What really led to deadly police beating of Memphis motorist?

Eliyahu Tulshinski

January 29, 2023

The death of Tyre Nichols, which resulted from a three-minute beating by Memphis police officers, may have been prompted by an unnecessary traffic stop.

"I didn’t do anything"

The Memphis Police Department initially claimed that the tragic events began with Nichols being pulled over for “reckless driving”. Video of the traffic stop, though, has Nichols responding, “I'm just trying to go home, I didn’t do anything” when he was first ordered out of his car by multiple officers drawing their firearms and one yelling, “You’re gonna get your head blown the ---- up.”

The video then shows Nichols being forced out of his car and onto the ground, pepper sprayed and having a stun gun pressed on his leg, all without any explanation by the officers as to why they stopped him in the first place.

No probable cause

Later, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis cast doubt on the officers' claims about Nichols' driving in an interview with CNN.

So of course in an investigation, we begin to look at what was the probable cause for the stop? Where were the cameras? Was there some evidence on the body camera, on other cameras along those thoroughfares and we've taken a pretty extensive look to determine, you know, what that probable cause was, and we have not been able to substantiate that — it doesn't mean that something didn't happen, but there's no proof.

Why would police pull a driver over without probable cause?

Money making stops

An October 2021 New York Times exposé entitled, "The Demand for Money Behind Many Police Traffic Stops," uncovered how local and federal government alike incentivize the stopping of motorists.

A hidden scaffolding of financial incentives underpins the policing of motorists in the United States, encouraging some communities to essentially repurpose armed officers as revenue agents searching for infractions largely unrelated to public safety. . . .

Fueling the culture of traffic stops is the federal government, which issues over $600 million a year in highway safety grants that subsidize ticket writing. Although federal officials say they do not impose quotas, at least 20 states have evaluated police performance on the number of traffic stops per hour, which critics say contributes to overpolicing and erosion of public trust, particularly among members of certain racial groups.

Many municipalities across the country rely heavily on ticket revenue and court fees to pay for government services, and some maintain outsize [sic] police departments to help generate that money, according to a review of hundreds of municipal audit reports, town budgets, court files and state highway records. . . .

There is little doubt that these grants affect the economics, and frequency, of traffic stops. In an interview, Windsor[, Virginia]’s police chief, Rodney Riddle, denied having ticket quotas. . . . But in a January email to officers, obtained through an open-records request, the chief pushed for enough tickets to comply with the grant paying the hourly cost of patrols.

“Please remember,” he wrote, “that you are required to write a minimum of two tickets per hour while on grant time and there is zero tolerance.” [Emphases added].

Deadly results

Each traffic stop, whether based on a real infraction, a fabricated one or pursuant to a checkpoint in which all passing vehicles are stopped, creates the possibility for a physical confrontation. The New York Times details just how often traffic stops lead to death.

As a result, driving is one of the most common daily routines during which people have been shot, Tased, beaten or arrested after minor offenses. . . . The New York Times has identified more than 400 others from the past five years in which officers killed unarmed civilians who had not been under pursuit for violent crimes.

Fleeing motorists

Some drivers may be willing to accept a fine for a driving infraction but flee out of fear of the discovery in their vehicle of substances or weapons banned by government decree and carrying a penalty of incarceration. Others may fear having their car seized for lack of registration and some may run away out of fear of the force that may be deployed against them, believing they may be seriously injured or killed. Completely innocent motorists may fear an attempt by police to plant evidence in their vehicle or on their person or to “shake them down” for money, using the threat of an arrest.

In each case, a motorist attempting to flee from a traffic stop, whether by foot or in the vehicle, presents a particularly high level of risk of the use of deadly force. Once they stop a driver, police are not permitted to let the driver flee without chasing them and using the force necessary to apprehend them and must counter any attempt by the motorist to strike them, creating the potential for the use of deadly force.

Nichols

In Nichols' case, he fled from the police after they forcibly removed him from his car, pushed him to the ground and sprayed him in the face with pepper spray while threatening to taser him. Once the police caught up to him, they used force to apprehend him but then continued using force in an apparent punishment for having fled, as described by CNN.

One officer . . . yells at Nichols, I’m going to baton the ---- out of you . . . A police surveillance camera . . . captured the officer hitting Nichols multiple times with the baton. Nichols struggled back to his feet as he was being hit with the baton. Footage shows the officers continue to try to pull Nichols to the ground, punching him in the face repeatedly before Nichols falls back to his knees . . . two officers kick Nichols. A minute later the officers finally move away from Nichols, who continues to lay on the ground, writhing occasionally, with his hands behind his back. . . .

Could it be that Nichols:

was stopped without cause (possibly in response to department pressure to write more tickets)
expected to be able to show his license and registration without having to leave his vehicle and was thus slow to comply when told to leave his car
was subjected to harsh physical treatment, including pepper spray, as punishment for not leaving his vehicle quickly enough
fled out of fear of additional pepper spray, tasers, or planted evidence
was subjected to extremely harsh physical treatment for fleeing, resulting in his death?

We may never know.

Corrupt law enforcement

Please see our earlier articles on selective prosecution and other forms of corrupt policing: