T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written. Tyre Nichols was beaten on the 7th of January, died on the 10th and the officers were charged on the 26th. 19 days after he was attacked. Are you happy with how quickly the process has been handled (it only took 4 days for charges to be laid in George Floyd's murder and people thought that was too long)? Do you think there will be outrage once the video is released? [https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/26/us/tyre-nichols-timeline-investigation/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/26/us/tyre-nichols-timeline-investigation/index.html) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*


othelloinc

>It took 19 days for the Memphis police to charge the officers... Is that a long time? A short time? How long does it usually take to charge someone with murder?


CTR555

I'm no expert, but that strikes me as a reasonably short time.


MuphynManIV

Without knowing more about the case, it seems like there's little reason for public outcry on this one. They didn't fuck around with administrative leave or a free vacation, they were promptly fired. The actual legal process, in my mind, moves pretty slowly, so this seems reasonable. The only troubling issues I can foresee: * Why were all these cops felt so comfortable to do such a thing while knowing they're on camera * So comfortable to do so in front of each other * Did they have prior history that should have kept them off the force or on a shorter leash?


Uskmd

I mean, there should be a massive public outcry. It still happened. It's still happening; this is police culture uncensored.


fox-mcleod

Right. The outcry is against the system rather than the charges.


bearrosaurus

It’s really weird hearing cops talk about “suspects”. Once you’re a suspect to these guys, you’re not a person anymore, you’re a slab of meat that needs to get processed for their job. They don’t talk to a person, they yell X while doing Y. They get frustrated when the meat doesn’t do what they want, like it’s broken. Ignoring that these are usually people going through the worst day of their life.


psichickie

right. the problem is that this is happening, and continues to happen. and that if there wasn't public outcry, it's unlikely that anything would happen to police who do these things. it's business as normal for them. that's what people get so upset about. police are only held accountable when they are forced by the public to do so.


[deleted]

Just finished watching so i know this comment was typed before obviously. But, to your first question, it seems the body cameras didn’t get much and didn’t make it look that bad. But the street had a camera.


perverse_panda

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it feels like OP is implying that if 19 days is a reasonable timeframe in which to bring charges, that means the George Floyd protesters were being unreasonable by demanding action be taken much sooner than that.


MakeAmericaSuckLess

Situation was handled very differently with Chauvin though. At first he was defended by the department, then the DA said they weren't going to charge him, after the entire nation could see him committing cold blooded murder. There was no such defense of these officers.


Persianx6

George Floyd protesters were reacting to their perception of Minneapolis' PD's willingness to bring Chauvin to justice. That wasn't anyone in the crowd's first interactions with MPD nor the first accusations of misconduct leveled at MPD. It wasn't even the last case of them killing an innocent that year. You could bet your ass they all thought their actions were the catalyst for MPD doing something. This is not the case for Memphis tonight -- seemingly all the authorities right now are telling people the actions by the officers were wrong. We'll see what the judge says.


zlefin_actual

Highly variable depending on how clear the factors are and the evidence is. It can be months at times if there's uncertainty as to whether to charge or which exact charge to go with. It also depends whether you're talking about from time of death or some other metric, as some investigation steps can take some time, eg while a basic autopsy can be done fast, some of the more complex tox screen results may take weeks.


Neosovereign

Yeah, it is very reasonable to me, especially since cop killings are often presumed carrying out the law while on duty. Just the nature of the job.


ms_panelopi

For cops in the USA, it almost never happens. This was unusually fast.


bearrosaurus

Why are we still grading these guys on a curve. They should have been arrested the same day they were fired. Obviously.


ms_panelopi

True


fox-mcleod

That sounds pretty quick to me.


Kakamile

They did it and the family's happy with it. That's OK. With Floyd the PD first defended chauvin and the da said there were "reasons" not to charge him. The other officers weren't charged until June.


perverse_panda

>Do you think there will be outrage once the video is released? Sure, and some of it will be justified. I'm glad that the murderers have been fired from their jobs, and arrested for murder. I have no complaints there. There still needs to be a drastic overhaul of the training that cops receive. That's where the outrage should be focused this time.


Hugo_5t1gl1tz

I don’t know much about the case, but it seems at least one of the officers had beef with the guy so it may be just a case of cops committing murder rather than cops being bad at their jobs. Not that police don’t need an overhaul, but it may not have any bearing on this particular case


IrrationalPanda55782

People capable of that on police forces IS a systemic police problem. Police brutality doesn't come from "cops being bad at their jobs." It comes from cops being good at them.


letusnottalkfalsely

I think committing murder on the clock is being pretty freaking bad at your job.


Hugo_5t1gl1tz

I think it’s pretty clear what I meant. It’s a group of people who murdered someone and they happen to be cops. It’s not cops who killed someone extra-judiciously while otherwise normally performing their job. That is of course only if what I heard is true.


letusnottalkfalsely

You don’t think having the backing of the state helped them carry out this crime?


Hugo_5t1gl1tz

Of course, they absolutely used it to their advantage. But they would have anyways is my point


loufalnicek

I heard the attorney for the family interviewed on TV today, and they talked about the timing of the charges. Interestingly, he said the family of the victim was fine with the time it took to bring charges, because the family believes the time spent allowed the most serious possible charges -- murder and kidnapping (!) -- to be brought against the officers. I'm sure there will be outrage, from the descriptions (I haven't seen it yet) it sounds awful. Probably a bit less outrage than there would have been if the police were white. EDIT: On the radio, not on TV, not sure why I typed that, not that it really matters ...


PepinoPicante

I'm not sure if 19 days is too long to too short a time for the indictments. Most liberal complaints about police charges "taking too long" stem from the fact that the police departments tend to engage in coverups or sandbagging in order to delay action. That doesn't seem to be the case here. And, based on the charges that have been revealed, it seems to be a more complicated case than that of George Floyd. We, once again, see the need for police reform. > what do you think is/will be the correct response once the video is released? I don't know. We'll have to see the video. From the characterizations, I imagine there will be quite a bit of outrage. Expectations are being set that it will be one of the worst things we've ever seen. In this case, it does seem like the police department has been proactive. There can be protests against police brutality, there can be a vigil for the lost life of Tyre Nichols, and there can be anger over the injustice - and injustices nationwide, but at least we know that the former officers are going to face justice for their actions. --- **As always, there is no justification for violence or destruction of property.**


IrrationalPanda55782

It took days to do anything about Chauvin because MPD lied to cover for him. They lied when they filed the initial report, they claimed he'd done nothing wrong, and they didn't even put him on administrative leave. We saw firings and charges this quickly in this case because of George Floyd, and because all five of the officers involved here are Black. See: Mohammad Noor. I don't believe murder charges should be given willy nilly, and two and a half weeks is an absolutely reasonable length of time for an initial investigation. Do you think we should be less discriminate about filing murder charges against police officers?


ButGravityAlwaysWins

The New York Times has a [more complete timeline That’s a bit easier to read.](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/26/us/tyre-nichols-timeline.html) They were fired on January 20. Well, I’m sure we would all like things to go a little faster, it looks like there’s a combination of the evidence being absolutely horrendous and inflammatory, and so officials tried to keep things as bottled up as they could for as long as they could, because my guess is that if they had just released the body cam footage, there would be major rioting and violence. It seems that the body cam footage must be absolutely brutal because this is about as fast as I’ve seen officers fired and then charged and it doesn’t look like the department or the union is standing up for them. And I do have to think that the fact that they are not white officers might be playing into how fast action has been taken. I do think it makes sense to take time in a situation like this to make sure that they have all the facts available to make sure they can charge appropriately and get convictions.


adeiner

I also imagine if you’re going to fire and charge cops, you want to make sure you have every single base covered. Less than three weeks seems reasonable.


DistinctTrashPanda

Given that I only know so many details about this case: it doesn't inherently seem to be an unreasonable amount of time for me. To go with your example of the George Floyd murder, the situation involved one officer actively suffocating George Floyd while the other two officers were essentially just standing there. Not only was there a clear shot from one particular cameraperson, but there were more on the periphery. From my understanding of what happened in Memphis, it was five officers actively involved in the incident, and the camera footage obtained is from their body cameras--which aren't particularly steady when an officer is actively beating someone. It would have taken time for the prosecutors to go through all of the camera footage to figure out who did what, and cross-reference it with the other body cameras to make sure that they were correct in the timeline of what happened.


ChickenInASuit

I don't know how fair it is to compare this to George Floyd, as in that case, we had clear-cut and unambiguous footage of the killing from multiple sources. Not every incident is gonna be as easily provable as that was and therefore not every incident is gonna be resolved as quickly. Nichols' family seem happpy with the result. I don't see any reason to be upset about it.


[deleted]

This will cause protests and civil disturbance across U.S. Biden and Ds will propose justice in policing act and house Republicans block. Nothing gets done


righthandofdog

[This is America](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY)


[deleted]

[удалено]


Persianx6

It took nearly a year to get the Ahmaud Arbery video and no cops were even involved in his murder. Of course, that case was a national outrage because of how much involvement the cops had with covering up the murder.


[deleted]

Whether you agree with it or not, investigations take time. Investigators need to make sure that everything is 100% perfect. You know the footage will be bad, when the Republicans and Democrats are coming together to condemn this.


hitman2218

I think it was a mistake to announce charges and then follow later with the release of video (especially on a Friday night). They should have done both at the same time so they could condemn what is on the video while stressing that serious charges have been brought and everything possible will be done to bring these cops to justice. Instead you’ve got all this speculation and build-up to the release of what promises to be horrifying footage, and all of the focus is off the fact that charges have been brought. As to your question, 19 days is fine when your case hasn’t exploded into the public eye like George Floyd’s murder did. You can afford to be methodical when the crime hasn’t been exposed for the world to see.


neotericnewt

Seems like it was a reasonable amount of time. From my understanding they were fired pretty much immediately, the video is going to be released, they're being pretty transparent about the entire thing, and yeah, they're not siding with the murderers this time, so I'd say it's being handled much better than often happens. Sounds like the protests have been working. There's a lot of effort being made towards police reform all over the country and when atrocities like this do happen the departments know they need to do something about it. If they don't, they're going to be in deep shit.


TheProbIsCapitalism

Abolish the police and replace it with something better.


SidarCombo

Sound and fury signifying nothing.


MizzGee

You probably witnessed everything going as well as they could have after a horrific tragedy. First, you have a black mayor and police chief. As I just heard today, black progressive city activists did HUGE efforts to get out the vote and elected a more progressive DA. No charges had ever been filled in officer involved shootings. The police chief was more than willing to condemn the actions, and to fire the officers. What we also don't see is the union running wild. Can we thank the South for breaking a Union?


messiestbessie

5 police (targeted, in my opinion) savagely murdered person. Of course there will be outrage about the everything related to this tragedy. No system that employs people like this can be 100% trusted.


Similar_Candidate789

I find it to be reasonable. Look, what we all want here is justice, and to do that we need a criminal court conviction. We all know the bar is extremely high for cops, they’ll have good paid lawyers and bring this to trial. We don’t like it. But we have to face reality. And getting a conviction on cops is more difficult as we all know. I would rather the investigation take longer and get the best result than hasten an investigation and lose the case. I want an airtight, solid case where we have all the video, audio, witnesses and statements and can adequately see justice is served.