>

Not really. My point holds even if there were white cops more directly involved.  In many ways the Memphis PD is a model of what the protests are calling for.       Its an opportunity for the activists to hold the MPD up as an example.
/u/YoloFomoTimeMachine (OP) has awarded 4 delta(s) in this post.
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Please note that a change of view doesn't necessarily mean a reversal, or that the conversation has ended.
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I haven't really kept up with this story, but as I understand it there are 2 big differences here.
First is a matter of timing. Most COVID lockdowns are done, so while Floyd's death happened at a time where a lot of people had a lot of time on their hands, Nichol's death happened when people are mostly busy with work.
Second, (if I am getting the facts correct here), the officers involved in Nichol's death were arrested before the story got large coverage, which means there is less to protest about. >

Exactly. Much of the Floyd protests were due to the fact that the cops tired to sweep it under the rug, calling his death a “medical event” in official communication. It wasn’t until a teenager released her personal recording that we realized what happened and saw the attempt to cover it up. 
Contrast this event, where there was no cover up and the police force acted swiftly to deal with the problematic cops. The video was released by the police themselves after disciplinary action was already taken. 
This event is the system for punishing bad police working as it should. >

How long until that video was released? >

A couple of weeks. 
Keep in mind though that in that time, the cops were fired, the DA started the process to charger them with murder and their unit was disbanded. 
The protests were a desire for accountability. Accountability was already happening when the video was released. >

It could be argued that it only happened this expeditiously because the cops are black this time. Which kind of aligns with the CMV. >

Perhaps. 
Or perhaps they saw what happened after Floyd and realized that they had to do something fast to prevent riots. 
We have no way to know. >


The only reason I can see

There are clearly at minimum two significant factors that may have influenced the lack of protests/rioting. 
One - you mentioned.
Two - The police fired the officers right away and charged them with murder prior to the video being released. 
To not even mention the second one speaks volumes. 
It's reasonable to suggest that the race of the officers had some influence on the community reaction. It's unreasonable to pretend that the officers actually being held accountable had nothing to do with it.
One of the primary things we hear from protestors in these cases for decades is "No Justice. No Peace."
I would say this case is a good example that with justice, there can be peace. >

I'll admit there could've been a difference here. However I don't think it has to do with them being charged faster really (Chauvin was charged quickly as well). It's the fact that the police had to footage, not some random on the street who puts it on youtube. >

The weather could be a factor as well.  It's -10F where I'm from now.  You can't spend hours rioting when it's the dead of winter.  I have noticed that people don't protest as much when it's as cold as it's been recently. >

A few other reasons to consider.


With Floyd, the video came out from civilian sources immediately and was viral on social media immediately. The police were constantly playing catchup on the narrative, letting the protests build, rather than in this case where the video came out from official sources a week after the event. The Police were much more in control of the narrative for Nichols' murder.


It's winter rather than summer. That makes a big difference for people's willingness to rally outside, especially in the northern US.


Covid lockdowns and job loss was right before Floyd. People were already feeling trapped and restless and desperate at that time, the protests combined a lot of feeling that was not necessarily related to exact situation they were protesting. 


This seems obvious but we already had the George Floyd protests. We did the whole thing already and it seems like nothing changed. We had a couple cities talk about defunding the police, then not really do anything. A lot of the public got burned out on protest, thinking it's not that effective. That energy from 2020 isn't there anymore. Maybe it just needs more time to build back up, but I very much believe that even if these officers were white it would not have caused anything like the Floyd protests. >


This seems obvious but we already had the George Floyd protests. We did the whole thing already and it seems like nothing changed. We had a couple cities talk about defunding the police, then not really do anything. A lot of the public got burned out on protest, thinking it's not that effective. That energy from 2020 isn't there anymore. Maybe it just needs more time to build back up, but I very much believe that even if these officers were white it would not have caused anything like the Floyd protests.

I want to quickly address this: I think the officers wouldn't have been fired this quickly and the unit being disbanded (if I heard correctly) if it wasn't for those protests.  While the main goals may not have been achieved, I think some good still came out of it. >

That's true. It did change a lot about the response to police murder of civilians, but it did not lead to changes to the system of policing itself. I think it has helped make murder charges for cops more likely, which could be a deterrent, obviously a good thing. That's not really enough for most people though. >

I agree it's not enough, I just wanted to point out that "nothing changed" and "didn't achieve it's goals, but achieved some benefits" are important to keep in mind.  It's not a change enough to stop fighting for improvement...not by a long shot, but it was a positive change. >

True, good point. I think that is good perspective to keep in mind. >

The rule is that police killings don’t cause large protests, George Floyd is an exception. In the US around 1,000 people are killed by police per year. >

I think a lot is also based on graphic video. >

Sure and how many videos do we have police brutality? Many instances of police brutality are caught on peoples phones now. 
The thing about large outpourings of public anger is that it’s hard to say which combination of factors can spark an uprising and which will barely cause a stir. A trigger event has to happen in the right set of circumstances. >

I want to bring up something that I haven’t seen commented yet.
Fatigue.
Protests—about anything—go in waves. While there will always be a handful of people constantly doing activist work for their ideas, protests with large swarms of people like we saw in 2020 are not a regular occurrence. People have to go back to work. People have to take care of their kids. People get tired of going out on the streets every day and seeing nothing change. People get frustrated and disillusioned and discouraged. Now, like other people have commented, the sustained mobilization we saw in 2020 was in part due to the pandemic. People had a LOT more time and energy on their hands. But even sans pandemic, the repeated instances of police brutality that have been publicized since about 2014 or so have been…ceaseless. People are tired, and rightfully so, of different iterations of the same shit happening.
I can assure you that Tyre Nichols murder is not going unnoticed. My professors and classmates are heartbroken discussing it. But I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch the video because I’m tired of seeing human beings murdered by gangs in blue. >

!delta
I think this is a factor I didn't consider. >

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/theeincognegro (1∆).
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There's nothing to protest! The officers involved have already been fired and charged with murder. They've also disbanded (or are talking about dibanding) the police unit. I can't see what a protest would rally for?
This isn't a time for protests. This isn't a classic "racism" issue. Right now is a time for vigils; for reflection on America, for us to have a collective howl about how police and all the guns in the US keep killing innocents. >

There were still protests after Chauvin was arrested and charged. >

Were they protesting to try and get Chauvin arrested and charged? Or did they have a different goal? >

They had a different goal. Largely centered around ideas concerning whiteness and white supremacy. They don't have that now. So there's simply less outrage, since the cops were black that killed him >


Largely centered around ideas concerning whiteness and white supremacy

Was it? I remember it being anti police. Any sources showing anti white supremacy as central to their movement?

They don't have that now.

What DO they have now? Don't you think anti police sentiment enough to protest over? >

"Dismantling white supremacy" was one of the central themes of blm. It was brought up constantly. There's tons of documentation for this. >

So it wont be hard for you to provide some sources.
Care to address the rest of my comment? >

I thought this was about protests, not theory? Where is your protest footage demonstrating that this was part of their demands? >

A lot of this was previously about police brutality rooted in systemic racism. 
You had a clearly white cop, killing a clearly black person, in a time and place where racial politics were already front and center. 
The issues were clear, even to people who don’t necessarily watch the news. 
Now, imagine you’re going about your day, and you hear another black American was killed by cops. First you’d think it might be racially motivated, but then you hear the cops were black, now maybe it’s a brutality issue. 
Summing this up, I believe there are many factors happening here. The racial issue, sure, but that’s muddied, it’s all systemic, but you’d have to keep someone’s attention long enough to explain it so people just shorten it to “racism” when what this particular case is, is a brutality case, that we can probably find roots in, stemming from systemic racism. Finally, there are still details unfolding, and I think that fatigue is keeping a lot of people from physically taking action until they know more. >

The real takeaway here is why does it take months or years to arrest white officers who are caught on camera murdering people? The Memphis PD just showed that there was never any reason for any of that. >

The media aren't giving this as much attention as George Floyd because it isn't close to an election. Every time an election draws near, both sides stir up some big controversy to get people to vote. >

There were protests. A lot of them, and all over. There were definitely protests in Memphis. 
What was different was that the police department handled the issue correctly, for once. The department showed support for the family and for justice, instead of trying to protect the cops that did it. The response was quick and decisive. 
So the people who protested peacefully felt heard by the system, and there were no riot police sent there to shut them down. It was a lesson in civic response, and there was nothing to set it over the edge into a riot. 
Nobody-literally nobody- cares that the officers weren’t white. Their actions were part of the same systemic racism, and their own race played no part. The reason they were inclined to treat a traffic suspect this way was because they were in a place where policing is excessive. This wouldn’t have happened in a white neighborhood, because the police there are conditioned to treat citizens as  people and not just targets. 
One can get into circular logic about whether excessive policing is the result of higher violent crime rates, or if higher crime rates are the result of systemic conditions imposed on those areas- one of which is oppressive policing. The fact is, chicken/egg makes no difference. Those cops did what they did because they were conditioned to treat their suspects that way, and the fact they were black and still did it suggests they might ignore the systemic issues that lead to that type of policing, and instead just perpetuate the standard because it is what it is. >

In this case the mother of the victim pleaded for people to not riot, and to be peaceful in their protests.  I don't know how Floyd's parents reacted to his murder, but maybe that is a difference?
The mother is the biggest victim still alive, so I think people want to listen to what she wishes. >

In Minnesota, with wind chill, it’s pretty much been below zero since the video came out.  Difficult weather to protest extensively in… >

Unfortunately you're correct, but I do not believe this is the only reason, and I personally believe it has more to do with the following combination of factors:

What you mentioned
The officers involved were fired and charged before the video was released. There was no video that came immediately after the incident before the proper investigation could proceed.
It's cold. People don't want to be outside at 1AM in the negative degree wind chill weather.
The American public does not have the appetite for anti-police rhetoric anymore. Rise in crime has people more concerned about lack of police resources and the defund argument is dead for the forseeable future.
Recession, people do not have the time or expendable income to worry about things like protesting as much as they did in 2020.
Althrough this is just a theory for me at the moment, I think average people who would have been interested in engaging in protests are offput by groups such as the "Party of Socialism & Liberation" that keep showing up with their mass produced signs. Makes the protests look very manufactured and people don't want to stand next to fakes pushing an ulterior agenda. >

There’s a timing involved with any protest.  This didn’t hit the mark. >

The protests themselves were never solely because a man was killed by the police, they were also largely fueled by the outrage that the offending officers were protected from any repercussions by the police as an institution. That’s a blatant turnover of our expectations of justice, and that gets people out on the streets. In this case, 5 officers were involved in the beating of a man to the point of dying in the hospital and, as a result, those 5 officers were immediately fired and are now being charged for their actions. A man was still murdered by police, but after that everything proceeded as it should have. Not a whole lot to incite protests when most people are in agreement that things are proceeding as they should. 
In a roundabout way, your statement might be accurate in that the immediate firing and filing of criminal charges might have only happened because the officers weren’t white. Had they been some good ol’ boys, I might have expected them to get the usual paid administrative leave until things blow over. I haven’t seen the video myself yet, but it would have to be pretty damn brutal for it to be the worst police brutality I ever saw, and that’s what it would have to be for 5 officers to be immediately fired and charged. >


So we've all seen the video.
i bet a lot of people don't even know Tyres name.

How does this make sense? >

The mayor of Minneapolis called for Chauvin to be prosecuted 2 days after the killing.... >

Cool bro, care to address literally any part of my comment? >

So let me see if I get this right. You think it's the speed of the charges that made the difference between the two incidents? >

No? Did you read any of what I wrote?
I'm not understanding why it's so important for you to compare two police killings, what makes the two events different is that they are different events.
Do you not care that you got many details wrong in your post, including the idea that no white officers were involved? That should already be enough to change your view, which was that the lack of protests was because there wasn't a white officer involved. >

Becsuse one sparked outrage and a national discussion, and protests for months, even after the police were arrested and charged. While the other kind of just vanished. >

After months of BLM protests over George Floyd didn't they also fizzle out and vanish?
The Tyre Nichols situation hasn't "vanished" the officers will soon be on trial. They are cogs in the justice system now.
What do you want people to be doing exactly?
And do you still maintain that race is the only factor, even though I've demonstrated that at least one white officer was involved (and facing consequences)? >

Speaking for myself, I wasn't upset because the officers in question were quickly held accountable. No one tried blaming the victim, and the police union did not automatically back the officers. In other words, some level of justice has been served already. That was not the case with Floyd at all, and race never once entered my mind because I didn't realize the five officers were black. >

Do you feel like they should all be convicted of murder? What is justice in your mind? Chauvin got 43 years. >

Your OP claims the response to the Memphis police brutality was based on race. 
Like several others in this thread, we all pointed out why the difference is not racial but due to the Memphis officers facing justice instead of an immediate cover-up. 
Sorry, but that is all I'm talking about and I refuse to let you change the goalposts. Take care. >

The protests continued after Chauvin was charged. I've stated this multiple times. >

That is not the only factor that u/wjmacguffin brought up. Lets look at what they actually said:

the officers in question were quickly held accountable.

Emphasis on quickly. An officer being held accountable after a massive protest in the middle of a massive controversy is totally different from officers being charged before any protests start.

No one tried blaming the victim

Tons of media figures and the official medical report after the fact all claimed that Floyd died due to overdose and the police were not doing anything wrong. This inflamed the division and protest.

the police union did not automatically back the officers

In Floyd's case, the police union immediately was defending Chauvin and making statements condemning the unrest and protests. This inflamed tensions as well. Both the police unions and right wing outrage media have treated this case totally differently, which is another factor in the case that I can add.
The situations have tons of differences that you should acknowledge. If you think these differences are not relevant, you should explain why rather than only commenting on Chauvin being charged in the middle of the protests. >

I wouldn't bother. He cannot talk about those and save face. He even said his delta didn't change his mind and he was not wrong at all. >

Yeah idk. I think your points are pretty clear but we will see if OP ever gets around to a serious response. >

There have been protests. They aren't as big as the floyd protests but it's not we have multiple city wide protests on the regular. >

I do think there would be a lot more outage if it was five white cops.  
But they also were immediately charged with murder which nullifies a lot of the outrage of lack of accountability.
Plus, Winter + lack of Covid + news cycle didn’t equal this being a big one.  It was certainly close though. >

The police were fired and arrested before the video was even released, what was there to protest? To re-arrest them? >

There are other factors as well:

the officers were fired and charged. Beyond it happening at all, there's not much to protest for.
it isn't an election year, so it isn't politically advantageous to foment outrage
it isn't several months into a pandemic which has left many people unemployed, stressed and cooped up at home

The rioting of 2020 was a perfect storm of intersecting conditions leading to widespread outrage, protesting and rioting. Much of what happened was tangential to the actual BLM cause. >


The only reason I can see both the media, and the public haven't given this much attention, and there hasn't been a major blowback is becsuse the main criticism of the Floyd killing was based on the concept of whiteness.

I disagree. I remember back during the George Floyd riots, a lot of the issues people had and were protesting specifically about, especially in the beginning, was about Derek Chaivin and bringing about justice that people felt wasn't being served. In this case the police were removed from duty and sentenced to some pretty harsh things before it really even went mainstream. Do you really think that didn't play a huge role in how things are playing out differently? >

It's -20 today. I feel like that puts a damper on protests, lol. >

Because the police were black they were terminated immediately. And from their union, only the sound of crickets. 
Surely there are others involved, let's see..... >

It's because they immediately fired and charged the cops. >


It's because they immediately fired and charged the cops.

Immediately?
It took almost three weeks for charges.  Chauvin was charged in what, four days?  
I don't agree with OP's thesis, but this is objectively inaccurate. >


It took almost three weeks for charges.

That's pretty quick all things considered. And the attempted cover-up (which the Memphis PD did try) fell apart pretty quickly. Chauvin wasn't arrested until AFTER the video of the incident released.
If video of what happened to Nichols came out prior to the arrest of those officers we would've seen similar protests. >

It is more likely that the relatively subdued police response haven't caused the protests to escalate. If you recall, police across the nation reacted aggresively to the floyd protests, which in turn led to larger and more aggressive protests. I mean, this literally happens across the globe... when the authorities overreact to small, peaceful protests, those protests become massive become nation-wide riots >

Atlanta called out a thousand national guard. I wouldn't call that subdued. >

Subdued as in disposition. The national guard isn't acting aggresively towards the protesters,  nor did it during the floyd protests. >

You aren't alone. There are countless black people outraged on TikTok blasting their own race for the same reason, specifically referencing the murder of George Floyd. Questions like "Where's your anger now?" "Why don't I see social media blowing up about Tyre Nichols being murdered? White or black cops....murder is murder." >

That's what's so odd to me. I actually did protest after Floyd's death too. Multiple times. Now.. There's nothing. It's really  odd. >

Were you only protesting Floyd's death because the murderer was white? >

There's literally no protests in my area. I suppose I could stand on the corner by myself though. >

It's difficult to take you seriously when you don't seem to be able to understand what I'm asking. I don't want to sound rude but do you have reading comprehension issues? Is there a certain way you need things to be put to you?
Do you genuinely believe that what you've written here has anything at all to do with the question I asked you? >

Was I protesting because Chauvin was white? No.
Did you protest after Floyd's death? If so. Why? >


Was I protesting because Chauvin was white? No.

If race did not determine why you protested then, why would it be a reason for anyone to protest/not protest today?

Did you protest after Floyd's death? If so. Why?

I don't live in America, so what would I do, go to the American embassy? >

Because much of the passion of the Floyd protests was centered around larger racial issues. >

Cool, but once again would you be interested in responding to what my comment actually says please? >

Where should you go protest? No idea. There isn't really any this time around. >

1) people have jobs now. They can't just spend all day protesting anymore.
2) the officers were very quickly charged, so protesting wouldn't accomplish much.
3) it's the middle of winter: people want to be inside. >

The difference is that They were fired pretty quickly… (even charged with murder!)which is usually the point of contention for protesters: the lack of justice. If they were free and still on the force or at home on paid leave there would be more outcry for sure.
I think a more accurate view would be that these officers were fired immediately because they were black… >

Which makes it still tough to defend them because they are murderers. >

The killing was bad, but critically, the cops involved were fired and criminally charged. And almost no one is defending the cops in this one.
Compare it to, say, George Floyd, when lots of people were on the cops' side, going on and on about "oh he was on drugs and that's why he died" or "oh shouldn't have resisted" or whatever. A lot of the country thought George Floyd, a man murdered in broad daylight on video, deserved what happened to him. But this time it's so blatant, so egregious, and so completely indefensible (and, perhaps, affected by the fact that the killers were black as well) that conservatives have no excuses, and while they're still twiddling their thumbs, no one is actually trying to defend the cops here.
Everyone's pretty onboard with this being fucked up, so there's a lot less anger. >

That’s an interesting point.  You don’t see any arguments on the Internet since 99.99% universally agree this was murder. >

I think you get a part correct I think you are missing the point that the race of the murders was COP. You know Blue Lives! >

Not even close. 
There isn't widespread protest for this kind of injustice until there is actual footage of what happened. That was released last week, and there were widespread protests across the country in major cities going into Friday and the weekend. 
I think that those who like to cause problems and detract from protests (those who show up and riot) had this belief, and didn't show up to cause problems. 
The officers involved were charged before any police footage or other footage was released to the public as well, and that's legitimately the first and quickest form of action taken by a police force in this kind of situation that we've seen thus far. Another reason for the general outrage level to be somewhat mitigated, but still there enough that there were protests. 
The concept of institutionalized racism and white supremacy as a policy is still a widespread issue in PDs across the country. This incident absolutely exhibited that. It's a policy of institutionalized racism in those ranks. The cops being black doesn't change that. 
If anything, this incident proves that there are bad actors who get involved in protests like this just to detract from and take away from black voices in this country, since they decided to skip out on causing problems for the protests that actually occurred. >

Do you think these cops killed Nichols because he was black? How do you see it factoring in? >

The fact that he was a minority killed during a routine traffic accident shows the low value that officers are taught to have for minorities in general. >

Would you say the police were racists? >

Depends on what you mean by racist. They probably did not have explicit hatred for minorities. But they probably did have implicit bias towards people of darker skins tones, like basically everyone in society. These biases are worse with police because they are used to over policing minority neighborhoods and due to longstanding distrust of police by black people. >

As I understand it the racial makeup of the Memphis PD reflects that of the community.  I believe some 60% black.  With black leadership.
A core complaint of protests is systemic bias.   Crumb stuck with that claim in this case as well.
I'm thinking the protests are muted because the systemic bias argument didn't sell with the activists in this case.  Either because they don't believe it or they think the usual strength of protest would backfire. >

Yep. That's what I'm saying as well. Agree