The long-awaited video footage of Memphis police officers brutally assaulting Tyre Nichols is sickening. His death has shocked the senses and will set back recent hard-won gains in police-community relations and trust.
But could we — should we — not have foreseen this? Certainly wasn’t a case of “white supremacy” run amok. Unless a gang of Southern, African-American officers brutalizing a noncompliant African-American male meets the ever-evolving definition of “institutional racism.”
Could the relentless pursuit of “equity” — as “equality” is no longer the accepted standard — have contributed to this senseless loss of life? Equality aims for equal opportunity. Equity demands equal outcome. Not qualified for a position? Well, check enough boxes, we will adjust the required standard. That’s what appears to have occurred with some of the Memphis Five.
The Memphis Police Department swore in two, Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley, in August 2020, two years after deciding to attract more minorities by lowering education requirements. It relaxed its rule that recruits have an associate’s degree or 54 college-credit hours — five years’ work experience and a promise to get an associate degree within four years of hiring were enough.
College isn’t always the determinant for credible policing, but it does ensure a higher level of maturity, judgment, discernment and reasoning.