We live in a country where some are quick to enact laws and apply pressure that bans black history, so as to deny and forget the violence of the past that has created the realities of black people today, where they are being brutalized and discriminated against within a systemic system that is slow to enact policies and pressure that upend this violence and discrimination as it speaks to the wider issue of accountability and action. It has become such a political issue, which is the strategy that has mitigated and diluted any effective strategy of reforming police and the systemic injustices to black and brown peoples. But thanks to video technology, we uncovered the truth that led to Tyre Nichols demise, yet another black killed by the police within a culture of police brutality and violence.
In retrospect, it was not white cops that killed Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. But today, black cops beat Tyre Nichols to his death. The symptom of a society that has been damaged by colonization, a process that Frantz Fanon call the depersonalization of the individual, the black peoples, for it strips away the individual. It redefines the thing, so as to justify and advance its violent control. It comes from within a neo-capitalistic attitude of power, one that corrupts stemming from the fallen human nature. We know of “house slave mentality” and the slaves who whipped their slave brothers during the plantocracy, maybe it was their resistance, a way to escape their realities, or maybe they too believed and accepted the hierarchical society that placed them in second place as they come closer to power and privilege. Fanon wrote, “The Negro is not. Any more than the White Man. He interrupts the usual language of the day to punctuate his violent break from standards, placing a period where a comma should be and changing the comparative constant and value of language using anymore instead of any less. Indeed, if we are to understand the damaged done to the world due to colonization and the fallen human nature, then reading Fanon’s psychoanalysis of the colonized world will help to provide an analysis and an effective way forward. For here, in Black Skins, White Masks, Fanon provides a psychology of the black man and the world, that has abnormalize humanity in that of all things we are bent to think in a white supremacist milieu. But Fanon interrupts that saying in order to break free from that we must disrupt the standards with a new language and attitude that breaks the power of the status quo that has done damage.
See The YouTube Video of This Article with This Cover on The Neoliberal by Renaldo McKenzie
Therefore, it wasn’t a few Police Officers that murdered Tyre Nichols, it was a police culture of Police Brutality against black and brown peoples. That hasn’t changed since the Black Lives Matter marched against George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The Memphis Police released the video of Tyre Nichols Memphis. This will be a violent testimony of police brutal and a culture of violence against black people. It’s so cultural and deep, this callous attitude toward black men by police that policy won’t matter. What else must we do. They don’t care. Two years ago, after #JacobBlake was shot in the back by #police in #wisconsin! I had written:
Soon after Police killed an innocent unharmed Blackman in Lafayette, another story developed just yesterday of another police killing of a black man. There’s no end to their violence and vigilante justice proving only the point again that NO POLICY WILL WORK ON POLICE REFORM.Just two days ago #Police gun down #JacobBlake in #Wisconsin sparking #nationwide #protests. WHAT THE HELL!! You @OutnumberedFNC @foxnewstalk are denouncing #nationwide #protests and riots over the #brutal assault by #police who shot #JacobBlake in the back. When #blackmen are being gunned down every day by police and demonized as conducting suspicious activity warranting murder. See the story entitled:“In Spite on BLM Movement Another Blake Man Gun Down by Police, Jacob Black Shot In The Back,” a blog article in The Neoliberal Blogs at renaldocmckenzie.blogspot.com.
Today, the Memphis Police announces that it is enacting major reforms after the release of the Tyre Nichols Video, which was graphic showing four black police officers beating an unharmed and helpless Tyre, yelling for his mother. Several government officials and even the White House denounced the actions of the four police officers as criminal and callous. The video showed just how violent the police treat with black men. They vowed legal and political action. However, after George Floyd & Breonna Taylor and the #BLM protests 2 years ago, we had the same reactions and promises which resulted in what we thought were major police reforms. In fact, I had written that article two days after I posted a previous commentary entitled:
And Another Innocent Black Man killed By Police Today… No Policy will work on cultural ills.
On June 15, 2020, I wrote that Another Black man killed by Police…. With all the looting and protestations last week surrounding police brutality on black lives and inequities in our system, they killed Rayshad Brooks on Friday; he was just sitting in his car sleeping and unarmed waiting at Wendy’s and the Police made a huge scene out of this.
Sadly, today August 23, 2020, I am writing that same story as the cycle continues…Another (Innocent) Black Man Killed by Police, this time in Louisiana. Louisiana State Police are investigating the death of Trayford Pellerin, a 31-year-old Black man who was fatally shot Friday night during an encounter with officers from the Lafayette Police Department. It was captured on video by a passerby. The video revealed police shooting a man who was walking casually seemingly unresponsive to their directive to STOP. He never brandished a gun and was just walking causally when he was taken down police for failing to stop walking. https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/22/us/trayford-pellerin-louisiana-police-shooting/index.htmlBut, what is the new police?
Image of Tyre Nichols From Bing Images
Probably, the answer lies in algorithms. More recently, I wrote in an article entitled:
“To Hell with #Police Reform, A new Computer Algorithm May Prevent Police Violence,”
Remember my post recently calling for #Police Reform that includes Rebranding and changing their Look? http://renaldocmckenzie.blogspot.com/2020/06/police-reform-must-include-rebranding.html Well, we have yet to see that materialize. Instead, while doing my daily news read, I saw a tweet on @Twitter with the heading “Can a New Algorithm Prevent Police Brutality? Minneapolis Wants to Find Out”: https://www.thedailybeast.com/can-a-new-algorithm-prevent-police-brutality-after-george-floyd-minneapolis-wants-to-find-out
Absolutely Not, if what you’re thinking is to use some computer-based system to identify bad #cops. Algorithm to identify bad cops…LOL, like those dam “Lie Detectors” or Psychology Tests that people can cheat and beat and never accurate most of the time. People are either inherently good or bad and any person can be bad at any given time… Jesus knows that that’s why he had to die so that we use his righteousness and not ours. What we need is for #cops to always wear body CAM. And for there to be an independent body that polices the police and for harsher penalties for police when they break or violate the laws. The #cops should not feel safe to racially profile blacks or to get away with violence or criminality in executing their duties to serve and protect. They should not feel that they can hide behind the law when they are lawless. So, don’t waste money with that stupid algorithm. And what about building on community and police relations in these communities through expanding community policing and creating a space for dialogue between police and community at the local and federal levels. We need a conversation and dialogue, as for right now there’s tensions between police and black neighborhoods. Deal with the hurt and the pain first and explore ways to heal before you talk about computers to fix a human issue that is deeply beyond the scope of an algorithm, (Renaldocmckenzie.blogspot.com)
In closing, despite the protests and promises of reforms surrounding police brutality within a system of violence and politicization of crisis, there’s been NO CHANGE. ACTIONS speak louder than words. I have experienced police violence myself as a black man and had to invoke my fraternity and other connections before the policeman relented his aggressive attacks without justification. If it weren’t for the people passing who started videotaping the assault, I thought that I would have been tased or beaten, for the police had turned off his camera and was making a huge scene and abusing my rights to question his reason for the stop. It was as if it was an issue of power. The white police officer did not expect me to know the law and to question him. He was loud, disrespectful and violated my rights and his own police rules of engagements. What was a routine, but unlawful stop became a matter of force infused with vitriol that could have turned in to something worse. I was calm and respectful but demonstrated my dignity as a person to inquire about why I was being stopped. He approached me with his hands on his gun and shouted do not speak sir! He then resorts to shout commands and treated me as a criminal in my Tesla, which I assumed he was perplexed about – as he had asked where you got the car from?” Then as I answered, he shouted, “shut up, don’t talk, don’t do anything, I am in control here!” Eventually he backed down as the bystanders gathered and yelled “turn your camera on! to the police.
On January 7, the very cameras that law enforcement erected to capture and deter criminality, caught the very law enforcement committing the crimes that they intend to capture and deter. But little did these officers know that they were being recorded. They had forgotten about the cameras.
Thus, they would have done something else or done it elsewhere, but if it weren’t for the unseen eyes of technology, we would not have acquired the truth that has always been the modus operandi of police. Therefore, if we are to prevent police brutality within a culture of violence, we may consider technology. The police officers who act outside of regulations do so because they know that they are not being watched and have the protection of their unions and a system that protects the purity of the badge. Police have a tendency of turning off their cameras. The ability to operate incognito provides an opportunity for them to disregard laws and abuse their power. But, if some people have power in society to enforce laws over others, and we know that power corrupts due to human nature, then it stands to reason that they must be scrutinized. They must be placed under tremendous surveillance and observation so as to ensure that they do not act outside of laws within the culture of violence and human fallenness. If we are to be resolute on stopping police violence and abuse of power, they must not have the ability to turn off their cameras and must be penalized if they do so. We must develop technology that keep the police under surveillance. We may need to employ independent quality assurance professionals who randomly do “spot checks” on police officers on duty and implement GPS tracking on each police vehicle, weapon and uniform. If we can do these, then we would be sending a message that we are serious about police brutality and abuse of power for police would not stop their disobedience of the laws leading to death.
But to cover up the realities of abuse stemming from a history and culture of violence by the status quo, by minimizing records and narrative of its truth will never heal wounds in society that may ultimately lead to abnormalities such as civil wars, terrorism, extremism etc. This is the kind of truth that hurts, for it may contain painful things about you leading to anxiety. Sigmund Freud asserts that we use #DENIAL to block as 1 of 6 defense mechanisms leading to abnormalities if not psychoanalyzed properly. Yet, Ron DeSantis Governor Ron DeSantis and GOP in Florida is doing just that.
DeSantis and the GOP need a kind of therapy and psychiatry that speaks to their psychoanalysis assessed in Freudian psychoanalytic theory of Psychology. The fix is psychological not politics or the usual human tendency to ban symptomatic of his defenses. That only pushes the problem to the unconscious creating further problems for themselves and society.
If police brutality occurs within a culture of violence that thrives off being covert what solutions work? Watch the #tyreneicholsviedo & my Academic Reply exploring the issue/ giving solutions to the challenge: #policebrutality within a #cultureofviolence https://t.co/mfv1jcfKfo
— Renaldo C. McKenzie (@RenaldoMcKenzie) January 29, 2023
About the Writer/Editor: Rev. Renaldo C. McKenzie, was born in Jamaica and graduated from Jamaica Theological Seminary, ordained to the Ministry of Sacrament and Word in the United Church, and after Studying Philosophy briefly at the University of the West Indies, went on to the University of Pennsylvania. where he graduated with a Master of Arts and a Master of Philosophy. He is currently a US Citizen, residing in Philadelphia Pennsylvania and is Author of Neoliberalism, Globalization, Income Inequality, Poverty and Resistance an academic text which was number one on Amazon in Deconstructivist History and Critical Philosophy. The book was reviewed as an erudite analysis of Jamaica’s economic history by Kirkus Reviews. Renaldo’s second academic book, Neoliberal Globalization will be released February 2023 which features contributions from Professor Emeritus, Martin Oppenheimer, Ph.D. of University of Penn and Rutgers University and author of several ground-breaking books. Renaldo is a Doctoral Candidate at Georgetown University and Creator/Host of The Neoliberal Round Podcast, a global podcast in News Commentary that is top five worldwide in News Commentary. Renaldo is also President of The Neoliberal Corporation, a think tank and Digital Media company that is aimed at serving the world today to solve tomorrow’s challenges through communication which is to make popular what was the monopoly, www.theneoliberal.com. You may follow Renaldo McKenzie on Twitter @RenaldoMcKenzie or on Facebook @Renaldo.McKenzie, LinkedIn @Rev.Renaldo.C.McKenzie and Instagram @RenaldoMckenzie.
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