\n<\/section>\n <\/p>\n
In fewer than 30 days after Nichols\u2019 Jan. 10, 2023 death, the former officers were charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.<\/p>\n
The Memphis Police Department released video footage of the officers\u2019 encounter with Nichols on Jan. 27, 2023. And some who\u2019ve seen the video, which includes footage captured by body-worn cameras, cameras mounted on dashboards of police vehicles and security cameras on utility poles in the vicinity, have described it as \u201chorrific.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the video was released Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis told CNN: \u201cYou are going to see acts that defy humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent years, as national outrage over the systemic racism within U.S. law enforcement has grown, The Conversation U.S. has published several articles on police brutality, race and the national outrage over systemic racism within the U.S. criminal justice system.<\/p>\n
\n 1. Different interpretations of video evidence\n<\/p>\n
Media Studies Professor Sandra Ristovska examines the use of video as evidence in state and federal courts in the U.S. and writes about the Rodney King and George Floyd cases where jurors interpreted video evidence differently.<\/p>\n
In the King case, the four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of charges of assault and excessive use of force as the jury believed the video showed a justified response to King\u2019s allegedly frightening actions.<\/p>\n
Lead prosecutor Terry White ended his closing arguments by asking the jury: \u201cNow who do you believe, the defendants or your own eyes?\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Floyd case, jurors believed their own eyes and convicted Derek Chauvin for the murder of Floyd.<\/p>\n
As Ristovska explains, bystander, bodycam and dashcam videos of policing can be powerful forms of evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet judges, attorneys and jurors may see and treat video in varied ways that can lead to inconsistent renderings of justice,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n
\n 2. The racist roots of policing\n<\/p>\n
As historian Clare Corbould explains, police violence that disproportionately targets African Americans long predates portable video cameras.<\/p>\n
Where Black Africans were once enslaved to provide cheap labor, Corbould writes, they are now policed, charged, indicted and incarcerated at staggering rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs many have noted since [George] Floyd\u2019s murder, the origins of U.S. policing lie in the control of supposedly disorderly populations,\u201d Corbould writes, \u201cwhether of enslaved people or, after the end of slavery, an impoverished class of laborers including Black people and immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n