“Elite” Police Units Face More Scrutiny as Memphis SCORPION Unit Disbanded over Tyre Nichols Death

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Memphis police have revealed a sixth and a seventh officer have been placed on administrative leave in addition to the five fired officers over the death of Tyre Nichols, after Nichols was brutally beaten at a traffic stop. On Saturday, Memphis disbanded the police unit responsible for the killing, known as SCORPION, which stood for “Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhood.” We look more closely at these so-called special police units in cities nationwide that operate with little oversight with investigative reporter Radley Balko, author of “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces” and of the criminal justice newsletter, The Watch. His opinion piece for The New York Times is headlined “Tyre Nichols’s Death Proves Yet Again That ‘Elite’ Police Units Are a Disaster.”

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20 thoughts on ““Elite” Police Units Face More Scrutiny as Memphis SCORPION Unit Disbanded over Tyre Nichols Death”

  1. My biggest fear is not a criminal on the street, I at least know how to defend myself and others if necessary. It is a rotten cop! No one is Safe from an Unfit cop with a badge! That is sad to say and think, but that is THEIR fault for being Rotten, and OUR fault for allowing it to keep happening! Law Enforcement needs to be Reformed! No shooting at someone running away and not posing an Immediate threat! That’s what the Police used to abide by. Not anymore, but it is US who have let this mess happen and continue. It is a POSITIVE sign that Memphis has taken against Criminal cops, and the Country is in Agreement!!

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  7. Reform in police tactics & strategies should be called "Police Department Reform", not "Police Reform". Police Department Reform should be the following:
    1. No firearms should be issued to any officers with less than 5 years of service.
    2. No more unmarked vehicles. ALL vehicles should be clearly marked as police vehicles.
    3. No more plain clothes officers on street duty. Only detectives assigned to SOLVE a crime should be allowed to wear a suit while on duty.
    4. Fired cops should not be allowed to be rehired at another department in another district, city, county, or state as a police officer.
    5. The offending officers & their unions should be held financially responsible for any lawsuits filed for criminal activity committed by an officer.
    6. No military equipment nor military operations language should be used by police (i.e. The use of the word ENEMY or ENEMIES will never be used to describe American citizens. No use of the term "fire when ready" or "cease fire" because every cop is shooting at one person).
    7. Only one officer should be allowed to draw their firearm on a vehicle stop with one person inside the vehicle.
    8. No firearms should be drawn without the officer actually seeing the citizen with a firearm or the officers receiving an official report that a citizen is armed & dangerous.
    9. All so-called "elite" & "special" units are banned, except detective units for crime solving, not crime prevention. All police must wear a uniform & drive/ride in marked vehicles.
    10. Police units must only be for protecting citizens & a citizen's property & crime solving, not crime prevention. (unless they're stopping a crime in progress or they've received an official report of a crime about to be committed or they officially witness an actual crime in progress).

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  11. INTERNAL AFFAIRS ARE INVOLVED…FBI CIA ..IVE SAID IT FOR YEARS THEY WORK TOGETHER… IT'S GOING TO TAKE CITIZENS WHO ARE REALLY " SUCK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED OF THE INJUSTICE TO OUR PEOPLE AND HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE.

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  15. Are you crazy this is coming from the black man are you out of your mind Where's majority of the crime committed , That's in our black neighborhoods , Where's majority of the drugs sold at in our black neighborhoods, for majority of the murders committed at ? I'll answer it for you in our black neighborhoods….. You pay we need to open your eyes would you order your other violence that goes on in this country is black on black crime we have no respect for our own people they have no respect for our own people's life we take it for granted That's what I can go to a white neighborhood and you don't see nothing like you see in a black neighborhood it's like we enjoy living and pissy hallways and project housing cuz we listening to the liberal narrative in the Democratic party that pushes progressive workism and planned Parenthood on the black family and have been doing it for 6th generations but my people can't open their eyes and see that they're being hustled and lie to and it's a shame

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