(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- In an op-ed last week, CNN contributor Van Jones argued that just because the police officers who killed Tyre Nichols were black doesn’t mean they weren’t “driven by racism.”
The 29-year-old Nichols died days after a traffic stop in Memphis where the police officers repeatedly beat him. After the incident, Nichols complained of having trouble breathing and was transported to St. Francis Hospital in Memphis in critical condition where he died three days later.
The five black officers involved in the incident were fired on January 20 and were later charged with second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of official oppression, and one count of aggravated assault.
But to Van Jones, it doesn’t matter that the officers involved were also black since black people “are not immune to anti-Black messages.”
In his op-ed, Jones argues that only the victim’s race matters since it “is most relevant in determining whether racial bias is a factor in police violence.”
Jones argues that society “has often focused on the race of the officers” when they are white “as a factor in their deplorable acts of violence.” But Jones suggests that the race of the officer “should never have been the sole lens through which we attempted to understand police abuse and misconduct.”
He argues that blacks are not immune to the “pernicious effects” of racism since “society’s message” that blacks are “inferior,” “unworthy,” and “dangerous” is so “pervasive” that it “can infiltrate Black minds.”
“Self-hatred is a real thing,” Jones maintains.
Jones claims that black police officers “are often socialized in police departments that view certain neighborhoods as war zones.” And as such, “few officers get disciplined for dishing out ‘street justice’” in precincts populated by the poor and minorities. Jones claims that in those precincts, “there is a tacit understanding that the ‘rulebook’ simply doesn’t apply.”
