US police killings up since 2020

On 7 January, 29 year old Tyre Nichols was driving home when he was stopped by five Memphis Police Department cops, by their account for “reckless driving”.

Nichols was dragged out of his car, pinned to the floor, and after attempting to flee, assaulted by armed officers. Over half an hour later, Nichols was transported to a nearby hospital. Three days later, he died from the injuries he sustained.

Nichols was 80 yards from his mum’s home and in the now-released police footage of the event can be heard calling out to her. He was unarmed. He had been out photographing the sunset.

Family, friends and their supporters demonstrated outside the Memphis Police Station the following week, demanding police body camera footage be released. The day after, the local Chief confirmed all five cops had been given policy violation warnings and were being investigated. On the 20 January, all five were fired. They have now been charged (variously) with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.

Just three days before Nichols’ assault, Sayed Arif Faisal, a 20 year old university student in Cambridge Massachusetts, suffered a similar fate. After he jumped out of his window with a knife (which he was cutting himself with), cops were called. Frightened by the presence of armed police, Faisal ran, like Nichols, and many others in similar situations.

The cops that chased Faisal fired rubber bullets at him. After not dropping his blade, he was then lethally shot in the chest. Similar protests to those in Memphis have been held at Cambridge Police Station. An internal investigation is ongoing, but as yet no officers have been charged.

The first week of January might sound like a particularly violent week in America, but this is shamefully nothing out of the ordinary. The ongoing massacre of civilians by US police departments nationwide has resulted in over 11,000 killings since 2013. In 2022 alone, there were 1,176, the worst year ever recorded by Mapping Police Violence. If 2023 is proceeding at a similar rate, then statistically, since the murders of both Sayed Arif Faisal and Tyre Nichols, US cops are likely to have already killed a further 60 people.

Despite the global outrage following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, the swelling of activity under the banner of Black Lives Matter and demands to curb police powers, US cops are still killing three people a day. The rate is much higher for Black, Pacific-Island and Native American citizens than for white.

Faisal and Nichols’ killings started out like thousands of others. Routine traffic stops and “mental health disturbances” account for a significant fraction of police murders. Two in every three start out in “non-violent” situations.

Where their stories differ (so far) is in the international coverage provided to them, and the accountability of the police responsible. Nichols’ murderers are facing serious criminal proceedings, but in over 98% of recorded killings, police escape charges altogether. It is no surprise that many victims’ families, friends and communities seeking justice never feel anything resembling closure.

Demands from those seeking justice often call for the police to be defunded, for their widespread disarming, and in rarer cases the ending of police unions, and outright police abolition.

Yet since 2020, studies have shown that the majority of police budgets are rising still. In 2021 Austin Council did reduce police spending by a sizeable 30%. Some months later the Texas state legislature voting to bar councils from defunding police budgets. In 2022, Austin Council then raised police spending by 50%. In the same year, President Biden commended Houston Council for raising their police budget by nearly 10% in the annual State of the Union, to rapturous applause from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Where police reforms have been enacted such as bans on neck-restraints and body-camera mandates, police have been found ignoring them. Who, after all, has the power to stop them?

Justice for Faisal, Nichols and the thousands of others dead at the hands of the cops can’t come soon enough. However, the US law enforcement and political systems are so rigged in favour of cops, it is difficult to see how and when justice will come. But for sure, tinkering at the edges of these systems won’t cut it. We need massive street movements, protests and organising.