Killing of Tyre Nichols catalyst to root out racial injustice in US policing: article

NEW YORK - The horrific killing of Tyre Nichols by several police officers in Memphis, a city in the US state of Tennessee, is yet another searing reminder of the dangers of driving while Black in America, according to an article published on the Center for American Progress website last week.

"It has focused the national spotlight, yet again, on how police disproportionately stop Black drivers and, even worse, the alarming numbers of Black Americans who are killed while stopped for alleged traffic or other minor violations by the very officers sworn to keep us all safe," it noted.

After almost three years of public outcry following the murder of George Floyd, far too little action has been taken to right the fundamental wrong of police policies and practices that focus more on surveilling, harassing, and intimidating Black people than on investigating and solving crime, according to the article.

"Without meaningful structural and cultural changes in policing, these atrocities will continue," it said, adding that police were responsible for killing 1,192 people last year, the highest number of deaths in the past decade. The rate of being killed by police is more than twice as high for Black people than for white people.

During traffic stops alone, police have killed nearly 600 people since 2017, and Black drivers account for 26 percent of these deaths despite Black people making up only 13 percent of the population, it added.