To Protect and Serve WHO and WHAT?
30 years ago I got arrested for the first and only time. It was my sophomore year in college at the University of Tennessee. I was living off campus with a bunch of other guys in a house and the adjacent condominium complex had an end of the year party annually once exams were done. It was a pretty big complex with multiple buildings. Each was several stories tall. I knew quite a few folks that lived in those. So that night of the party, I went over there to hang with some friends. The party went on until after midnight. With kids living it up, both inside the condos and out in the central parking lot shared by the whole complex. Sometime shortly thereafter, the Knoxville police showed up fully decked out in helmets, batons and riot shields and started on one side of the complex informing everyone that the party was over and that it was time to go home. They made their way through the crowd. It didn't take long before the 1st empty glass beer bottle came flying out of one of the condominium windows, hurled at one of the cops, for things to escalate. The police got aggressive with some of the students. The pepper spray came out, as did the fists of the authorities. I was on the far side of the complex, closer to where my house was. Mayhem proceeded for a few minutes as the cops made their way across the lot to where I was. Up on one of the balcony breezeways in the last building was a condo where my freshman year roommate was partying with some other friends. He smarted off to one of the cops outside the front door of the condo from the inside of the residence. Two cops yanked him out of the condo on to the breezeway deck and began hitting him.
I saw this happening and started yelling something to the effect of “F the police!”. Several people behind me joined in the chant. It should be noted that this was barely two years after the Rodney King incident (my senior year in high school) and five years after N.W.A.’s “F*ck The Police” single dropped to a shocked middle America (my freshman year in high school). It was certainly the adrenaline of the moment that activated my reaction, but these cultural zeitgeists surely helped as catalysts. I lead female cop yelled at me something to the effect of “get down, you’re inciting a riot” and then slammed me to the ground with the help of two male officers. That night, 22 kids got arrested. I think I knew 16 of them. I spent the night in jail alongside most of them. As far as I could tell, we were mostly young, white men. College students. While some of us got hit or pepper sprayed, we all lived. We all lived.
That event helped solidify my already burgeoning anti-authoritarian sentiments. The Knoxville Police’s reaction and staging was so heavy-handed and frankly, absurd. Instead of setting up roadblocks for drunk drivers a block or two away from the party, which was starting to wind down anyway, would have been practical and beneficial. The show of force with riot gear using riot control tactics was meant to incite and harass, rather than to protect and serve. It was a pure spectacle of authority. Of intimidation. Of violence. It felt militaristic. There’s a rotten truth embedded into the culture of policing in our country. Perhaps it’s always been there. Perhaps it was there even before this nation was created for We The People.
The word police is French and is derived from the Greek word polis (“polity” or “city”) and the Latin word politia (“citizenship”). The French meaning referred to the government and public civility, not officers meant to enforce the law of the land. This concept of police being a civil function as a force is a British and American construct. And that force was meant to “keep the King’s force” as it were. Even in the United States, where we had no king and the rule of law is sacrosanct.
The earliest western example of police dates back over 1,000 years to the United Kingdom of the Middle Ages. The concept of the Constable was formalized following the Norman Conquest in 1066 (or perhaps even a bit earlier). William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, preferred a more top-heavy control structure under his kingship (feudal) than the more decentralized Anglo-Saxon one that proceeded it under Edward the Confessor. The initial role of the Constable was a man-at-arms as it were: a designated authority charged with keeping and maintaining the King’s armaments and those of the King’s settlements as a means to protect the King’s assets. While the Constables had no power to make legal judgments, they were seen as the boots-on-the-ground extension of the court from which evidence and facts would come to aid judges in making rulings. Constables we also usually elected and served as a local official on a township or community level. As years passed, and crime in the late Middle Ages increased, Constables were aided by the formation of Watchmen – who essentially served as an extension force of the Constable’s power. In addition to maintaining the arms of the state, keeping peace and quelling crime, the Constable was also responsible for collecting taxes. As was his superior, the Sheriff, who was essentially an Uber-Constable who was appointed by the monarchy, replete with broader powers and typically a larger geographical jurisdiction presiding over multiple Constables. Perhaps the Constables and Sheriffs helped to deter crime and provide the populace with a sense of security. For sure though, this organizational structure was designed to Protect and Serve. To protect the assets of the King (property and people) and to serve as the King’s tax collector.
The origin of policing in the United States in many ways first started by the mimicking of the old English model, complete with Constables and Watchmen. Shortly thereafter though a new model arrived, and it was dastardly. The original Slave Patrol developed in the Carolina Territory in 1704. The purpose of Slave Patrols were to maintain the economic order by assisting wealthy landowners by recovering and punishing escaped slaves who were considered property of and vital to the economic strength of their masters. Well before the Civil War, slavery was not just enmeshed in the Southern States. The St. Louis Police were established to protect the property of residents from Native Americans in that at-the-time frontier city. New York and other northern colonies also had laws to control and criminalize slaves. After the Civil War, vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan were notorious for brutalizing or even lynching black men for supposed transgressions that were not even crimes. And while it was prevalent, this behavior was all over the Unites States and not just in the South. In 1871, the Congress of the re-constituted Union, passed the Ku Klux Klan act to attempt to subvert the terrorism. The provisions of the bill had early success, and the KKK appeared to be vanquished in a couple of years’ time. However, just a few short decades later, the malignancy re-appeared as many of the ex-Klansman and other vigilantes had worked themselves into positions of power in the various law enforcement and police organizations popping up across the country. In 1915, the silent film Birth of a Nation, glorifying the Ku Klux Klan, was released. The second Kl Klux Klan was founded at Stone Mountain, Georgia in the same year. Coincidentally, the Fraternal Order of Police was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1915. Today, the FOP is headquartered in Nashville, TN
I started writing this piece last week and planned on releasing it to honor Tyre Nichols on the day of his interment. I saw a lot of young me in young Tyre. He was a creative. I’m a writer and musician. He was an aspiring photographer (who particularly likes landscapes). He was a skateboarder. I skated (poorly) some in my youth, but always had an affinity for that culture of exploration and individuality. He worked to live, but didn’t live to work. But he did show up. Not just in that realm, but also as a father. A father who wanted to build a good life for his progeny. I have always tried to do myself. His family said that he was always working to better himself, something that also deeply resonates with me. He was also a hugger. Quick and zealous to give love and positive energy to those around him. That one hits. Hard. Tyre liked to wear baseball caps, and often backwards. Those of you that know me, know. So many of his family, friends and associates talked about his light. By coincidence of morning schedules, Tyre forged a friendship circle with a group of people at a Germantown Starbucks. One of his friends from that group, Nate Spates Jr., told CNN that Tyre “was a free-spirited person, a gentleman who marched to the beat of his own drum, He liked what he liked. If you liked what he liked – fine. If you didn’t – fine.”
My name is Tyre D. Nichols. I am an aspiring photographer. Well, I mostly do this stuff for fun but I enjoy it very much. Photography helps me look at the world in a more creative way. It expresses me in ways I cannot write down for people. I take different types of photography, anywhere from action sports to rural photos, to bodies of water and my favorite: landscape photography. My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens. People have a story to tell. Why not capture it instead of doing the "norm" and writing it down or speaking it? I hope to one day let people see what I see and to hopefully admire my work based on the quality and ideals of my work. So on that note, enjoy my page and let me know what you think. Your friend, Tyre D. Nichols
*(this was taken from his ‘about’ from his photography website)
We both had California roots in addition to Tennessee. We were both San Francisco 49er’s fans. Tyre was raised by a loving mother. Tyre’s mom, RowVaughn Wells said that her son was a “beautiful soul who touched everyone.” It’s clear that the love was mutual, for Tyre had RowVaugh’s name tattooed on his arm. Tyre called out for her the night he was hand-cuffed and tased, pepper-sprayed and beaten by Memphis Police. He also had a strong bond with his Step-Father, Rodney Wells. They worked together at FedEx. I never knew my father and my mother left me to live with extended family when I was 10. In a way, statistically, Tyre was in a position to achieve more “success” in his life than I could in mine. He was just getting started. A young man full of life, energy, and a developing zeal. Now the world will never get to know what special things Tyre was to bring us.
Since Tyre Nichols took his last breath a month ago today, we have had to endure the predictable malignancy of politically-charged social and alternative media. There was the baseless rumor that Tyre was romantically involved with one of the attacking officer’s wives (a lie). There was the repeated mantra that because the officers of SCORPION UNIT were black like Tyre, that the “mainstream media” was quick to move on from the story because it didn’t “fit their narrative of white police violence inequitably distributed on people of color.” For the past month, the Tyre Nichols story and the continuing discussions and coverage has been everywhere. RowVaugh and Rodney Wells were in the balcony of the House of Representatives for the State-Of-The-Union address earlier this week. President Biden addressed Tyre and his parents during the speech. Reporting on this incident by the “mainstream media” hasn’t gone anywhere.
A few years ago, my wife and I were coming home with friends from a music festival in Franklin, TN on an early Sunday evening in late September. My 16 year-old son was babysitting his 12 year-old sister at our home, 4 miles away from the event. About 4 minutes away from our home, my wife gets a call on her cell phone from my son’s cell phone. On the other line, my son sys there are police at our house and hands the phone over. A woman’s voice claiming to be a Franklin Police Officer begins asking if my wife is who she says she is and if she lives at our address. Understandably confused and due to the loud noise from all our friends talking in the car, she hands the phone to me and I put my finger to my opposite ear in hopes to better hear. The person on the other line repeats the questions. I assume that this is legitimate and she tells me my children are in no danger. I tell the person we will be home in mere minutes. My stomach churned and somersaulted for those stretched seconds.
We pull up to our home and there’s two squad cars with their blue lights flashing outside our house. I tell my wife to wait in the car with our friends. I exit to meet two officers outside my front door. They ask me to go into my home to speak to the female officer inside. The officer comes down my interior main staircase. She tells me everything is “okay.” My heart is racing.
At this time, my family had been living in this neighborhood for 15+ years. It is a prestigious (or infamous, depending on who you ask), well-known master-planned community in West Franklin. We were “founding members” of the development. We were one of the first 50 homes occupied in a neighborhood of now over 2,000 homes. While it had always catered to the more affluent, the Greater Nashville real estate boom of the past several years exacerbated this. Demographically, it is very white. One could say it’s almost become a haven for white people. Very few people of color live there.
The female officer proceeds to tell me that our next-door neighbors called the Franklin police regarding a possible intruder in their home. Apparently, the neighbors’ ring camera or door sensor triggered their alarm system and their monitoring system alerted them. My retired neighbors split their time between Michigan and Tennessee depending on the weather. At this time, they were up in Michigan and were concerned about the security of their home as they were hundreds of miles away. I ask the officer why she’s in my home. She tells me because they came in my back door…”accidentally.”
There was a walkway in between my neighbors and my family’s garages. However, the walkway only led to the back door of my home. There was a tall solid fence separating our back yards and further the path dog-legged at a 45-degree angle, one would think, to clearly delineate to which residence the fenced in path would lead. She said they intended to go to the back door of my neighbor’s house. Upon reaching my back door, they found it to be closed, but unlocked. She said they entered my house.
I was floored by this. She said it was a procedural thing to come to the back door in case there was an intruder on site who may possibly be dangerous and/or “armed.” Yep. That’s were we are. She proceeds to tell me that my kids are upstairs in their rooms, a little shaken (no shit!) but okay. I’m still stunned and certainly confused. I’m sure I came off as contumacious in my response to her. How could I not be? She was embarrassed and apologetic, as she should be. She gave me her business card and left. My kids came down to talk with us. Then, we got the story.
So, the female officer and her male counterpart (one officer remained out front by the squad cars) came to the back door of my house and entered through the closed, but unlocked back door. They entered my home. The male officer said “Is any one here? This is the Police.” My son said he heard this from upstairs. He said he thought it was actually me for a minute joking but then he released it wasn’t my voice. He came out of his room and came to the top of the stairs and called to his sister to follow. He replied something to the effect of “Yes. I’m here. We’re here.” The male officer replied something to the effect of “come down the stairs with your hands up.” Yes. Something just like that. My son and daughter started coming down the stairs in compliance. As the two officers rounded the corner of the stairwell, my children saw them with flashlights and guns drawn. Once the officers saw my children, they holstered their firearms. Incredulously, the officers took the next few minutes questioning my children, in their own home, as to whether or not they actually were residents there. My daughter was on the couch, crying, as my son took the officers around to various picture frames around our living room to show the officers my children’s faces. It was then, and only then that the Franklin, TN Police officers realize how much they had screwed up! It was then, that my wife and I received the call. It turns out that the neighbor’s alarm was triggered by a family member of theirs. Ironically, those retired neighbors of mine were some of the only the handful of racial minority residents in that neighborhood.
I shudder to think of what may have happened had my children be children of color. It also had me thinking about how we white college kids were treated by the Knoxville Police all those years ago when I was arrested that one time. The state of Tennessee only requires that an officer have a high school diploma (https://golawenforcement.com/police-officer-requirements/tennessee-police-officer-requirements). There is no national standard for education requirements for police officers in the United States, and each state and individual agency sets its own standards. I have no idea of any of the educational backgrounds of the officers who arrested me, or the officers that came into my home with weapons drawn and accosted my children or that of the officers that beat Tyre Nichols causing his death. Nor do I know of any supplemental training they may have received outside of what’s required by law. Tennessee law does also state the following regarding minimum requirements to be a police officer:
i. Have good moral character as determined by a thorough investigation conducted by the employing agency; and/or the POST Commission; and
j. Have been certified by a Tennessee Licensed Health Care Provider qualified in the psychiatric or psychological fields as being free from any disorder, as set forth in the current edition of the DSM, that would, in the professional judgment of the examiner, impair the subject’s ability to perform any essential function of the job.
k. No waiver will be granted for mental disorders.
We often talk about how officers aren’t always trained as deeply as social workers to be able to adequately interface with the public. This may be true. And while its a bit encouraging to see that Tennessee apparently has a standard in the initial hiring process to screen the mental health of applicants, is this evaluation done on a consistent basis to gauge officer’s own mental health over time? Also, should police serve as mental health workers themselves? Is that fair?
Since the winding down of military operations in the Middle East, starting 15 or so years ago, we saw a dramatic uptick in surplus military gear going into the hands of our police forces, often for pennies on the dollar. Ten years ago, we can all remember seeing photos of or actually experiencing personally U.S. Army Armored Personnel Carriers being painted black or dark blue and speckled with blue lights, often showcased at small-town parades and events. A Massachusetts company, Lenco Industries, has been making armored vehicles for SWAT squads since the 1980’s. Starting in the 1990’s, after the first Gulf War, The U.S. DOD (Department of Defense) created the 1033 Program which gave police departments across America access to surplus military hardware and gear at rock-bottom prices or sometimes even for free!
As reported by Memphis’ NBC affiliate WMC-TV in 2020 (https://www.actionnews5.com/2020/09/24/military-equipment-flows-mid-south-law-enforcement-agencies), Barack Obama announced a ban on the transfer of certain types of military equipment to local police, including armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, and some high-powered rifles, nine months after the 2014 Ferguson, MO riots. Obama said in 2015, “We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like there’s an occupying force as opposed to a force that’s a part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them.” That ban was reversed a couple of years later by President Trump. In 2017, then Attorney-General Jeff Sessions announced the repeal of the ban in NASHVILLE, TN by saying…
“These restrictions that had been opposed went too far, We will not put superficial concerns above public safety. We will do our best to get you what you need.”
Superficial concerns Mr. Sessions? Superficial? Yes. Because every “Mayberry” in America needs a veritable TANK to keep the “public safety.”
While many California residents are leaving to come to Middle Tennessee to escape a state income tax and/or to be around more conservatively-minded people, Williamson County in Middle Tennessee already does have an interesting political analogue in Southern California…Orange County. Orange County California is an affluent suburban and conservative enclave outside of Los Angeles. During the George Floyd protests in the Summer of 2020, Orange County police barricaded storefronts with blue police pallets and their cruisers. During that the same time, Franklin TN Police staged armed Police on the roof-tops overlooking the Town Square where protestors gathered. I know. I was one of them and I saw the towering and foreboding presence of Assault Rifles in police hands with my own eyes.
Are there good cops? Of course there are. Many of them. But with what happened to Tyre Nichols, a young skinny black man who was beaten to death by a gang of five black Memphis police officers shows that the problem with policing and brutality in America goes far beyond race. It goes to the core of why police as they exist as they are in the United States in general.
A little over a year after I got arrested, I’ll never forget sitting there by the T.V. in amazement watching a white Bronco, slowly cruising down the interstate near downtown Los Angeles, followed by a dozen plus police cars. They were following O.J. Simpson, the famous and rich black football star and actor, who was suspected of a double homicide. It didn’t matter that he was black. He was treated with kid gloves that fit what the police’s purpose was.
Police Departments across the United States act as a clans. They have a history since the beginning of looking out for one another. It also seems our Militarized Police Forces across the country are in place to protect and serve the wealth, property and lives of the rich and elite, as maybe they always have been.
Forget reforming the Police and Law Enforcement in the U.S. We need to completely re-imagine law enforcement altogether in the United States.