Last Friday, Memphis police released surveillance video of five police officers fatally beating 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, an unarmed Black man, after pulling him over for an alleged traffic violation.  Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis warned that the footage contained “acts that defy humanity.”

Many commentators immediately ascribed racial motives to the officers despite all five being African American.  President Joe Biden declared that it was “yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day.”

A frequent critic of Black Lives Matter, Heather MacDonald also offered a sweeping racial indictment. She told Fox News that “implicit bias training, diversity training” were partly to blame for the officers’ criminal conduct.

What is actually known is that all five, now former, officers were relatively young and new to the force.  Their ages range from 24 to 32, with two and half to five years experience wearing the badge.  They were members of a small, newly formed, now disbanded, special unit of a 2,000 member, 58% African American police department. All five now face a slew of charges, including second degree murder.

Benjamin Crump, the lawyer representing the Nichols family, praised the swift action by Memphis officials, calling it “a blueprint for all America from this day forward.” Putting facts before politics would be a welcome blueprint, as well.