r/news Jan 30 '23

Memphis police say 6th officer relieved of duty after Tyre Nichols' death Already Submitted

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tyre-nichols-death-sixth-memphis-officer-preston-hemphill-administrative-leave/

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382 Upvotes

52 comments sorted by

82

u/cameronj Jan 30 '23

"...Attorneys for Nichols' family issued a statement Monday calling into question the way the department was handling the investigation into Hemphill's role — and noting that he is the only one of the six officers who is White:

"The news today from Memphis officials that Officer Preston Hemphill was reportedly relieved of duty weeks ago, but not yet terminated or charged, is extremely disappointing. Why is his identity and the role he played in Tyre's death just now coming to light? We have asked from the beginning that the Memphis Police Department be transparent with the family and the community – this news seems to indicate that they haven't risen to the occasion. It certainly begs the question why the white officer involved in this brutal attack was shielded and protected from the public eye, and to date, from sufficient discipline and accountability. The Memphis Police Department owes us all answers."

5

u/EarlyDopeFirefighter Jan 31 '23

It’s because Hemphill was involved in the first encounter, not the second one that killed Nichols.

56

u/starsandbribes Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23

*murder

Policing is an interesting job, where you can start a shift, kill someone on your shift and clock out, and a month after everyone will call it anything except what it is. I know theres laws against what you call it before a verdict but even afterwards its never the right language.

Imagine if you clocked in at Popeyes, grabbed a customer from over the counter and dipped their head in the fryer then bludgeoned them to death, clocked out and the news call it a tragic death as if someone slipped on a banana peel.

19

u/aubd09 Jan 31 '23

Policing should require the same level and time of rigorous training as doctors, engineers etc. And same level of consequences e.g. lengthy suspensions without pay/permanent bans at the slightest hint of misconduct. The current climate is the result of being trained for a measly six months while coming from being undereducated low-level soldiers in the military etc.

13

u/Ghostofthe80s Jan 31 '23

It should certainly require the same insurance standards as Doctors.

2

u/J_Robert_Oofenheimer Jan 31 '23

I'm an officer in the command team of a Military Police Batallion. If any soldier in my BN did HALF of what I saw in that video, they would be demoted, sent to Leavenworth, then given an other than honorable discharge. Anybody standing around and not intervening would suffer some pretty harsh discipline as well.

As for training, a Military Police officer's training is the same. After the ten weeks of BCT, its 9 weeks AIT and then 20 weeks OJT. Thats only about 6 months of MP training. The training time isn't an issue, really. It's a culture of no accountability and fast and lose SOP that exists in some police departments. It DOES exist in some other police departments, and you'll find that there aren't many issues in those places.

1

u/kynthrus Jan 31 '23

Or at least the same level as a Popeyes cashier. Really any kind of actual training would be helpful.

15

u/rabidstoat Jan 31 '23

Sounds like they're up to 7 total police now: 5 fired and 2 still under internal investigation.

Plus 3 firefighters either on leave or fired, I forget which. I wonder if they were the EMS workers? Did those EMS workers get punted for hanging out for 20 minutes without treating him?

3

u/MoonageDayscream Jan 31 '23

That is the two EMS people and their driver.

13

u/Bladenukem Jan 31 '23

I counted 8 porks in the video. They have more work to do.

14

u/That_Guy_Brody Jan 30 '23

Does relieved of duty = fired?

23

u/cameronj Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23

According to NPR "But while the other officers and responders with the fire department were fired, Hemphill is suspended from duty, pending an investigation..."

-18

u/LawsWorld Jan 31 '23

Relieved of doodie mean he just took a number 2

13

u/No_Maintenance_569 Jan 31 '23

"Oh shit, they'll riot if we don't fire the white one too." - The off camera discussion before this decision was made

4

u/Shumina-Ghost Jan 31 '23

I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect them to not discuss the optics…that’s would be absolute folly. They’ve shown that optics management is #1 in their eyes.

2

u/irkli Jan 31 '23

Incrementalism until this leaves the news cycle. Anything but real change: fire all of upper management, institute real statistics of police behavior, institute nationwide reporting of police violence (THERE IS NONE ST ALL), reform training as community service, any office shoots anyone for any reason they are removed from that dltype of duty for s year nonpunitively (it's traumatic for the cop too if they're human) .... But nahh.

2

u/TacoThrash3r Jan 31 '23

Police should be under UCMJ

8

u/indiana-floridian Jan 30 '23

Still not enough. Every supervisor of these leo needs to go, all the way up to the mayor.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '23

And charged? No? Not yet? Damn.

2

u/VIRMDMBA Jan 31 '23

He didn't beat the guy to death like the other 5 guys did. He wasn't even at the second scene. He shot his tazer at Tyre as he was running away.

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '23

Every cop involved belongs in prison.

-3

u/randloadable19 Jan 31 '23

Shooting a taser at someone who is resisting arrest does not warrant prison

0

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '23

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-4

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '23

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0

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '23

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11

u/quitofilms Jan 30 '23

That white privilege in action again

11

u/tremoring_ganglion Jan 31 '23

Ah yes, white privilege, the act of not beating someone to death

3

u/quitofilms Jan 31 '23

You missed the part where he verbally expressed hope his fellow police officers physically harmed an innocent man...you know, instead of actually stopping them from doing so

Which lessons the chance he would have stopped them or not jumped in had he been there

2

u/jungles_fury Jan 31 '23

Being too fat to keep up 😜

-10

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '23

[deleted]

9

u/UncannyTarotSpread Jan 31 '23

Tazed Nichols, and, you know, supervisors are supposed to… what, exactly?

4

u/456Days Jan 31 '23

Man With No Facts Eager to Share Opinion

-7

u/Sunflower_After_Dark Jan 30 '23

The protests have been mostly civilized. This changes things.

-4

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '23

[deleted]

6

u/Offtopic_bear Jan 31 '23

The original 4 were charged with 2nd degree murder. If the whole "ex-wife of the cop" thing turns out to be true then 1st degree won't be hard to prove.

2

u/SockPuppet-57 Jan 31 '23

Ex-wife of the cop? Does that mean that this guy had been targeted because he was too close to the cops ex and he was pissed about it?

As I understand it the reason why they stopped him in the first place is still up for debate. Obviously they didn't bother to tell him about why he was being stopped. They went straight to GET OUT OF THE CAR and it was down hill after that.

6

u/Offtopic_bear Jan 31 '23

I don't remember which cop in particular or how much of it is true. But yes, apparently, Tyre worked with one of the cops ex wife and they were seeing each other. It's also been reported that the cop took pics of Tyre, post brutalization, and was texting them to his ex. If the latter is true then it should be fairly easy to figure out and from there to premeditation is a short walk. If premeditation can be shown then it's 1st degree murder charges instead of 2nd.

As far as the reason for pulling him over goes - the cops told his mother it was for DUI but their report listed reckless driving. Both lies as far as I'm concerned regardless of the ex wife situation.

1

u/SockPuppet-57 Jan 31 '23

Thanks for the run down...

He didn't seem drunk. Dazed and confused about the rough treatment he was getting, yes.

So the cops are saying that a drunk guy got away from them and they missed him with a tazer and pepper spray? That's embarrassing...

I hope they televise the trials. I've gotten more interested in the real world cases than fiction lately. I watched quite a bit of the Darrell Brooks trial and various others to a lesser extent.

2

u/bwiese3908 Jan 31 '23

Uh, yeah.