What can we learn from the Tyre Nichols debacle?

Are there any lessons to be learned from the brutal, deadly beatdown of Tyre Nichols by several out-of-control Memphis police officers? Possibly, but none that have anything to do with racism. And none the left will acknowledge.

All of the officers who beat Nichols are black. The black cops involved might have acted as they did because they thought Nichols defied or disrespected them, or because they were having a very bad day, or because they are thugs. There is no reason to believe they acted as they did because Nichols is black, and common sense tells us they did not.

The tragic death of Nichols confirms that, with thousands of encounters nationwide between police officers and suspects every day, occasionally one will go horribly wrong. It confirms that there are some very bad cops out there. If Nichols resisted the officers before they abused him — it’s not clear to me whether he did — his death confirms that it’s a terrible idea to resist the police.

But these are things any fairly intelligent person with a modicum of common sense already understood.

If there are real lessons here, they might be: (1) the drive to hire “diverse” police officers is causing police departments to enlist people who shouldn’t serve and/or (2) the demonization of the police by the left has made it difficult to retain and recruit good officers — again, causing police departments to enlist people who shouldn’t serve.

Were some or all of the officers involved in the killing of Nichols hired by the police department because of their race? We don’t know yet.

But according to this source, the answer appears to be “yes” in all five cases. The source claims that all five were hired, not by the department through its usual selection process, but by the city:

City leaders felt the existing process was too strict and kept certain people
from getting jobs at the department. City leaders began their own hiring process and then pushed new hires into the agency.

I don’t know whether this is true, but if it is, I assume the “certain people” were ones who “look like” the majority of the city’s residents. Nearly two-thirds of Memphis residents are black.

From a reliable source, the New York Post, we learn that two of the five officers who beat Nichols were hired after the department lowered its standards. Under the new policy, recruits no longer need an associate’s degree or 54 college credit hours to join the force.

Maybe the old standards would have screened out these two officers. Maybe someone will explore the matter.

We also know that the Memphis police department has had difficulty recruiting and retaining officers. As of January 2022, the department was down roughly 500 officers. Recruitment became such a big problem that the department offered $15,000 signing bonuses in 2021 and 2022.

It stands to reason that the more police officers are bashed as racists and the less support they receive from the public, the more difficult it will be to recruit and retain them. Indeed, we know that these kinds of attacks have had a sharply negative impact on officer recruitment and retention in Baltimore and elsewhere.

Police jobs may still be attractive to those who want to be cops for the wrong reasons — to wield power and push people around. But they will be less attractive to people who want to serve the community.

In sum, there’s reason to suspect that without the double whammy of race-based hiring and police demonization — or one of these two factors — Tyre Nichols might still be alive.

Today’s Washington Post says the Nichols debacle has led to a nuanced discussion of racism in policing. The nuance consists of race hucksters arguing that black is white — i.e., that when black cops mistreat blacks, whites are to blame.

There is no suggestion in the Post’s article that the deep thinkers it quotes are considering whether the Nichols case stems from bad hiring practices, including a lowering of standards and consideration of race.

The New York Times proceeds under similarly “nuanced,” albeit slightly more balanced, lines. It quotes someone from the Center for Policing Equity who says he’s glad the officers were charged swiftly but disheartened that they may add to the number of incarcerated Black men.

I’ve been writing about the left’s bizarre utterances on race for years, but couldn’t have made this one up.

Regardless of whether lower standards and race-based hiring figured in the Memphis tragedy, it stands to reason that, as a general matter, lower hiring standards and use of extraneous hiring criteria like race will produce a less competent, less disciplined work force. And a less competent, less disciplined police force will make all of us — white, black, whatever — less safe.

This probably won’t mean a noticeable increase in unjustified killings by police officers. These will likely remain rare.

What it will mean is less adherence to sound police procedures, more police bullying, and less effective patrolling.

This is the world BLM and its left-liberal allies are creating.