Opinion: The deplorable reason Memphis police stopped Tyre Nichols

Editor’s Note: Maya Wiley is the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She was a 2021 candidate for New York City mayor. The views in this commentary are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.

CNN
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Tyre Nichols, who will be laid to rest on Wednesday, was killed for driving while Black. The former Memphis police officers fired for his killing will get an opportunity to defend themselves in court against the criminal charges, as they should. Nichols got no such opportunity.

So often in cases like these, the victim is on trial. But here, not only has the Memphis Police Department deemed the force used to detain him excessive, it also stated that there is no evidence that Nichols was even driving recklessly, the asserted reason he was stopped in the first place. Since the firing of the five police officers charged in his death, two additional officers have been relieved of duty, as have three EMT workers.

The question we should be asking now is, why are Black people stopped so often for traffic violations? Why are so many across the United States dying at the hands, or tasers or guns of police officers during these stops? And what can be done to change this horrific situation?

Here’s one thing we know: Body cameras are not the answer. Body camera footage is not prevention; there was body camera footage of Nichols’ killing. It is evidence, not a prophylactic.

Even the concern about the release of the footage – a fear that protests could turn into conflict, or an uprising – is evidence of society’s failure to make good on the promises of reform after the murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd nearly three years ago.

The scope of the problem is immense: Study after study has shown that Black people are overpoliced when it comes to traffic stops. Stanford researchers gathered data on 100 million traffic stops between 2011 and 2017. One hundred million.

They found that Black and Latino drivers are much more likely to be stopped and searched for less reason and even though more illegal items are found on white drivers who are stopped and searched.

These conclusions get repeated in many studies. A South Carolina study of 14 years of police stops showed that Black drivers are 63% more likely to…