Without the body cam video from this Memphis event, an entirely different story may have been told...
Police statements tell the first version of an incident. Then video footage comes out
www.npr.org
...In the days since Tennessee officials released video footage of Memphis police officers brutally beating Tyre Nichols, law enforcement has faced a new wave of criticism.
Some of it has focused on how authorities initially described the incident " and what the videos actually show.
According to a statement from the Memphis Police Department the day after Nichols was beaten, officers pulled over a suspect on suspicion of reckless driving and "a confrontation occurred." The suspect fled, police followed and "another confrontation occurred."
(The statement notes that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was looking into the stop "due to the suspect's condition.")
Video footage released Friday, taken from officers' body cameras and a street surveillance camera, shows a different story. In the videos, police quickly yank Nichols from his car, shout obscenities and threats, and then pepper spray him. Nichols flees, and when police finally catch him a second time, officers kick him, hit him with a baton and repeatedly punch him in the head while he's being restrained.
For some, the discrepancy between the initial police statement and what was captured on video brought to mind previous instances in which law enforcement's initial statement about a violent encounter was vague, misleading or false....
[emphasis mine]
