White supremacy blamed for beating of black man by black police

The alleged killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis stems from systemic racism, a Sky News guest has argued

The five police officers accused in the fatal beating of a 29-year-old black man earlier this month in Memphis, Tennessee, are black, and they worked for a black police chief. Nevertheless, a British political activist has concluded that white supremacy was the root cause of Tyre Nichols’ death.

“The vicious, brutal, unjustified, extrajudicial killing of Tyre Nichols is as a result of a police system that’s built on white supremacy,” London-born lawyer Shola Mos-Shogbamimu told Sky News in an interview on Monday. “White supremacy underpins the policing and criminal justice system, both in the United States and the United Kingdom. It shapes the culture that sees black people as less, treats black lives as disposable, and ensures that black lives don’t matter.”

As host Kay Burley began to point out that the officers charged with Nichols’ murder were black, Mos-Shogbamimu said, “I’m about to educate some people right now.” She likened the Nichols incident to the May 2020 death of George Floyd, which sparked violent Black Lives Matters protests across the US and Europe.

Representation and diversity matters, but don't bring in "black and brown gatekeepers" who represent white supremacy and call that representation, says @SholaMos1 when asked about the Tyre Nichols killinghttps://t.co/pIDZkPXLkr