No, she wasn't murdered.
There is a lesson here for citizens. Don't struggle with the police.
They have a license to kill.
My post today isn't about rights or about justice. In fact, it is about the opposite of that. It is about surviving an encounter with the police.
Tyre Nichols got killed. Ashli Babbitt got killed. Nichols was the man beaten up and killed by Memphis police officers last week. Babbitt was the January 6 Capitol rioter who was killed while breaking through a door to climb into the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Marjorie Taylor Green compared Nichols and Babbitt on the floor of the House this week. Green said Babbitt was "murdered." She said Babbitt was one of the "many people that came into the Capitol on Jan. 6, whose civil rights and liberties are being violated heavily." She is echoing Trump, who called Babbitt "an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman," and a "patriot." Two days ago Trump wrote in all caps: "ASHLI BABBITT WAS MURDERED!!!”
Tyre Nichols' death, at the fists and feet of Black police officers, muddles the normal partisanship we would expect from White populists when a Black man is killed by police. The police officers were Black, so there was no need for her defend White police. Green addressed a fellow House member. “Miss Crockett, I do agree with you about Tyree Nichols’ death. I watched the video, and it was tragic and extremely difficult to watch.” Then she likened it to Ashli Babbitt's death.
The death of Babbitt muddles things for liberal Boomers who might normally react by defending protesters. That was the early training of those who remember the 1968 Chicago police riot, the 1969 Kent State shooting, pot busts, and police being called "pigs" by hippies. However, Babbitt was in a scrum of Trump-supporting rioters in the act of breaking down a door to find House members. As Kevin McCarthy put it, in contradiction to both Marjorie Taylor Green and Trump, “I think the police officer did his job."
I agree with McCarthy. I would consider it dereliction of duty if the armed Capitol police failed to protect members of the House and Senate. They are armed for a reason.
I consider the cases of Nichols and Babbitt very different, but there is a common lesson for citizens in both. Police consider themselves justified--and the law concurs--when they use deadly force if they feel themselves or others endangered. Citizens should be treated with respect by police, but encounters with police are a poor time to demand respect. Police are looking for submission. Not attitude.
What are citizens to do if their goal is to survive encounters with the police? Comply. Give police what they want, control of the situation. Recognize that this is a dangerous situation for the police.
A police officer approaching a car in a traffic stop does not know if the driver is armed, intoxicated, or in good mental health. The citizen, too, can hope the police officer is in good mental health. One can count on the fact that the officer is armed.
The practical reality is that the police officer's interpretation of events is what matters. This includes times when police are dishonest. The Memphis officers were doing a performance for their body cameras when they were shouting for Nichols to stop resisting. They had pepper-sprayed his face, and it is natural for a person to bring his hands up to protect his eyes and head. Nichols was shouting that he was on the ground and trying to comply as they were beating him.
I watch videos of police confrontations and fervently wish that people who are stopped by police had simply complied. Not run. Not resisted. Not argued. Not justified themselves. Take the roughing up and disrespect if the police officer is in the mood for that. It isn't justice, the Bill of Rights, or maintaining self respect. It is getting through a dangerous situation.
One can hope the officer has a body camera. Have a dashboard camera of one's own. One or both of those cameras may tip things in your favor, if the encounter goes badly.
What Ashli Babbitt and Tyre Nichols have in common is that neither complied with the police and both are dead.
I understand what you are saying here, and have heard the same sentiment from others regarding cooperation with police. What many seem to be missing is the difference between a white person's lack of cooperation and a Black person's lack of cooperation. White people don't end up beat up or dead. Ashli Babbitt was an exception to this, but the comparison is a bit of a stretch, in my opinion.
Overall appreciated & agreed with your article regarding above title.
I thoroughly disagree with your choice of your "last sentence" ... Tyre really wasn't given the choice of complying . I would offer that even if he had NOT run initially, he would have ended up dead that night. sigh.