Convoy' demonstration.
The city of Ottawa issued a statement late Thursday afternoon, promising "increased enforcement" in the downtown core on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including special parking restrictions.
"All vehicles found violating these regulations will be ticketed and towed," the city said in a statement.
Friday morning, an increased police presence could be seen at the barriers blocking Wellington Street at Elgin Street. There was also some new bike-rack fencing up outside the Senate of Canada building across from the Chateau Laurier hotel.
On Jan. 28, 2022, thousands of vehicles and people rolled into downtown Ottawa as part of the 'Freedom Convoy' to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other public health measures. The protest occupied several streets in the Parliamentary Precinct for more than three weeks, and forced the closure of several businesses including the Rideau Centre.
The “Freedom Convoy” protests of 2022, though a massive headache for everyone in the National Capital Region, didn’t result in any deaths. But they were yet another example of something that spiraled out of control because, unless you were subscribed to anti-vaxxer Telegram channels and Facebook groups, you likely didn’t see it coming.
The Ottawa Police certainly didn’t. Again, this time around I hope they’ve learned their lesson.