Tyre Nichols’ bodycam footage of his fatal confrontation with Memphis police officers following a traffic stop earlier this month was released on Friday.
In the video, Nichols is thrown to the ground before being punched and pepper-sprayed by officers.
Shortly after the video went viral, journalist Jason Whitlock appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight and claimed that the officers charged in Nichols’ death were led by a “single Black woman” police chief.
When asked about the incident, Whitlock admitted that there was a racial component to it and described it as “gang violence.”
“There is a racial component. And this is a story about young Black men’s inability to treat one another humanely. On the street, everyone involved was between the ages of 24 and 32. Everybody. It was a five-on-one match between a group of young Black men. “It appeared to me to be gang violence.”
He went on to say that the officers’ actions were the result of Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis’ supervision:
“It appeared to be what young Black men do when supervised by a single Black woman.”
The journalist went on to claim that the police department’s chaos and violence are the result of the force being run by “Black women” or “single mothers”:
“And that’s what the Memphis Police Department is up to. They’ve elected or appointed a Black woman to lead the police force, and we’re seeing the same kind of chaos, disunity, and violence that we see in a lot of these single-mother cities.”
Jason Whitlock maintained that suspects resist police because they never face male authorities in their homes, resulting in deaths from police brutality:
“Let’s have that discussion if we want to discuss the breakdown of family that leads to disrespect for authority, which causes you to resist the police, run from the police, and not comply with the police, because you resist authority at all times, because there was no male authority in your home.”
Whitlock’s comments sparked widespread outrage on social media, with many criticising the reporter for his controversial take on Tyre Nichols’ death.
Tyre Nichols died on January 10 after spending three days in the hospital following an altercation with Memphis police. He was allegedly tased, beaten, and pepper-sprayed following a traffic stop for alleged reckless driving.
Officials recently released a harrowing video documenting Nichols’ brutal encounter with police. In response to the video, journalist Jason Whitlock claimed that the officers accused of assaulting Nichols acted in such a manner because they were under the supervision of a “Black single woman,” aka Police Chief Cerelyn Davis.