Every Memphis Police Report is Now Suspect

In another twist from hell, the Memphis police report filed by either the officers who murdered Tyre Nichols, or their union representative, is full of lies. A la George Santos resume kind of lies where everything was invented. As a result, every Memphis police report is now suspect because of a corrupt police culture that teaches the use of brutality in its training. When police officers twist the truth to their liking, this has irreversible impact on our judicial proceedings and the pursuit of truth in our legal system. More specifically in Memphis Tennessee where the murder of Tyre Nichols took place.

Police officers break the law then paint a picture to the courts that does not support the truth of what transpired. All it takes now is for one lawyer in Memphis to question any police report, on the basis of what the five police officers did in Nichols’ case, to seek new trials for their clients. Just imagine the chaos that is about to happen in Memphis if the attorney-general of Tennessee Jonathan Skrmetti feels compelled he has no choice but to ferret the truth from the lies.

THE HEAVY BURDEN OF UNSUPERVISED POLICING

Be it systemic racism, insufficient training, hiring violent men, or training that aims to turn police officers into enemies of the people, every State that does not, or will not, address reforming its policing will suffer a cascading impact, which will not only affect its financial health, but also might burden its judiciary with unnecessary lawsuits.

It all starts with that police culture the police unions have been imposing on the departments for decades as they defend unhinged and corrupt police officers come hell or high water while encouraging a “wall of silence” about police misconduct. Protecting bad apples with Qualified Immunity comes with a price that society will have to pay sooner or later on a scale much larger than one job or one career. The proof is in the pudding before us today.

The training courses according to whistleblowers are tainted with encouraging violent encounters. Some of it stemming from an over emphasis on self-preservation, but also a culture of racism since arresting black men is much higher than any other race. Police officers would escalate any traffic stop to end up jailing black men for years if their arrests are all based on lies in their police reports. That’s how impactful police corruption is to the lives of innocent Americans.

This must end. Injustices cannot become the standard operating procedure because of lack of training or bad hiring process on the part of police departments. Furthermore, it is imperative to force police unions to change their corrupt practices. How? By making it easy to sue them when they protect bad police officers.

Every Memphis Police Report is Now Suspect