patrols into communities i think we just lost mark. mark, did we lose? you then, do we have? you yes, i m still here. how do the people in memphis feel about this scorpion tax force? as mark was saying, we do have a crime problem here as you see in most major cities. and the scorpion squad was tasked to come in and try to resolve some of those issues, car break-ins, carjackings, other violent crimes in the community. so what the purpose of these units may have been something that was considered needed and necessary in order to combat crime, it seems like these officers got out of hand, they used excessive force, there was no control, and unfortunately,
i know that they have put this scorpion squad on suspension right now. they are no longer active. but we need to look at who is going into the scorpion squad. these were 45 year year offices yet there on this really elite squad. that s perhaps too young of a time on the force, to really a time of the force for these officers to be on such an elite squad. and have such power. where were the senior officers? where was the call in to legitimize the stop? this was a stop that has taken place, and there is no constitutional reason why the stock is taking place. where are the parameters to say that when you pull over native you have to have reasonable suspicion? and so, we don t see that here and that is what we need to change going forward and i m happy that young man didn t lose his life. but we have to do something before others lose their life going forward. van turner, thanks for being
struggling. we will talk to other people about that very thing. tim, you have worked as a civil rights attorney, county prosecutor. how much of what happened to tyre nichols is systemic within police departments? they were part of this scorpion squad which may have been part of the bad culture there. working in reverse order, a lot of departments have specialized groups to target high crime areas where there s a large amount of calls for services. often sometimes those groups form dysfunctional norms as we say in law enforcement. these beliefs that they are outside of the normal operating range of law enforcement. i believe that these officers came in with implicit bias. it doesn t matter their
chief just said were knew they were beating him, that could be a challenge. everyone will hold their breath whether it com when it comes to the trial. by all accounts, this is going to be the worst thing we have seen. it s terrifying. laura, there are some in some cities, like l.a., pittsburgh, where the police have pushed back against it, where they are trying to prevent the police, by order, the police do not handle routine harmless traffic stops to try to reduce the possibility of these kinds of interactions. yeah. we certainly have seen different levels of police reforms used throughout the country. some of these experiments have been successful. some of them haven t. i think one of the issues that is going to come up as we do a deeper dive on what exactly happened here is the use of this so-called scorpion squad and how