Excessive use of force has a long, shameful history in American policing

Here we go again. Another unnecessary and unprovoked death of a young Black man at the hands of police. This time in Memphis, Tennessee, with the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols by five members of the police department’s since disbanded Scorpion Unit. When will it stop? It won’t, not until the underlying cause is addressed. That will take a concerted effort over a long period of time, though it is an effort that has only been attempted piecemeal and sporadically over many years and has never addressed the root cause of the problem — a subculture predicated on violence.