Rally on the killing of Tyre Nichols
O what a brutal world we live in? The love we should have for our fellow human beings has long vanished, evaporated into thin air.
In Memphis, a suburb of the United States of America, a young man has been beaten to death by policemen in uniform.
His case wouldn't make any news in the US if his killers were white men, because that's a regular occurrence in the police force. Unfortunate black men that have been kicked, bludgeoned, shot or tazed into their early graves are uncountable.
It ranges from flouting traffic regulations, drug offences, domestic issues and even inadvertently committing a minor crime.
Tyre Nichols was chased by the police for falling foul to traffic regulations. Five strong men chased and pounced on him. It will take the brave heart to see the video of how this unarmed innocent looking young man was kicked around and hit by a baton as if he was a sack stuffed with rags.
He cried and called out his mom. He called God thus, mothers are our terrestrial Gods, we cry out to them in times of need, from our young age to our adult age, and on our death beds too.
As if possessed by the devil that hates mothers' names, this bodily built police officers kicked harder their slim black colleague, Tyre Nichols, after blinding him with pepper spray. They used abusive language on him too. They suspected he had drugs on him. None was found after a search in his car. They suspected he was on drugs too. That's yet to be proofed.
They were not white police officers killing a black man for racial reasons. In the case of George Floyd killing by white police officers, the black community all over the world took to the streets and expressed disapproval of rampant racism in the United States. The banner for the rallying call was Black Lives Matter.
I now understand why Kanye West also known as Ye countered that banner with White Lives Matter. Truly, crime has no colour. Evil is in the heart of mankind, not in the skin colour.
It has not taken long that we saw how armed police officers in Nigeria rained bullets on citizens that held demonstration against arbitrary arrests and maltreatments in the hands of trigger-happy police unit known as SARS.
In Ghana today, a female musician is lamenting the death of her brother. On Joy News TV, Perpetual shed tears whiles narrating circumstances that led to her brother's killing. She said her brother was travelling abroad, and a police officer wanted to run search on his luggage. The brother rather wanted the search to be done in front of other witnesses, preferably at the police station. But the officer was so peeved to be dictated to. And in expressing his anger he beat the man travelling abroad to pulps, resulting in his death. The victim was a family man with many dependents.
Indeed, I should also add that there are many hazards associated with policing everywhere in the world. Officers are killed daily carrying out their mandates too.
Civilians have been reported killing police officers. Uniformed police officers kill their colleagues as well.
As the choir sings to lead Tyre Nichols to his Maker, we the living today have to embark on a soul searching.
What at all do we gain when we take love out of our hearts and disrespect our fellow human beings? Is there an evil residing in us that we can't control that make us so bloodthirsty?
As the death knell of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols tolls apace, and tears stream down the cheeks of lovers, it's time we place our security in the hands of the loving God. There is no safety again walking among your fellow human beings. It's a brutal world we live in.
Fare thee well Tyre Nichols.
May the good loving God heal your wounds as He lays you to rest in the bosom of Father Abraham.
