When Black Police Officers Kill a Black Man, That's White Supremacy
By Ben Shapiro
This week, tape emerged from Memphis, Tennessee of five black police officers engaging in the beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man. Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving according to the officers; they ordered him to get on the ground and to give them his hands; he did not comply and instead began to run. When the officers caught up with him, they pummeled him, complete with strikes to the head while his hands were being held behind his back. Nichols died in the hospital.
The five officers involved were charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. All were fired from the police department.
The national media coverage was swift -- and confused. For some in the media, the narrative was clear: the police are generally brutal, and thus must be dramatically curbed. "The issue here, as plenty of people have pointed out, is not black versus white, it's blue versus the rest of us," said MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan. "You can't reform this stuff with body cameras or diversifying the police, as we just saw in Memphis." Instead, Hasan suggested, abolition of the police might be a possible solution.
This solution, of course, is no solution at all: Memphis has one of the highest crime rates in the United States. According to Neighborhood Scout, the chances of becoming a victim of violent or property crime in the city are one in 12. And we know with statistical near-certainty that high-profile cases of police misconduct generally result in police stand-downs -- which in turn result in more crime. As professors Tanaya Devi and Roland Freyer found in 2020, "all investigations that were preceded by 'viral' incidents of deadly force have led to a large and statistically significant increase in homicides and total crime."
A second media narrative quickly emerged from the Nichols killing: despite the fact that all involved were black, that the Memphis Police Department is majority black, that the chief of police is black -- the killing was a result of "white supremacy." The Washington Post headlined, "Black Memphis police spark dialogue on systemic racism in the US." Van Jones opined at CNN.com, "The police who killed Tyre Nichols were Black. But they might still have been driven by racism." Kimberle Crenshaw, founder of intersectionality, explained, "One cannot imagine this happening in a well-heeled white community. That is a racial problem that the law has consistently said is a non-problem."
This narrative, like the first, is designed to avoid solutions. If all policing is the result of structures of white supremacy, the only answer is to abolish policing. If each individual instance of police brutality, no matter the race of the officers, is an example of racism, then the only way to alleviate police brutality is by completely restructuring American society -- which is just what those like Crenshaw propose. The result won't be a safer America, but a much less safe and more fractious one.
In reality, instances of police brutality cross races. Whether it's Daniel Shaver being shot to death in a hotel while attempting to comply with police demands in 2016 or whether it's two Arkansas Sheriff's Deputies beating Randal Worcester in August 2022, white victims of police brutality aren't hard to find. Some police brutality can undoubtedly be curbed by better recruitment and training. But if we wish to actually lower the number of encounters between a given population and the police, thus reducing the number of possible violent interactions, the most obvious method would be to reduce criminal activity -- which requires more policing and more law-abiding behavior.
None of this should be controversial. But solutions aren't what advocates of police abolition or critical race theory are looking for. They're looking for revolution. And all revolutions have casualties.
This week, tape emerged from Memphis, Tennessee of five black police officers engaging in the beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man. Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving according to the officers; they ordered him to get on the ground and to give them his hands; he did not comply and instead began to run. When the officers caught up with him, they pummeled him, complete with strikes to the head while his hands were being held behind his back. Nichols died in the hospital.
The five officers involved were charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. All were fired from the police department.
The national media coverage was swift -- and confused. For some in the media, the narrative was clear: the police are generally brutal, and thus must be dramatically curbed. "The issue here, as plenty of people have pointed out, is not black versus white, it's blue versus the rest of us," said MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan. "You can't reform this stuff with body cameras or diversifying the police, as we just saw in Memphis." Instead, Hasan suggested, abolition of the police might be a possible solution.
This solution, of course, is no solution at all: Memphis has one of the highest crime rates in the United States. According to Neighborhood Scout, the chances of becoming a victim of violent or property crime in the city are one in 12. And we know with statistical near-certainty that high-profile cases of police misconduct generally result in police stand-downs -- which in turn result in more crime. As professors Tanaya Devi and Roland Freyer found in 2020, "all investigations that were preceded by 'viral' incidents of deadly force have led to a large and statistically significant increase in homicides and total crime."
A second media narrative quickly emerged from the Nichols killing: despite the fact that all involved were black, that the Memphis Police Department is majority black, that the chief of police is black -- the killing was a result of "white supremacy." The Washington Post headlined, "Black Memphis police spark dialogue on systemic racism in the US." Van Jones opined at CNN.com, "The police who killed Tyre Nichols were Black. But they might still have been driven by racism." Kimberle Crenshaw, founder of intersectionality, explained, "One cannot imagine this happening in a well-heeled white community. That is a racial problem that the law has consistently said is a non-problem."
This narrative, like the first, is designed to avoid solutions. If all policing is the result of structures of white supremacy, the only answer is to abolish policing. If each individual instance of police brutality, no matter the race of the officers, is an example of racism, then the only way to alleviate police brutality is by completely restructuring American society -- which is just what those like Crenshaw propose. The result won't be a safer America, but a much less safe and more fractious one.
In reality, instances of police brutality cross races. Whether it's Daniel Shaver being shot to death in a hotel while attempting to comply with police demands in 2016 or whether it's two Arkansas Sheriff's Deputies beating Randal Worcester in August 2022, white victims of police brutality aren't hard to find. Some police brutality can undoubtedly be curbed by better recruitment and training. But if we wish to actually lower the number of encounters between a given population and the police, thus reducing the number of possible violent interactions, the most obvious method would be to reduce criminal activity -- which requires more policing and more law-abiding behavior.
None of this should be controversial. But solutions aren't what advocates of police abolition or critical race theory are looking for. They're looking for revolution. And all revolutions have casualties.
Ben Shapiro, 38, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show," and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is "The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America's Institutions Against Dissent." To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com
Recent
Archive
2023
January
Dead People: Doubts About Reparations from a Proud MuttCartoon 12/30/22Cartoon 12/31/22Cartoon 01/01/23NBA Versus FreedomThe Death of Eternal Truths and the New PaganismCartoon 01/04/23Random New Year's ThoughtsCartoon 01/05/23Cartoon 01/06/23Cartoon 01/08/23COVID: Who Was Right?Cartoon 01/11/22Cartoon 01/09/23Cartoon 01/10/23Our Blundering, Intrusive GovernmentReining in Government Spending? Let's Get RealCartoon 01/12/23He had a DreamCartoon 01/13/23Cartoon 01/15/23Cartoon 01/17/23The Recycling ReligionRacial Reparations Solve NothingCartoon 01/18/23Black Man Dies Following His Arrest -- Examine the Media CoverageCartoon 01/19/23Cartoon 01/20/23Cartoon 01/22/23Cartoon 01/23/23Cartoon 01/24/23Cartoon 01/25/23Population PanicCartoon 01/26/23Obama Warns About the 'Raw Sewage' of Disinformation -- Ignores Democrats' Own GarbageWhite Privilege or Black Fathers - Part 1Cartoon 01/27/23Who's More Irrational -- The Religious or the Irreligious?Freedom’s Journal Institute is Preserving and Proclaiming Black Conservative ValuesCartoon 01/29/23Cartoon 01/30/23
February
cartoon 01/31/23A Surprising PoliticianWhen Black Police Officers Kill a Black Man, That's White SupremacyCartoon 02/1/23Racializing the Death of a Black Man by the Police, Part ICartoon 02/02/23White Privilege or Black Fathers - Part 2Cartoon 02/03/23Cartoon 02/05/23Cartoon 02/06/23White Privilege or Black Fathers - Part 3'Memphis is on fire': Police brutality? Yes! Police racism? No!Tyre Nichols’ Alleged Killers Already Broke The Law, So More Laws Aren’t The Answer — Accountability IsCartoon 02/07/23Cartoon 02/08/23White Privilege or Black Fathers - Part 4Mike Pompeo Versus LibertariansSatan Is So Hot Right NowRacializing the Death of a Black Man by the Police, Part 2Cartoon 02/09/23Cartoon 02/10/23Cartoon 02/12/23Cartoon 02/13/23Cartoon 02/14/23Young Americans Are Losing Their Minds. The Social Left Is to Blame.Bureaucrats Ban BettingCartoon 02/15/23Cartoon 02/16/23President Biden Claims GOP Wants to 'Sunset' Entitlements: What about Clinton, Obama and then-Sen. Biden?Cartoon 02/17/23Cartoon 02/19/23Cartoon 02/21/23Government's Dirty SecretCartoon 02/22/23Cartoon 02/20/23Joe Biden Turns the American Government Into Wokeness, Inc.Cartoon 02/23/23'Evil' Fox News Versus 'Trusted CNN,' Part 1Cartoon 02/24/23Cartoon 02/26/23Cartoon 02/27/23
March
Cartoon 02/28/23The Stupid ActThe Greatest Cover-up in Human HistoryCartoon 03/01/23Evil Fox News Versus 'Trusted CNN,' Part 2Cartoon 03/02/23Colorman Part 1Cartoon 03/05/23Cartoon 03/07/23Students Defend FreedomWhite Man Down: Frustration is Not RacismCartoon 03/09/23What We Weren't Shown About Jan. 6Cartoon 03/12/23Cartoon 03/13/23Better FlyingCartoon 03/15/23How To Crash the Economy, Big Government Style
No Comments