Where doest it come from? Where does the culture of the police brutality in Memphis Police Department(MPD) come from? What are the origins of that culture of the police brutality? Who lead that culture, and who are responsible for that culture?
Britannica defines “culture” as follow. Culture is behaviour peculiar to Homo sapiens, together with material objects used as an integral part of this behaviour. Thus, culture includes language, ideas, beliefs, customs, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, and ceremonies, among other elements. The existence and use of culture depends upon an ability possessed by humans alone.
According to Wikipedia, “police brutality” is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, asphyxiation, beatings, shootings, racism, improper takedowns, and unwarranted use of tasers.
Those five former Memphis Police officers are not the ones who invented or created the culture of Memphis Police Department. Mr. Tadarrius Bean, Mr. Demetrius Haley, Mr. Emmitt Martin III, Mr. Desmond Mills Jr., and Mr. Justin Smith are the ones who were influenced by the culture which was already existed within MPD.
By the microscopic observation, the five former officers were the direct perpetrator for the death of Mr. Tyre Nichols. But in terms of the macroscopic analysis, they were the task performers of the culture of the police brutality within MPD.
The incident is one of the phenomena. The essence is about the culture of “mentality”. Where does such mentality come from? It can come from history, reality, and leadership from the Memphis community. We try to focus on the leadership in this editorial because we can’t change the history of Memphis nor can we change the socioeconomic realities of the Memphis community within a short period of time.
Mr. Jim Strickland is the Mayor of the City of Memphis. Ms. Cerelyn “CJ” Davis is Chief of Police for the Memphis Police Department. Those policies and culture of MPD seem to be originated, directly and indirectly, from the leadership.
The leadership qualities and skills permeated, percolated, or pervaded into the culture of the City of Memphis and MPD. Especially the mentality of the leadership must/may have been handed down from the leadership to followship.
Those former officers were just the officers on the street. They were not the leaders of MPD or the City of Memphis. The officers didn’t make such culture of the police brutality. They were just the performers.
The culture was handed down. More accurately, the MENTALITY of such culture was passed down.
The Editorial of the Memphis Times
www.memphistimes.org
Published: January 29, 2023
