Why was Tyre Nichols beaten?

On Jan. 7, Tyre Nichols was fatally beaten by five police officers. He was originally out driving but in Memphis he was suddenly pulled over. Following the traffic stop, five officers proceeded to beat Nichols. The entire incident was “heinous, reckless and inhumane”, said by Cerelyn Davis the Memphis Police chief, said in a video statement on Jan 25 the day the five officers were charged.

This event makes people question what policing needs to change. Better training has to change, better background checks, and why schools need to be better about teaching history.

I don’t think police officers should have permanent bullets that can kill a person. I say this because with one bullet you can kill a person. I think police training should be more thorough. With more thorough training hopefully an officer will be able to separate personal feelings from an actual criminal predicament. 

Officers should have way better training just because they seem like a good person doesn’t mean they’re actually a good person. The reason I say this is because with better training I feel like people will have a better understanding  on why they’re getting pulled over and it’s not that fear that your life is “over”. 

Having better background checks are great too. Just because you pass the Basic Metropolitan Recruit Program Doesn’t mean you’re a good cop at all. For example if you try out for a team doesn’t mean you’re gonna be good in the game. 

According to the Illinois Police Academy Internship Program, a police officer receives Basic Training, Field Training, and In-Service Training. 

“In 2015, 224 unarmed Americans lost their lives at the hands of police, of which 57 percent were African American or Latino”, said David Gutierrez a researcher at Harvard University, Institute of Politics. Nationally police departments spend an average of 60 hours on firearms training and 44 hours on self-defense. 

I think the police academy should focus more on the officer’s  attitude and personality. 29 weeks are not enough to prove that an officer will not kill or hurt somebody unarmed. 

As a police officer you should not be able to kill another human being because now you have to worry about their families etc. 

The police department should open up an academy just for kids 10-15 who want to be an officer in their future. I say this because if you learn early those kids will have an upper hand and they will be more experienced. 

When an African American gets pulled over they think their life is over after what happened with Tyre Nichols. Something has to change with the Police department because something is not working, and it’s starting to backfire.