Black Memphis Man Dead After Alleged Police Beating…

It is dif­fi­cult to grasp that in 2023 this is hap­pen­ing to human beings, actu­al cit­i­zens of any coun­try, much less in a coun­try that pre­tends to lec­ture oth­er nations about human rights.
Worse yet, the image of the bru­tal­ized cit­i­zen is not that of a per­son who ordi­nary crim­i­nals assault­ed; agents of the state bru­tal­ized him.
No one old enough can for­get the images of Haitian immi­grant Abner Louima. On the fate­ful August 9, 1997, evening that Haitian immi­grant Abner Louima suf­fered through the sadis­tic police bru­tal­i­ty of the New York Police Department …
After the mon­sters act­ing under the col­or of law arrest­ed mis­ter Louima on pet­ty charges of being engaged in a scuf­fle out­side a night­club, he was tak­en to the police station.
(During the trip to the sta­tion house, offi­cers alleged­ly stopped twice to beat Louima, who was hand­cuffed. At the 70^th Precinct sta­tion house, two offi­cers, Justin Volpe and Charles Schwarz, alleged­ly shout­ed racial slurs, and Volpe alleged­ly shoved a wood­en stick (believed to be the han­dle of a toi­let plunger or broom) into Louima’s rec­tum and mouth. Volpe report­ed­ly bor­rowed gloves from anoth­er offi­cer and walked through the sta­tion house with the wood­en stick, which was cov­ered with blood and excre­ment; the gloves were recov­ered, but the wood­en stick was not found on the scene. Louima was placed in a hold­ing cell, where oth­er inmates com­plained that he was bleed­ing. An ambu­lance was even­tu­al­ly request­ed to take him to a hos­pi­tal, but he was held for three hours in the cell, bleed­ing fol­low­ing the alleged beat­ing and tor­ture.80 Once at the hos­pi­tal, doc­tors con­firmed Louima’s seri­ous inter­nal injuries were con­sis­tent with his alle­ga­tions; inter­nal organs were rup­tured, and his front teeth had been bro­ken. For the first three days of his two-month hos­pi­tal­iza­tion, Louima was report­ed­ly hand­cuffed to his bed) . (hrw​.org)

Twenty-six years after Abner Louima’s case, police con­tin­ue to oper­ate with increased impuni­ty and deprav­i­ty, in case after case in state after state. The sto­ry­line dif­fers, but the vic­tims remain Black men. The depraved mon­sters doing the assaults and killings remains white American police officers.
The sem­i­nal ques­tion in light of the unchang­ing real­i­ty must be, what is behind police sense of impunity?
The answer.…. Racism, pro­tec­tion from cor­rupt pros­e­cu­tors and judges, and qual­i­fied immu­ni­ty the doc­trine the Supreme Court took upon itself to leg­is­late despite not being a leg­isla­tive body.(mb)

People protest­ed out­side a Memphis police sta­tion over a man’s death after a con­fronta­tion with police offi­cers dur­ing a traf­fic stop.
Family, friends, and sup­port­ers of Tyre D. Nichols released bal­loons Saturday to hon­or the life of the 29-year-old Memphis man and protest­ed out­side a police sta­tion near the site of the Jan. 7 traf­fic stop.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is con­duct­ing a use-of-force inves­ti­ga­tion at the request of Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy; bureau offi­cials said last week. Nichols “suc­cumbed to his injuries” on Tuesday, the agency said with­out describ­ing the nature of his injuries.
Nichols, who was Black, was arrest­ed after offi­cers stopped him for reck­less dri­ving, police said. There was a con­fronta­tion as offi­cers approached the dri­ver, and the sus­pect ran before he was con­front­ed again by pur­su­ing offi­cers who arrest­ed him, author­i­ties said.
“Afterward, the sus­pect com­plained of hav­ing a short­ness of breath, at which time an ambu­lance was called,” and Nichols was tak­en to a hos­pi­tal in crit­i­cal con­di­tion, police said. Due to his con­di­tion, police con­tact­ed Mulroy’s office, and he request­ed the state bureau’s inves­ti­ga­tion, author­i­ties said. Rodney Wells told WREG-TV on Saturday that his step­son end­ed up suf­fer­ing a car­diac arrest and kid­ney fail­ure because of a beat­ing by officers.

“When we got to the hos­pi­tal, it was dev­as­tat­ing,” Wells said. “All of that still should not occur because of a traf­fic stop. You shouldn’t be on a dial­y­sis machine look­ing like this because of a traf­fic stop. That’s inhumane.”
Protesters said author­i­ties should release body cam­era footage of the arrest.
“The least they can do is be trans­par­ent with the moth­er, father, and the fam­i­ly and show that video to them about what hap­pened to their son,” com­mu­ni­ty activist Kareem Ali told WMC-TV.
Nichols’ old­er sis­ter, Keyana Dixon, said dur­ing the bal­loon release that the offi­cers who pulled Nichols over were in an unmarked vehi­cle, accord­ing to The Commercial Appeal.
“If he did run, it was because he was scared,” Dixon said. “A traf­fic stop is sup­posed to be a traf­fic stop for any­body, and they were in an unmarked vehi­cle, so I already knew what he thought.”
The news­pa­per said it could­n’t inde­pen­dent­ly con­firm the details described by the fam­i­ly. The Memphis Police Department referred ques­tions to the state bureau, which said it was still inves­ti­gat­ing. This sto­ry orig­i­nat­ed @Yahoonews.