Tyre Nichols' death is a reminder of how dangerous it is to be Black in America

Being Black in the United States of America is dangerous. The recent case of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, a Black man brutally beaten to death by a group of Tennessee police officers on January 7, is a fresh reminder of just how treacherous being Black, particularly a Black man, is in the U.S.

There is a long list of high-profile deaths of Black men killed by the American police. Tyre Nichols' death followed a pattern which has become far too familiar: a Black man is pulled over by the police, the encounter quickly turns violent, the community is outraged, and footage is released to the public. However, one aspect makes Nichol's death unique: all five officers accused of his death are also Black men.

However, experts, attorneys, and activists agree that the victim's race is more important than the race of police officers. As Forbes contributor Shaun Harper wrote, "Institutional racism explains how five Black men could engage in police brutality, leading to the death of another Black man. They participated in the same trainings as white cops. They entered a profession that was born of anti-Blackness (slave catchers were America's original law enforcement officers). They worked in a place where decades of anti-black policies and tactics were created."

Recently the world was shocked when footage of the attack on Tyre Nichols was shared with the public. The harrowing video, released by the Memphis police department, showed footage from police body cameras and a street lamp-mounted video camera.

Photo: By Memphis Police Department - WREG Memphis, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72867997

In the video, we can see how, after being pulled over (for no apparent reason other than being a Black man), a police officer shouts at Nichols, "Get the F out of the car!" Another officer then pulled Nichols from the vehicle.

Photo: [email protected]

Tyre Nichols then told the police, "I didn't do anything," to which an officer responded, "Get the F on the ground," and threatened to use his taser on Nichols.

Photo: Screenshot from the Memphis police footage

Nichols then said, "I am on the ground." Adding, "You guys are really doing a lot now. I'm just trying to go home."

Photo: [email protected]

After enduring pepper spray to the face and being repeatedly kicked in the gut, eventually, a terrified Nichols tried running away from the police. In the background, a police officer could be heard saying, "I hope they stomp his ***."

Photo: Screenshot from the Memphis police footage

Nichols' escape attempt failed, and the police quickly caught him. The officers returned to beating Nichols, and then one drew a baton and told the others to stand aside as the officer told Nichols, "I'm going to baton the F outta you."

Photo: Screenshot from the Memphis police footage

During the beatings, in the video footage, we can hear how Tyre Nichols calls out for his mother, shouting, "Mom." The incident occurred just 80 meters from his mother's home.

Photo: [email protected]

Once Tyre Nichols was beaten badly he could barely sit up,  it was clear he had been severely injured and was in decline.

An ambulance was called, but it took over 20 minutes to arrive. Had Nichols received medical care early, there is a good chance he would have survived. Tyre Nichols died three days later in hospital.

Following the release of the video footage, President Joe Biden made a statement saying, "Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols's death."

Biden continued, "It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day."

The President said it well - being a person of color in America is dangerous, particularly for Black men. According to The Lancet,
"Over a 40-year study period (1980-2019), Black Americans were estimated to be 3.5 times more likely to die from police violence than white Americans."

To make matters worse, The Lancet also wrote that the National Vital Statistics System fails to report all deaths from police violence: "Researchers compared data from the U.S. National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) to three non-governmental, open-source databases on fatal police violence and found that NVSS under-reported deaths from police violence by 55.5% between 1980-2018."

This is not new information, and despite all the attention the Black Lives Matter racial justice movement received in 2020 following George Floyd's death, the data indicates that, shockingly, the number of Black people killed by police has increased in the past three years.

The Washington Post reported that police in America killed at least 1,110 people by gunshot in 2022. This is the highest number of death by police since WaPo began tracking fatal police shootings in 2015.

Of the 1,110 fatal police shootings in 2022, the Washington Post reports that even though Black Americans only account for 14% of the U.S. population, they accounted for 27% of those fatally shot and killed by police in 2022.

Black people are twice as likely as white people to be shot and killed by police officers. These numbers are only taking into account people fatally shot by police. Black people beaten to death were omitted, so the number of black people killed by police in 2022 is undoubtedly higher.

These statistics, sadly, do not offer much hope. The United States clearly needs to deal with its deeply rooted racism problem. If not, it soon may earn the reputation of being among the most dangerous places on the planet to live if you are Black.

As actor and comedian D.L. Hughley once told 'The View,' "The most dangerous place for Black people to live is in white people's imagination. We live in an America right now where we have evolved ... but we inherently believe Black people are criminal."