comment: >
  
  When mass protests happen after an event, there is much more going on behind the scenes to trigger the response. George Floyd wasn't not the first black man to be killed by white officers, his was not the first death to have been covered up, and it was not the most recent one. 
  Protests happen because the time is right and activists are successful in sharing stories in a way that calls people to action. The George Floyd protest didn't just happen, they were the result of hard work by a lot of people.
  As a comparison, the moment when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat was not the first time that had happened. Claudette Colvin had done it 15 months earlier but activist leaders chose not to publicize it because she was unmarried and pregnant and she didn't suit the narrative they wanted to tell. It was also not the only time Rosa Parks resisted police, none of which are remembered the same.
  Tyre's death is awful, the fact that the police officers are black doesn't take away from the fact that it was a result of a police system built on white supremacy. The differences people have pointed out that the officers were already punished, makes a difference because of how difficult it is to easily convey a story and inspire people to protest when there is no tangible demand for immediate justice. It's also much harder to maintain momentum for the same thing when the first time didn't end the murders.
  More than 1000 people have been killed by police since George Floyd, none of them sparked the same response on the same scale. The fact that this case is being singled out and compared to George Floyd is not because it doesn't serve the community protesting, it's because it serves white supremacists to pretend that the only death not protested, was the one where the police officers were black.
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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. >
  
  If the situation is exactly the same but the cops were white do you think there would be louder protests or be the same? >
  
  Personally I think it would be the same. People weren't protesting nationally because Floyd was murdered. >
  
  I personally think the magnitude of the protests would go beyond the George Floyd protests >
  
  Okay. I don't agree. The national, summer long George Floyd protests weren't actually caused by his murder of even the attempted cover up. They caused by police response to the smaller scale peaceful protests. >
  
  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. >
  
  !Delta
  Good summaries. Do you also feel the race of Chauvin VS the black cops was a factor as well? >
  
  I think the race of the cops mattered for the police more than people who'd protest. The police stood by a white cop in 2020, but immediately the local police and national orgs condemned these black officers. You can't really protest anything when people are held accountable. The cops were arrested before the video was even released to the public.
  EDIT: Also there have been police murders besides these two and not all of them developed in a 2020 BLM scale protest. 2020 was a perfect storm of a lot of things happening for it to grow to the size it did >
  
  They police did not stand by Chauvin.  The national police union condemned his actions.  He was also arrested 4 days after killing Floyd while these 5 were free for 19 days. >
  
  The George Floyd videos came out instantly and we could all see the brutality that occurred in broad daylight with lots of witnesses.
  Tyre happened at night with almost no one else around. These cops filed false reports that supported their use of force and it took time for their stories to unravel. And only after their arrest the videos were released. >
  
  A couple things, my point was the police did not stand w a white cop in 2020. He was condemned by their national police union, which was unprecedented. This case, the locals pushed a narrative of a combative, uncooperative suspect who had drugs in his system. Also, the bystander video of this case was available in the same time frame, and much more brutal than Mr Floyd’s case, but because not everyone was forced to sit at home due to a pandemic we didn’t all see it at once. 
  This reaction also doesn’t take into account the national media attention. >
  
  
  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. >
  
  Chauvin was charged 4 days after he killed Floyd, whereas these 5 were free for 19 days after Mr Tyres murder. >
  
  The date of the murder doesn't matter. The date of the video release matters. >
  
  The day of both murders there were bystander videos online. >
  
  You're just kicking the rhetorical can. Why were potential protesters aware of the George Floyd video after 2 days and they weren't aware of the Tyre video for a much longer period? If you want to argue that the media plays a part in this then I'll happily concede that point. But the fact remains that George Floyd became national news after 2 days and Tyre Nichols didn't until a much longer period of time had passed. 
  Why do you think George Floyd was national news after 2 days? It's incredibly simple and it's the same reason those protests became so huge in general: the police shot teargas and rubber bullets at the small scale peaceful protesters on day 2. Did that happen with the Tyre Nichols case? I don't think it did, but if I'm wrong let me know. If it did and the media didn't cover it then maybe the media decided to cover for black cops, but again, I doubt it. >
  
  There was no violent reaction to large scale protests because there were no large scale protests. The two biggest reasons potential protesters didn’t notice the videos were, the media, which absolutely had a racial component. If it has been 5 white cops the coverage would’ve been wall to wall. It sells. The media isn’t covering for black cops, but black cops killing a black man doesn’t get clicks the way white cops would. The second reason is we’re not in a lockdown anymore. People were stuck at home w shitty summer tv and nothing else to watch. >
  
  
  There was no violent reaction to large scale protests because there were no large scale protests.
  
  Nope, please go back and read what I wrote. The small scale George Floyd protests were met with violence first, which made them balloon into national and even international protests. 
  
  The two biggest reasons potential protesters didn’t notice the videos were, the media, which absolutely had a racial component. If it has been 5 white cops the coverage would’ve been wall to wall.
  
  Coverage of the George Floyd protests was wall to wall because the small scale protests were met with police violence. Were there no small scale protests for the Tyre Nichols murder? Were those protests met with police violence? If they were met with violence and the media still didn't cover it then you might have a point. 
  
  The second reason is we’re not in a lockdown anymore. People were stuck at home w shitty summer tv and nothing else to watch.
  
  The problem I have with this is you're pointing to a difference in environment when you're ignoring an actual different in 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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