Police brutality is an issue that has significantly affected the American community over the years. This arises in cases where police officers use excessive force on civilians, and in most cases, it would lead to death or injury. The death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis due to police brutality represents a singular event which has generated a lot of controversies and varied views on the issue. Therefore, this is an analysis of news articles and their perception of this singular event to determine the impact of Tyre Nichols’s American society.
In an article by The New York Times, “The Questions That Remain a Year After Tyre Nichols’s Death” by Emily Cochrane and Rick Rojas, the events leading to Nichols’ death are explained. In this case, it is explained that Nichols, a FedEx worker, was stopped by five police officers due to accusations of reckless driving (Cochrane & Rojas, 2024). In this event, there was a violent confrontation, which led to him being physically violated and hospitalized (Cochrane & Rojas, 2024). In another article by NBC News, “Tyre Nichols’ family sues Memphis police over beating and death,” it is stated that the immediate reaction by the family was to sue the Memphis police for their actions.
Nichol’s family sued the Memphis police officers as they believed that they were the ones responsible for his death (NBC News, 2023). According to the lawsuit, the measures taken by the special police unit, Scorpion, to address crimes were out of intimidation and, in most cases, would lead to violence (NBC News, 2023). These officers overused their powers as unit members, which led to this brutal act. According to the Washington Post’s “The history of Memphis set the stage for the killing of Tyre Nichols,” history keeps repeating itself when it comes to police brutality against the Balck or Indigenous communities (Stafford & Forde, 2023). Despite the public outrage common on such occasions, there have not been elaborate measures to help deal with the problem.
Regarding leadership, the main measure that the DOJ has taken is to investigate the matter. The investigations, however, ended with four of the police officers involved pleading guilty (Stafford & Forde, 2023). However, the regular occurrence of such police killings has shown a systematic issue that starts with a lack of proper leadership and policies that can help address the problem. The DOJ has continually applied adaptive leadership in dealing with such cases the more they arise. The department tries to adapt to every situation and implement measures to help control the situation better. Nichols’ case involves charging the police officers and investigating them.
However, more elaborate leadership strategies need to be implemented. Transformational leadership is among the measures that can help police officers be of better use to the community (Thomas, 2021). Due to police brutality, most individuals have lost their trust in law enforcement agencies. Transformational leadership will motivate police officers to serve the community better while addressing any systemic issues affecting their service provision (Thomas, 2021). Distributive leadership can also be applied in law enforcement to promote accountability and responsibility among police officers (Amels et al., 2020). This will help regulate their actions, especially while dealing with the public.
In conclusion, police brutality represents a sad reality about the USA and the whole world. In Memphis, there has been a surge in police brutality, and this has led to an indication that this is a systematic issue that continues to affect the country. The three news articles above review the case of Tyre Nichols’s death in terms of the actions leading to the events, reaction and the impact of leadership in dealing with the situation.
References
Amels, J., Krüger, M. L., Suhre, C. J., & van Veen, K. (2020). The effects of distributed leadership and inquiry-based work on primary teachers’ capacity to change: testing a model. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 31(3), 468-485.
Cochrane, E. & Rojas, R. The Questions That Remain a Year After Tyre Nichols’s Death. The Washington Post. https://www.nytimes.com/article/tyre-nichols-memphis-police-dead.html#:~:text=Tyre%20Nichols%2C%20a%2029%2Dyear,confrontation%20that%20ended%20with%20Mr.
NBC News. (2023). The history of Memphis set the stage for the killing of Tyre Nichols. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/tyre-nichols-family-sues-memphis-police-beating-death-rcna80462
Stafford, I. & Forde, K.R. (2023). The history of Memphis set the stage for the killing of Tyre Nichols. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/07/10/reconstruction-history-memphis-police-tyre-nichols/
Thomas, A. M. (2021). Authoritarian, transactional, and transformational leadership styles in law enforcement. Organization Development Journal, 39(1), 33-44.
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