Videos of police brutality are important but not always enough to obtain justice
and can also pose problems of desensitization to the violence or dehumanizationof the victims. The question therefore arises of their dissemination, in whatcontext, for what audience, for what political purpose. ---- On January 7 in theUnited States, Tire Nichols, a 29-year-old black man, was arrested by six agentsfrom a special unit of the Memphis police, while he was driving his vehicle. The" Scorpion Unit ", to which these six agents are attached, is responsible for "lowering the number of illegal activities in high-crime neighborhoods " bydeploying a significant number of police officers to this poor Tennessee town. .During an arrest, which was outside the competence of the special unit, not beingsupposed to govern potential traffic violations, the police beat up Tire Nicholswho died of his injuries three days later. A week after his death, aninvestigation was opened and five of the six police officers, all black men, whoparticipated in the murder of Nichols, were fired in the process.On January 27, four videos of the murder were released by Memphis authorities.After which, the media and social networks reshare it and American societywitnesses the killing of a young man by law enforcement in the city of Memphis.This is reminiscent of the murder of Eric Garner in 2014 or that of George Floydin 2020 whose video of the murder has crossed borders.If there is no shocking video, it is certain that the news of the death will notleave the circle of relatives of the victims or anti-racist circlesPhoto: Paul BeckerWe then realize the importance of the image: if there is no shocking video, it iscertain that the news of the death will not leave the circle of relatives of thevictims or anti-racist circles. We can rightly recall what happens to victims oflaw enforcement who have not had the " right " to a video and significant mediacoverage.Nevertheless, systematic dissemination can have the effect of desensitizing tothis violence and above all of dehumanizing the victims. We must not wait to havevideos to take note of the violence of the police to which racialized people,here black, are exposed.Risk of dehumanizing victimsIt has been widely reported that the murderers of Tire Nichols were black men.Some would come to affirm that it would not therefore be a racist crime. Do notdraw the wrong conclusions: black men are overrepresented among the victims ofpolice violence and the death of Tire Nichols only confirms the fact that thepolice are a racist institution and that it is not enough to replace the peoplewho embody it so that the logics change, in short, those of the " maintenance oforder " of the racialized working classes.Although the situations are different, we can draw parallels with the Frenchcontext. In France, people perceived as " Arab/Maghrebin or black " are checkedtwenty times more than the rest of the population (2016 Defender of Rights study)and during these checks, palpation is much more frequent.The decision of the Basse-Terre prosecutor in Guadeloupe to request a dismissalof the gendarmes who killed Claude Jean-Pierre, known as Klodo, during anidentity check in November 2020, although the murder was filmed by two cameras,blatantly illustrates this: would a tourist from mainland France have undergonethis type of intervention? If the forces of order maintain murderous colonialviolence, racist justice guarantees them impunity.UCL Anti-Racism Commissionhttps://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Violences-policieres-Partager-ou-ne-pas-partager-les-videos_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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