Black Cops on the Murder of Tyre Nichols | Uncomfortable Conversations | Police Brutality FULL EP.

Tyree Nichols Tyree Nichols hazing pepper spraying and brutally beating 29 year old Tyree Nichols all five officers are black police who killed Tyree Nichols were black five black men welcome to another episode of uncomfortable conversations with emmanuelacho now it's been said and data will support that historically in this country our police officers have at times unfairly and harmfully targeted black people so what happens when the police officers are black people I'm joined Now by Officer Jeremy Bohannon Sergeant Tanya Thomas and detectives Mike Rohn Sergeant Thomas let's talk about the uh most volatile thing we've really seen this year in policing the murder of Tyree Nichols what went through your mind when you saw the beating and the murder of Tyree Nichols if you did in fact watch it what went through your mind from what I saw on that video chills went through my body I was disgusted I was hurt I was appalled more so also it was our people my people that was involved in this when you say my people you saying black people you're saying officers yes black officers I was appalled I was I felt disrespected I felt like how dare you guys we have fought so hard to to have things and you're sending us back I just felt like I I just can't I couldn't believe it I was totally shocked Mike the murder of Tyree Nichols was caused by black men the murder of George Floyd was caused by a white man so was there a emotional or mental difference between you watching the murder of George Floyd a white man killing a black man versus watching the murder of Tyree Nichols black men very good question because when you pose that I was like oh that's a good question I think the George Floyd that was just I mean I don't you know there was no words and it was sickening to watch it just not moving waving at people I mean that just what replays in my mind when I when I hear about George Floyd my initial reaction when I saw the murder of Tyree Nichols I was like why'd they have to be black it will undermine the progress that black people are trying to collectively make is one when a black group of black individuals and officers at that murder another black invest the first thing that went through my mind after the emotional vitriol and just disgusting pain was why they have to be black and you don't see that did you have that same sort of absolutely 100 and you don't see that I mean I know there's body cam footage out there but you just don't see what we saw not from African Americans at the point in which black officers were responsible for the murder and the death of Tyree Nichols then is it even still a race issue in your mind or is it now a system issue is a system gotten so bad where even black officers look down on black people yes it's it's uh I just still think it goes back to the core because it'd be a different conversation if the subject was white or if the officer is white so I would I would definitely say um that it's both right you know when you become a police officer especially this culture that we talk about there are people that will tell you hey you're no longer black you're blue now you know you're you're a cop you're one of us uh you know I've had a lot of people tell me that or hey because you feel this way you're not one of us anymore and now you know I want to ostracize you because you think that all cops are racist Mike how do you feel when you hear because you you made a sound effect and I felt it across the room how do you feel when you hear you're no longer black you're blue now I I just say that's the furthest from the truth I I've been black all my life and it's the uniform let's talk for a second about the phrase black on black crime we hear that often black on black crime now typically we hear it as a distraction mechanism right if there is a racially charged white person killing a black person a racially charged situation often there will be an outcry but what about black on black crime what about black people killing black people now obviously data shows it interracial violence happens across all ethnic groups across all cultural barriers but with the murder of Tyree Nichols we literally saw it play out black on black crime when you hear that phrase black on black crime Jeremy what do you think I I think just like what you said I think it's a dog whistle um it's just crime you know we you don't hear why don't write crime you don't hear all these other things but for some reason we have this well what about black on black crime and then what about Chicago and what about instead of focusing on what's happening in your community or what's happening across the board crime is crime given the fact that there are implicit bias is within people all people black people white people whatever culture you come from we all have our own implicit biases based upon what the cultures taught us and told us do you all think that you all as black individuals or the black individual on average is better off apprehending a black suspect than a white individual no I just in general the only reason why I say that is because it comes down to communication sometimes when you're dealing with with people right um how what's your Vibe you're putting out when you're going on we have to understand as police officers we're as we escalate the situation as soon as we get there okay and so you have officers right Hispanic Asian doesn't matter that are really good at their their non-verbal cues they're verbal cues and can de-escalate people just based off of the way that they're approaching people so I don't think it's one just to hey this type of Officer needs to deal with this type of person it's that officer that has empathy in their heart can calm down has kindness and can deal with the situation of what they have and not be so high strung every single time just because they're in uniform Tanya I saw you respectfully disagree because I can see it sometimes it's different when I feel like I can communicate differently or operate different and get through to an African-American better than my counterpart why is that because obviously you all are you're operating Under the Umbrella of the law so it's not like you're you're you're you're bending the law as a black person for a black person but why do you think you can communicate maybe more efficiently or effectively with a black person than your white counterpart I think it's trust they only they're going to trust me and trust that I'm going to be fair and I'm going to treat you fairly um as to my counterpart their feeling may not so it's it's I'm African-American you are we we're from the same world you have to know about Hispanic culture African-American culture Asian culture know who to talk to how to talk to so you work that but you have to be willing to do that I'd rather have a different officer work on their empathy and building connection with people that don't look like them because that's what's going to change the culture that's what's going to get people to understand okay hey they're not that bad let me just you know let me just understand them a little bit Yeah it all comes down to trust I love that the quote no one cares what you know until they know that you care I think that is a pervasive thought in society that we must learn how to abide by like I don't care what you know all the the jargon all the laws until I know that you care about me let's talk about the uniform and the badge what is it about the uniform that leads to Corruption of police officers so the main thing about um the uniform is power right we have an enormous amount of power to affect anybody's day and so because we've been granted this power a lot of people don't know what to do with it sometimes and so you can see how easily if somebody doesn't really know how to handle the power that they're given and they also don't have the accountability where somebody's saying hey don't do this don't do that or if you do this you will be held accountable for it it makes it easier and it breeds this this this this feeling that hey I can do what I want I'm not going to get in trouble for it is the system corrupt I don't know I can't I wouldn't say that and and the reason why I wouldn't say that because I know that there are people within the system that want to make sure that it's not Mike not this system not speaking of Boston but it's the system corrupt I think you have individuals in the system that are corrupt who's going to police the police first starts with ourselves it starts with us it's about starting with you first and then from there after you know where you're at and what biases you have what you need to do to to take care of things then you move to others that are around you within this department a lot of times we don't do a good job policing ourselves um you know you have friendships you have people that you you do work with that you're trying to protect um you know I I've seen somebody I can't remember what state they're in and they had talked about um you know go ahead and call my supervisor he's got my back you know what I mean and it's like when you see stuff like that it's just it just adds to that lack of trust it's like okay well I can't even trust that if you do something wrong and I talk to your supervisor your supervisor is going to have your back regardless blue lives matter what do you feel when you hear the phrase blue lives matter in response to the initial phrase of black lives man um I don't I don't like it I want to get to a point where we don't have to say black lives matter and we can truly say that all lives do matter we could truly say that or we don't need that but when blue lives matter started it was more of a not uh this is against you like we're gonna stand on the other side of the fence and we're going to say we're going to say this against what you're saying and I've never seen myself as a blue life and it goes back to when I talk about how some people just can't separate separate themselves from from this uniform it's easy for me to do that because when I take this uniform off I still have to go you know I go to the club with my family and they're they're going to pull me to another line and search me and charge me an extra 20 and tell my wife this is a true story and tell my wife that that they're just protecting um all the people from from from black people you know what I mean and and so I still have to deal with that I still have to deal with with my son being told at the pool that black people don't deserve to live I still have that happen does that happen right right here in my community uh when my son was six years old that literally happened in 2019 and he was at a pool what's that at the pool playing with his friends a new kid came he was a couple years older and didn't want to play with them and told them that black black people don't deserve to live how do you respond to that I wasn't there thankfully my wife was there but it was she she did a great job responding Sergeant Thomas when you think about what you have had to deal with what name calling what racial slurs what have and when have you had to deal with that I typically have had to deal with that more with African-American with African-Americans um I can honestly tell you I've never been called the n-word by anyone that was white um I have had it from my own people I've been called I arrested one female she was in the back of my car she called me a nappy-headed um okay and I have to not say anything because of the uniform because of policy things of that nature would I have responded in any any other way no um because I know within this is just a job that I'm doing so knowing how black people feel about black officers why did you all choose to become police officers once I started thinking about it I felt like I could really go in there and make a change and and be that positive person to make my community and other communities feel safe and better for me I love working with children and initially wanted to be a school teacher but found that I have so much more that I can give to the community if I focused on going into law enforcement so once I got here I found several different Avenues of where I can be that influence on so many different children in so many different levels just helping people I mean why get into this profession if you don't want to help people what can practically be done to bring reconciliation peace and completely or move towards eliminating the the deaths and the murder of black people in society you have to attack the ignorance um so that you don't lead to fear which then leads to hate which leads to destruction and so you do that by coming together you have to start somewhere that bridge is built but nobody's crossing over nobody's crossing over the bridge and trying to meet people where they are and so I think that's the start so then you can start building empathy you can start building connections with people once you start building connections with your community and people know you they know who you are that's a level of accountability right there why would you go into that Community now and deliberately cause harm I am going to say this um because this is the way I feel after 25 years of doing this job seeing the things that I have seen we carry a gun we have things that we can and can't do as law enforcement will we be able to just completely eliminate this one officer who goes Rogue and starts doing something he shouldn't do that's almost impossible can I sit and say that we will never have another African-American shot by the hands of police officers now I can't make that statement could it decline in numbers yes with some of the things that he's talking about will it completely stop no it can't I can't sit here and be honest to you to tell you it will stop at the end of the day we could be sitting here right now and there could be another shooting going on but all that equipment Jeremy has on cuffs the cameras the greatest thing in my opinion is your is your voice of all that equipment the greatest thing he has on him in his voice I love that well Jeremy thank you Tanya thank you I thank you thank you and thank you all for tuning in to another episode of uncomfortable conversations with emmanuelacho it starts with conversations but that is just the beginning because after conversation we need to see action and with action we'll come reconciliation we'll see you next time [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Emmanuel Acho

Views: 253,284

Keywords: emmanuelacho, emmanuel acho, uncomfortable conversations, oprah, cleveland browns, with a black man

Id: sCZtGGseycY

Length: 16min 22sec (982 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023