left in this country, black folks we re only saying we want tougher punishment for these folks who are taking over the streets, they were also saying, and we would love if you would invest in the community so we don t have to call out in crisis in the first place. we mostly don t tell that history. that message was mostly lost on politicians who are scared of talking about it. and we are now at a point where we say, well, there must be a generational divide. there is an experience of disinvestment. younger generations grew up in this disinvestment. and older generations have watched it unfold. so, folks are more scared to give up any money that is coming into those communities at all. that makes absolute sense. i need to ask you, it s not just obviously memphis that has
memphis police chief davis has questioned the veracity of that claim. the police report also says tyre nichols was refusing a lawful detention and that he, quote, swung at an officer and literally had his hand on the officers gone. none of that is shown in the videos. the police report also list martin, one of the five officers charged with second degree murder, it lists him as a victim. it s unclear from the videos house that is even possible. martin, the four other police officers charged, and president have help, we re all members of a special unit of the called the scorpion. it was a unit assembled in 2021 and in response to an increase in violent crime in memphis it was a special plainclothes unit of the police department and it was focused on reducing violent crimes and seizing cars. officials like the mayor and the new police chief praised the scorpion unit almost immediately. as if it was sort of an
resources. so we can give the people the things they need so they don t need to cry out in crisis in the first place. and that, at the root, is the thing that actually reduces crime. to that and, this is exposed because of the race of the officers involved. the culture of violence, the culture of anti-blackness that is embedded in the structure of policing and specifically in these anti-crime units. how do we tackle this problem? what is the conversation back inside policing units and in a city like memphis, where there is very much a dialogue about how to better involve the community about criminal justice reform might look like, about what policing should look like? excellent question. and i want to take a moment just to extend my condolences to the nichols family this evening on the eve of the funeral of tyre nichols. this does give us an
addition to the five former police officers who were arrested last week on a litany of charges including second degree murder the memphis fire department fired two medics and a lieutenant who all failed to give nickels medical attention, and the immediate aftermath of officers who had just beaten him left on the sidelines. in addition to that, the memphis police department confirmed yesterday that two other memphis officers on the scene that night have been suspended since january 8th. one of those two officers is a man named preston hemphill, nichols they say he was the one who pulled tyre nichols from his car. he can be seen tasing tyre nichols and the body cam footage that was they believe preston hemphill is the one who said i hope when tyre nichols ran away from them. because that footage was released last week, we know at this moment that the violence it shows stands in a very stark contrast to what is in the police report that officers wrote just hours after they brutalize
the scorpion unit. there are similar units in new york city. they have just sort of revamped there s, it s called give, which sounds nice. there s one in georgia, fulton county, baltimore. do you think the death of tyre nichols will prompt a real surl soul searching? or does each city tell themselves a different story? it should. there it is quite disheartening to hear that governor hochul in new york it s considering expanding these types of units. that is absolutely the wrong thing to do. that is the wrong direction to go in. we should be reducing the footprint of police in our society overall, not expanding them and certainly not funding and deputizing of these specialized units that operate outside the bounds of general oversight and authority. most police units and regular police officers have to adhere to these units are invited to infiltrate communities in ways that are extraordinarily dangerous to them and those people. and i will say that what is particularly pernicious