Law enforcement officials send message after Tyre Nichols' death: This was 'thug culture' not 'police culture'

In the wake of the tragic beating of Tyre Nichols, calls for police reform have begun to take hold nationwide after five former Memphis police officers, who are accused in his death, can be seen tasing and beating him in disturbing bodycam footage. 

Law enforcement officials who have been quick to condemn the horrific act are also sending a message to the public that the profession as a whole should not be villainized for the heinous actions of a few. 

Sergeant Betsy Branter Smith, who is also the spokesperson for the National Police Association, argued the five former police officers tied to Nichols' death do not represent "police culture" on "Fox & Friends First."

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"This is not police culture," Smith told Todd Piro Monday. "I've been in the police culture for 45 years. This is thug culture… these men have done this before. They've gotten away with it before. We need to look at this police department, Memphis PD, from the top down, because where were the supervisors? Where was the leadership in this speciality unit?"

"If you're walking around in a black hoodie, you better be ultra professional and ultra-restrained, and that's not what we saw here," she continued. "Let's not attack the entire profession like we did after George Floyd because of the horrible crimes of a few."

Memphis PD released the shocking bodycam video from the night of Jan. 7, which shows the officers beating, tasing and kicking 29-year-old Nichols while he was on the ground. 

Nichols can be heard crying out for his mother and telling officers he was "just trying to go home." He was transported to a local hospital to be treated for his injuries, but died three days later. His cause of death has yet to be released.

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After watching the shocking video, retired Dallas police officer C'mone Wingo said she also believed this was not the first time the group of officers had done this. 

"These people had done this before," Wingo said. "They had empowered each other. This video shows that they saw the situation, and then they did this egregious beating of this man, and it still took forever to call an ambulance."

"And seeing that he was laying over, and they said, ‘Oh, he was just high. Did you see him grab for my gun?’ Those are just little idiosyncrasies that I noticed as a police officer, and I thought, yeah, this wasn't the first time that this has happened," she continued. "This is just the first time they've gotten caught."

The Memphis Police Department has since disbanded the Scorpion Unit, which was created to reduce street crime. The former officers were a part of the unit at the time of the assault. 

Given the sensitive nature of the semi-undercover unit, critics have noted that there should have been more supervision to ensure policy compliance. 

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"There is a cultural issue, I believe, going on in the Memphis Police Department, especially with the Scorpion unit," former Detroit police officer James Craig said. "I applaud the early steps, but it should not end there, and even in the admission of the chief, she says right away that we just don't have enough supervisors. Well if we don't have enough supervisors, why would we deploy our small problem unit with these less-tenured officers without appropriate supervision? The end doesn't justify the means, and so bad policy."

"There's a lot of work to still needs to be done."