Videos of Paul Pelosi's Beating and Tyre Nichols' Killing Released

Finneran's Wake

Long withheld from public view, the video of Paul Pelosi's cudgeling by David DePape was finally released by authorities in San Francisco. The harrowing clip, widely accessible on YouTube, shows a flat-footed officer intervening to separate the two men.

Pelosi, an elderly man in his 8th decade of life, suffered a fractured skull and was knocked unconscious for about 3 minutes. By all accounts, he has not yet, and perhaps never fully will recuperate from the injuries he sustained that night. DePape, a peculiar character of Canadian extraction, was apprehended and is facing many years in prison.

The second and more disquieting video shows the altercation between Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old father and FedEx employee, and the Memphis police. For having allegedly violated a routine traffic law, the officers stopped and detained Nichols. After he apparently evaded arrest, the officers descended upon and mercilessly beat him.

Nichols, a black man, died of his injuries at the hospital a few days later. The five police officers, also black, have since been relieved of their posts and charged with second degree murder.

What were your first impressions upon watching these videos?

What do they say about police in America?

What about the narrative of race?