Heather Cox Richardson

Tonight’s news dump is horrific: video footage of five Memphis, Tennessee, police officers kicking and beating 29-year-old FedEx worker and photographer Tyre Nichols, a Black man, after what appears to have been a routine traffic stop on the night of January 7. He died in the hospital three days later.

At least some of the five officers, all of whom are Black, were members of a special unit created in 2021 called SCORPION, for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods. It was supposed to address violent crime.

Last week the five men, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith, were fired from the police force. Yesterday they were charged with a number of crimes, including second-degree murder.

There is a great deal to say here, but everything I write seems to flatten Mr. Nichols’s life into the few minutes of brutal beating that led to his death.

It seems to me that I should stand aside tonight and let Mr. Nichols represent himself.

His photography is here. [thiscaliforniakid2.wixsite.com]