As with what seemed like the rest of the world, I tuned in to the television Friday night to watch the released video footage from the City of Memphis depicting the arrest and subsequent beating of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols.
What I saw didn’t shock me. At this point, with the world at our fingertips through our cell phones, we’ve all seen videos like this, whether on broadcast news, social media or a myriad of other outlets. A simple Google search will render thousands of results featuring brutal encounters between law enforcement officers and citizens.
We’ve become inundated with these images. So, no. This wasn’t shocking to me.
That being said, what did affect me was the audio.
In one of the videos, an officer’s body camera captured a moment when Nichols was laying on the ground, his head lifted off the ground as officers leaned on him and pulled his arms behind his back. His voice was strained as he looked in the direction of what can only be assumed to be his mother’s residence and yelled with notes of desperation, “Mama! Mama!”
I’m not shocked by it. But I’m affected. As a mother, when my children cry or are hurt there is a special quality that rips forth from the depths of their frightened souls, “Mama!” Any mother knows that sound. It makes us stop what we are doing, go on high alert and run to save our children.
This quality isn’t unique to the human world. In the animal kingdom, mothers across most species are biologically conditioned to hear the cry of their offspring and respond, whether it be chasing off danger, cuddling and comforting, or simply making an appearance.
“Mama!”
Nichols’ voice had that quality. That basic instinctual cry of a child searching for the final line of defense against outside harm, the cry for his mama.
Now, I’m nothing like Nichols’ mother. In fact, I’m closer to Nichols’ age than I am to the age of his mother, but I heard his cry. I’m not the only one. Other mothers in the world who watched the footage could hear and understand the cry- the cry echoing and ripping through as a primordial “call to arms”.
And that is what enrages us about the incident. If we all can hear the desperate and pleading sound of a young man calling for help from his mother, why couldn’t the officers, paramedics, bystanders and deputies on scene, also hear and respond to the cry for help from brutality?
They didn’t.
Yes. The officers were the instigators in the crime. I’m glad the City of Memphis fired them and the Shelby County, Tenn. district attorney didn’t hesitate to bring charges against them.
With not only my husband, but also many, many friends who are law enforcement officers, I reached out for their opinions. They all agreed the Memphis officers on the SCORPION team were out of control. Not one of them can provide me with an explanation of why things might have gone so badly. They are as confused and angry as the rest of us.
But what angers me just as much, are the actions of everyone involved following the incident. They did absolutely nothing as this man contorted in pain from what was no doubt in my mind, a traumatic brain injury. They did nothing.
“Mama!”
Let that echo in your mind as it has mine and will continue to do so for who knows how long. The call of a child in need of any small semblance of hope and comfort from the prime nurturer in his life.
“Mama!”
As the days, weeks and months of the litigation move forward and we struggle to find solutions to prevent any more incidents like what transpired with Nichols, I hope we all remember the young man’s cry. I hope it stays as jarring, scarring, and haunting as it is now. I hope it doesn’t fade and we use it as a driving factor to be kind, helpful and loving to our fellow members of mankind.
I pray God will put his healing hand on the community of Memphis and our nation as we continue to struggle with finding solutions for conflict resolution.
But mostly, I pray for Nichols’ mama. No mother should have to deal with knowing her child called for her and she did not hear the sound, to know she couldn’t run and render aid to her child. No matter the extenuating circumstances involved, a mother loves her child and would do anything to protect and provide comfort.
This mama would have helped if I could, and I know mothers all over feel the same. So, stand with me and let, “Mama!” continue to echo in our hearts and minds and drive us to do better, be better, practice better, but mostly, love better than we’ve been doing.
Children everywhere are counting on it.
