“The camera never lies,” the old saying goes. But really, the lies cameras tell are lies of omission. The filmmaker chooses to show the well-lit movie star, not the scruffy gaffer holding the light. In past videos of police brutality, such as the 1991 Rodney King beating and the 2020 murder of George Floyd, police apologists insisted that exonerating evidence was, like the scruffy gaffer, just off screen.
Video 2, Video 4, Video 3, and Video 1 leave little ambiguity for bad faith actors to exploit. They present the murder of Tyre Nichols in multiple angles with minimal editing. Video 1 is the body camera of a white officer who rolls up on Nichols’ car stopped in a left turn lane on Raines Road. It is not immediately obvious that the two vehicles hemming Nichols in on the front and left side are unmarked police cars. The first intelligible words in the video are a Memphis Police officer screaming, “You gonna get your ass blown the fuck up!”
What is clear from Video 1 is that Tyre Nichols presented no threat. Once he figures out these are real cops and not carjackers, he desperately tries to de-escalate the situation. “You guys are really doing a lot right now,” he says. “I’m just trying to go home.”
But it’s no use. These agents of the state are looking for a bit of fun at Nichols’ expense.“Lay down!” one cops yells.
“I’m already on the ground!” pleads Nichols, who is at this point completely under the control of 600 pounds worth of MPD. “I’m not doing anything!”
“Spray him.”
As camera cop fumbles with his taser, another cop tries to pepper spray Nichols. Instead, the chemical weapon blinds his fellow officers. In the confusion, Nichols sees his chance and runs.
It’s a rational choice, since the MPD has made it clear to Nichols that there is no level of compliance he could demonstrate that will stop them from torturing him in the turn lane. It’s well-known in Memphis that if you run from the cops, they’ll give you a whooping when they catch you.“You got any charges on him?” the dispatcher asks over the radio. No one answers, because there are no charges. They’re just hunting him for sport.
“I sprayed myself,” says a bearded cop.
“Shit, you sprayed me too!” says camera cop. “I hope they stomp his ass.”
Nichols flees into the suburban neighborhood where his mother lives. Coincidentally, the corner where the cops catch him is in view of a SkyCop camera. The angle of Video 2 is eerily similar to the angle of the Rodney King video. It provides an unobstructed view of Memphis Police officers, enraged by their own incompetence, taking turns beating Tyre Nichols to death.
The lenses of the two body cameras in Video 3 and Video 4 are obscured at crucial moments in ways that look deliberate, but they record the sound of Nichols crying out for his mother, and one police officer gleefully declaring, “I’m gonna baton the fuck out of you!”
The only area this “elite squad” is well-trained in is how to safely use the state’s monopoly on violence to their advantage. The cops chant, “Give me your hands!” as an incantation to invoke qualified immunity. They are performing for the body cameras, giving viewers — and the courts — permission to blame the victim.
As horrifying as the violence is, the banality of what follows is even more disturbing. One cop props Nichols up on the side of a car to take a trophy picture of his handiwork. When the brain-damaged Nichols manages to slur some words, one of the cops who damaged his brain accuses him of being “high as a motherfucker.” Another killer cop brags about throwing “haymakers” at the restrained civilian. The EMTs whose duty it is to render aid to Nichols instead treat him with depraved indifference.
Rumors have circulated that Tyre Nichols was targeted by a cop with a grudge. But that’s just wishful thinking. The truth revealed by these four videos is far worse. Amid all the horror, the image that sticks in my mind is of a Memphis police officer who arrives late to the scene. He sees Nichols, bloody and broken, and he grins. The cops of the SCORPION unit were doing the job they were hired to do: controlling a subject population through violence and terror. They were bros celebrating a win.
