I watched the videos last night, because I thought it is important to bear witness. I am both furious and heartbroken. Tyre Nichols—age 29, beaten, kicked in the face, punched, tasered, sprayed with pepper spray—yelled “Mom! MOM!” and I began to cry in my living room. His mother, RowVaughn Wells, has handled this like a queen. I could not have done so as gracefully as she has.
While they were waiting for the film to be released, MSNBC’s Ari Melber was interviewing Maya Wiley. I can’t remember what he said or asked but she took a long breath and then said, “Well, we know that driving while black is dangerous.” Then she went on to cite some statistics that were stunning. (Here’s the video; the segment starts at 33:58 but 37:42 is where we hear from Wiley.) She cites Sandra Bland, pulled over because she was changing lanes without signaling. Melber says: “You know the crime here was when the officers showed up.” One of the officers said it was “Reckless driving,” but Wiley reminds us “the Memphis Police Commissioner said there was no evidence of reckless driving, no evidence for even stopping the car. There is no evidence”—here she slowed down—“of evidence to substantiate the stop.” Then she went on to say she wanted the audience to know that “Black people are not only more likely to be stopped for traffic violations in the absence of them uncovering any evidence of wrongdoing—any weapon. People who are white, when they’re stopped, are more likely to be found with evidence of a crime or a weapon.”
I don’t even know what to say. When I brought this up on Facebook the next day, a friend of mine commented, “The other day I watched a video of a middle-class, middle-aged black lady standing outside of her car in a parking lot. A cop was arguing with her and had obviously decided to cuff her and reached for her hands and she was snatching them away and still arguing, and Jamie—he PUNCHED her. As hard as he could, with his whole body behind it. Punched her in the head. This is going to be my drumbeat as people reel from the shock of this one. It’s not isolated. It happens all the time.”
I am heartbroken. When they pulled him out of the car they were all shouting at him, contradictory things—“Turn around!” and “Get on the ground!” It was awful. And it must stop.
Wanderlustful 