White supremacist accused of beating black man by black police – Reuters
Alleged killing of Tire Nichols in Memphis stems from systemic racism, Sky News guest argues
The five officers charged in the fatal beating of a 29-year-old black man earlier this month in Memphis, Tennessee, are black and worked for a black police chief. Nonetheless, a British political activist concluded that white supremacy was behind Tire Nichols’ death.
“The vicious, brutal, wanton and extrajudicial killing of Tire Nichols is the result of a white supremacist policing system,” London-born lawyer Shola Mos-Shogbamimu told Sky News in an interview on Monday. “White supremacy underpins the policing and criminal justice system in both the US and the UK. It shapes the culture that views black people as less, treats black lives as disposable, and ensures that black lives don’t matter.
As host Kay Burley began to point out that the officers charged with Nichols’ murder were black, Mos-Shogbamimu said, “I’m about to educate some people right now.” She compared the Nichols incident to the death of George Floyd in May 2020, which sparked violent Black Lives Matters protests in the United States and Europe.
After Burley noted that Nichols’ mother had said she hoped her son’s death would lead to change, the activist said: “Between George Floyd and today, nothing has changed. I highly doubt anything will change until we eradicate the source of this problem, which is white supremacy.
Those who suggest an incident involving only blacks was unrelated to white racism are simply uneducated, Mos-Shogbamimu said. “There is a systemic reality of white supremacy that produces racist white cops and black and brown cops who guard racial barriers.” She added, “Black and brown racial guards exist in policing, exist in our health care system, in our politics. They exist everywhere. Their purpose is to represent white supremacy.
Some US commentators, such as CNN’s Van Jones and US Representative Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, have made similar claims. RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tire Nichols, said the officers involved in her son’s murder “shame” their communities. “I hate that it was five black men who did this to another black man,” she told MSNBC.
The Sky News interview was quickly dismissed by critics. British media personality Piers Morgan called the claims “unbelievable,” add, “Anti-racist liars like Dr. Shola do enormous damage to the cause of racial equality.”
RT
