What is it about Dana farmer that makes it such a powerful adversary against cancer, its hundreds of Dana farmer reason tourism, clinicians, making new discoveries inspired by the work of previous Dana farmer, discoverers, Dana farmer cancer institute. Nothing is as effective against him. sir, as a relentless succession of breakthroughs, learn more about their momentum. Go to Dana farmer, dot org slash stories from new times, I'm likeable boring. This is a daily the death of Tiree nicholls at the hands, of police in memphis last month has intensified calls for fundamental reform in policing. What happened to tie Memphis happens too often. We have to do better. All the way up took president Biden poop

stood liquors parents at his state of the union. Address on Tuesday night and demanded that congress finally take action to combat it? finish the job creation through some do some today, my colleague MIKE baker, on what a times investigation, has uncovered about the special unit of police officers accused of killing nickels and what it tells us about the challenges of preventing police brutality, it's wednesday. February's. mike for the past week or so. You and our colleagues have been investigating this special unit of police officers in memphis the scorpion unit whose members

been charged with murdering tired nicholls, so tell us the story that youve uncovered about this. in its starting with how it was that it came into being. Yes, this was a specialised crime. Fighting it focused on hot spot neighborhoods, where the city had seen I rates of crime, high rates of violent crime and wanted to take some extra steps to address it. These types of units, these hotspot units, we ve, seen them over decades in cities around the tree in LOS angeles, in new york in atlanta cargo and they come with her when she never names in red dog in s so ass in apex and tighten, and they really tend to come and go. I mean they ve come when there's a crime problem, the city when there are police leaders or political leaders clamouring for solutions to some sort of crime. Spyker crime concern. And then they tend to go

when there is a scandal that emerges wenders, police brutality when there is a sense that their operating with impunity when there's concerns that third racially profiling people and targeting people who are black or brown right. There becomes an understanding over time that these special units tend to bend or break the rules, all kinds of reasons, especially because they are given this indeed, to solve a crisis and. Be aggressive in doing so yeah I mean it's the concern that we keep seeing over and over again about the aggressiveness of the tactics and whether they're racially profiling, and that is particularly the case after the killing of george floyd in minneapolis in two thousand and twenty when the

cities, including new york, make no mistake: this is a seismic shift in the culture of how the n Y p d polices this great city in portland, we're going to dissolve the gun, violence reduction team and the transit specialty units start reassessing whether this is the type of unit they want in their city. So by twenty twenty, these units have really fallen out of favor, yet really seem like there was this seismic shift where these units were something of policing of the past, but soon after by two twenty one citys around the country were seeing homicide numbers rising dramatically. Some were headed toward new records, and that was the case in Memphis, where murders over three hundred setting a new record and around city. There was a sense of unease about this level of and crime, and what to do about it

during this time when the city is looking around for solutions, the city council voting twelve to want to make seizure Davis members is next police sheep that memphis brings in a new police chief, Sarah than Davis. We should celebrate that we are breaking ceilings but at the same time stay focused really on the work that I know. I know how to do so. Davis is the first black woman police chief in this majority, black city. He or she has this background of someone who as both tough on crime, but in recent years had been touting the need for police reform. Sometimes it helps to have a different perspective or by set eyes on it, a situation she started and land immunities and when she's,

or she rises to oversee. Actually one of these specialized crime, fighting units, the red dog unit pair and that's a unit that goes through a series of scandals of it's own. It gets disbanded after allegations that it was abusive and it's practices he then later on, she's interim north carolina where she is pursuing more of a reform or roll the reformer reputation. She starts getting a body cameras for officers, ending stops for minor traffic violations and by two thousand and twenty after the killing of george floyd, something deep seems to be happening in the country. So what do you say to those protesters who believe that policing in america is plagued by systemic racism. Davis's going on tv and calling for police reform, I believe that we need to have sweeping changes and police reform. We don't want to see the sitting one she's also doing it for the? U S, senate in George floyd case, I think so.

was very apparent to the world that there was a disconnect between the human being and the officer the duty to intervene was a miserable failure. The culture of police it has to change. So in many ways she seems ideal for memphis in moment because she's been least leader, who has been both a tough on crime prison and a police reform. at a time when both of those are seen as required. Yeah, I think that's how many This leaders sought when the mayor announced her hiring unconvinced that the public in the If the servers are all going to want to be on her team, he emphasized that. Not only does she have a vision for using violent crime, but she has a vision for building relationships in the community's she's europe's I would expect her to bring some rush eyes to the old challenges with so

what happens once she takes the job, so cheap Davis takes a job in the middle of twenty twenty one. She moves into downtown memphis and What she starts seeing and hearing is pretty shocking to her night. Before last, we have reports of drag race. You know twenty thirty vehicles drag racing, not just on our freeways, but in the inner city, late at night, she's hearing street racing around holmes, remained a buzzing vehicles in the squealing tyres. I have experienced it is alarming, and we really feel that is important for us to do something about it and meanwhile, the violent crime number, as elsewhere around the country still gonna. So by the end of year, she's talking about the need to do something new, that the old ways of

We sing in the city we're not working and she wanted to see more aggressive action. Some of the the various violent crimes that we've seen in the city of Memphis requires more than just regular patrol. It requires individual solar scientists, specific units that actually target look for identify individuals that are in stolen vehicles, because many of the crimes are being committed with stolen vehicles and what is her specific plan so in november of two thousand and twenty one, she creates the scorpion unit and it stands for the street crimes operation to restore peace in our neighborhoods. Hang physically. She creates a special unit. Yet the idea is that the city's gonna look at their crime data. To say these are the neighborhoods, where we are seeing the highest levels of crime and highest levels of violent crime and really flood the zone send

influx of officers into those neighborhoods to confront the violent crime. so even though she's been hired as a reformer and even Those special units had very recently fallen out of favor for their problematic history, she's now turning Hu, this very tactic as answer to crime in Memphis, exactly that in giving it a bit of an intimidating name along the way. Sculpey. This unit addresses violent crimes such as homicides, aggravated assaults, robberies and carjackings. It launches with forty officers designed to go out in different groups across the city. Each team consists of an auto theft task force and gain investigative and crime suppression units. It's pretty big commitment of resources, and it's a pretty big part.

What the city's vision is for combating violent crime since its inception in this past ato and right away, they are touting the accomplishments of this unit. talking about the number of arrests, total of five hundred sixty six arrest. The number of vehicles sees you ve entered seventy vehicles, a number of guns, E two hundred and fifty three weapons. What kind of drugs there encountering along the way we must remove from our streets, those predators, perpetrate violence and use guns to her and rob others the city's really celebrating what this unit is doing out on the streets. So does that

I mean that the scorpion unit reduced violent crime in Memphis, as it was designed to do who violent crime does go down in two thousand and twenty two, but it's not clear whether the scorpion unit is influencing that trend at all. The city counts it as such that they see Scorpion is playing a factor in that, but we can see now see that violent crime was trending down nationwide and my colleagues and I, when we were investigating, we found something else, which is that during this time period, the union was gaining a reputation in the community, not for lowering violence, but for inflicting violence of its own What right back? Here's? What training? Now you can defer payment of a full nets, implementation for six months. Thirty, three thousand

but he's have already upgraded to meet sweet, gaining visibility and control over their financials inventory, hr e commerce and more everything they need use manual, processes, boost efficiency, build forecast and increase productivity. Whether your business generates mill. Or hundreds of millions of dollars take advantage of this special financing, offer of no payments or interest for six months at net: sweet dot, com, slash n Y t, that's net, sweet dot com, slash an whitey. This is Craig investigative rapporteur for the new york times, people keep secrets. We all do, but it gets tricky when it's a person with significant power and the secret is big, say: a conflict of interest, government corruption or covering up abuse when it comes to violations of the public trust on ethical or illegal activity, and peoples jobs are affected. We believe you deserve to know, but people with a lot of power also have the means to make sure there secret stay hidden. So you need. organizations like the new york times to say: let's investigate this: let's put resources behind, uncovering the truth and that's what I do

it's a twenty four seven commitment, and it means that sometimes I can't publish until I spent months or even years, is following every lead and checking every fact all those resources there are available to us because of new york times subscribers. If you'd like to support this kind of work, you can subscribe at n y times dot com, slash, subscribe. The sound like what did you and our colleagues end up finding out about how exactly the scorpion unit operated day to day what we found from talking to people around the city was that this unit had a really menacing presence that terrified people with its tactics and often left people feeling unsafe or talk us through. I mean how did you come to that understanding about this unit

so we did several things here. We spent a lot of time looking through court records, examining the statements of the officers themselves and how they described encounters and the communities, and we talk to a number of people who both were arrested or had encounters with the scorpions, and also people who observed encounters around their homes and what patterns emerge from that reporting. Several things emerged first, was that the scorpion unit was arresting a disproportionate number of black people. Ninety percent of the arrests we looked at were of black people, which is a lot because a memphis is population, is only sixty five percent black right, a pretty big gap, huge gap. Another thing is

that a lot of these stops begin with really minor observations. You knock a cracked windshield shield. A broken tail lighter claims that officers swift marijuana, so not stops the begin with an allegation of a violent crime. Right not even close, will give us some examples of these kinds of encounters that you're describing involving the scorpion it. So one of them is due this: call your he's a thirty two year old black man who was going out and memorial day, we can t get fear for his father and on his way out these driving and gets pulled over by members of this house in unit you, the officer, say in their statement. They initially started. Taking a closer look because they saw a driver who wasn't wearing seat belt,

all your says. Everyone in the vehicle was wearing a seat belt and the traffic stop escalates overtime. There's a lengthy discussion as call years trying to understand why these officers would pull him over and be bothering him and the officers he says if they had their hands on their holsters and one of them starts pulling out a baton and whip. it out. He says, like a lifesaver and collyer says he still trying to figure out why in the world they are pulling over and bothering him, and they eventually pull him out of the car and call your says. He makes the decision that it's time run one? He said he had a warrant stemming from a previous domestic violence complaint, but also he was looking around and seeing that there were not

new people around on this road way, and he was worried that there were not enough witnesses to see what was going to take place next. He fears for his safety at the hands of these scorpion officers. Yet he sees them getting increasingly aggressive and he wants people there. Witness what's going to happen, so he decides to run down toward a convenience store, and this is where he feels little more comfortable, he sees people around familiar faces and it's here with a scorpion officers. Catch up to him and bring him to the ground. what Ro arrogance from a bystander video day, really some pepper spray into his face and we can see us Level outrage from him that he had already been subdued. But what's the point of pepper sprang him then,

outline to you, the officers arrest him charge him with several counts, including evading arrests, but also for that original violation of a seat belt, MA So this is a case where a very minor offence not wearing a super allegedly leads to a pre, significant confrontation that, according to collyer, makes him fear for his life and flee and ends with him being paid. Sprayed while on the ground. That's right is these minor infractions. Suppose it infractions that

suddenly turn into an escalating encounter and a lot of fear, and that fits a pattern that we heard from others as well. I mean another. One of 'em was dimitri, a wilburn and what happened to him. So wilburn spoke with my colleague kassie bracken, and describes how he was connecting with some friends at an apartment. Complex from you know. I heard from your brother. His account but it'd be great to hear kind of what you're variants wise and what you remember from that night, we'll lose rob saw. He was there actually parked in getting equipment out of a vehicle to shoot music video at the time officers say that they were patrolling this complex as part of an anti trespassing campaign and went over to

check out this car part like a lot of cars. Just came, he was pulling the car, he didn't want to call it. They didn't have any sounders on any lights or anything Wilburn says they didn't have their sirens on their lights on maiden, announced themselves and all of a sudden dave, surrounded the guy and looking into the car only guys they somehow No browser muzzle will start to me on this matter. He gets out. He says, officers throwing up against the vehicle began, searching him like the top. At the top and the bottom of my last shirt, because I have my hand in hers- is wrong. Have you had your hands in the air? Immediately put your hands up, the officer say they can smell marijuana, so they began searching the car. Also fear did they find any? Did they take anything from you?

only day one we the officers. urging the car find what they say. Two marijuana and a loaded gun wilburn himself receives a citation for possession of a controlled substance. But the police discovery of the marijuana undergone are found after born is he says, thrown against the car ferry aggressively, and all this begins with a kind of vague pretence that perhaps the people in this car are trespassing again or rather minor, nonviolent potential, infraction yeah. That's right and it's the kind of thing I heard also from another person in town, montero, harris

me and my older cousin, we would all lose just sitting in the car talking. I was just telling him about my day or whatever, and a harris case was just last month and he was also in an apartment complex in a parking lot. A group of guys approached my car What guys out they had on ski mask and one of them was yoga led me to get out the car and the other one was yelling at me to get out of the car he was going to shoot lie. I didn't know what I was trying to rob me or take my car or or no, I didn't know what their intention was

and officers from a scorpion unit, suddenly surround his vehicle wearing balaclavas and hoodies and not announcing who they are how's your cabin. I didn't really know who they were. I never said where the police or a worrying path allow enforcement. They were just telling me they were gonna, shoot me and trying to force me to get out the car he's terrified. He doesn't see any sign that their security or police, he thinks hmm, maybe he's getting carjacked, maybe he's getting robbed. He doesn't know what's about to take place in there and proceed to get out the car and when I got out the car they approached me and one guy grabbed me lead to star wrote me up punching me MR he says they thrown to the ground, dade scraped his face on the pavement. He said he was punched

one of them was bending my arm. The other guy took my head and slammed it to the concrete I was like screaming for my cousin for him to come outside. I obviously, I get screaming his name. He starts screaming for help and says a bunch of people began. coming out of the nearby apartment complex, and he thinks that that is possibly the reason that the violence he was dealing with from these officers actually came to an end So how does heresies encounter with the scorpion unit come to an end when he was arrested for possession of marijuana, which is a charge? You know his lawyer denies and also for possession of a hand gun which he said actually belong to his cousin, that he was connecting with that night and by the

the incident. Officers are taking him down to the jail, and I had like a war that they had a gas from a four year from my arm. He had been slam silica agree from their point. They had to take me to the hospital harris says. The nurse looks him over ceases to swollen face in the scrapes on his face and decides this isn't the place for him. He actually first needs to go to the hospital like a few notable that in a couple of these cases, guns were found, but from everything you're describing guns were not why these men were pulled over. They were pulled over four. he's much more minor, suspected and fractions and the tactics of the scorpion. You became much more

aggressive in pursuit of those alleged minor infractions. So I wonder how we should think about that. You had best reigns over. These cases were officers report finding guns It certainly did not begin that way. They were not looking for guns or did they do not have evidence of a gun in someone's possession mike. It really strikes me that the three encounters that you just disagree involving the scorpion unit. These sound a lot like would eventually thence with this same unit to Tiree, nicholls right, yeah movie, and yet one of the remarkable things here is that the monterrey harris case his eating was on january forth and they stop with Tiree nicholas was just three days later. He asked hours this facility,

I got home my day used to tell me you know how lucky are worse, because that will be the year for how could have been worse and then a couple of days later he sent me a link to Tyree Nichols and the five officers had brutally beating him, and I was reading the guys names and, as I'm reading the names access. Actually I hear the same names from the night and I'm like he's the same guy that beat me up and not only that, but the exact same officers that stopped ontario's harris were involved in stopping Tyree Nichols out. I was just watching, I read video and it was like it looked like he was screaming for somebody for mom and no. I was just thinking by myself screaming for my cousin, but nobody could hear him.

So nobody would have been able to hear me now. Am I not listen and, as we know, the tyrant echoes case was a traffic stop that officers came in on mark vehicles. We can, in the body camera video that level of aggression that others have described were there their yelling in their throwing him down on the ground, even as Tiree nicholls is trying to talk in a calm voice, almost trying to calm the officers downright and you can see how this sort of minor stop suddenly escalate with the officers aggression into something much more serious. So what you found you and our colleagues make in his investigation really is that what happened to tie vehicles was not an exception when it comes to the scorpion unit. But in a way

thing resembling standard practice for the union, something that had happened before many many times? You, I think, for some people in the community. This was just sort of a matter of time and for some of these people who had encounters with scorpion, they look at the Tiree nicholls video, the tyrant, echoes case and think that could have a me. How much did this city of Memphis? Did this police chief Davis know about these cases that you and our colleagues found before Tiree nicholls died. Presumably they have access to the same records you do ye. I think this is still something were trying to sort out here. We talk the city council members, who said that had no idea. This kind of thing was going on, and yet they were cheering on the idea of this scorpion unit during that time period, and I think we have a lot of questions left for the mayor for the police chief about how this unit was organised

they were trained, Their mission was when they were sent out into the streets. What kind of complaint They were getting back and how much these leaders. About what was going on right, and I ask that question, because when the memphis police department eventually shots the scorpion, you two down after Tiree nicholls, guys, it ends up being seen by many as the kind decisive action that required to confront problems with the police department, accesses brutality, but based on their own boarding you and our colleagues have now done that perception may change and it may be the case that cities leaders should have shut this unit down much earlier and that they knew or should have known that this unit was a problem. A long time ago yeah. I think it remains unclear of who knew exactly what and when they knew it, but certainly when it comes to the mayor and the police chief

if they didn't know what was going on. The question would be why? Because there's plenty of people in Memphis who did know that this is going on and they could see it taking place in their neighborhoods MIKE I'm thinking back to this, Our conversation when this new police chief comes into emphasis and decides to create the scorpion unit. You have to think that She believed- and perhaps it was naively that a unit like this could be created and not fall into the pattern of access and abuse that has defined special police units in the past. But clearly that didn't happen and history did repeat its off period. Memphis is the only place, said has stood up more of these units either in these cities that got rid of them, and twenty twenty have started to bring them back in places like denver in portland and new york in atlanta, and all these cities seem to think that there might be

a new way of doing this and hoping that maybe this is a cycle that won't keep repeating itself. I despite everything we ve learned through the decadence and across all these cities departments, are still trying to make these special units work, and still telling themselves that there is sponsible way to do it. Yet these teams don't seem to be going away. It's still a preferred strategy in a lot of city whether it's a good idea, whether it's not whether any can figure out a way to prevent a cycle of police brutality from repeating itself again and again

mike. Thank you very much. We appreciate Thank you and on tuesday, the memphis police department revealed that one of the officers involved in the beating of Tiree nicholls used here personal cellphone to take a photograph of nicholls after the beating, as nicholls set, opt against a police, car and leader send the photo to at least five people that the citizen was a violation of police department policy and reflected a pattern of behaviour by the off

source. All members of the scorpion unit that was quote blatantly unprofessional, including cursing at nicholls laughing after his beating and bragging about involvement. Alright back indians peep us must be in this pensions for all the work. We are only five percent of the once populations, but you re at protecting eighty percent of the ward, this biodiversity, So we are not only victims. We are also a solution that was hindu, merou Ibrahim, a rolex george laureate in environmental advocate, who works to raise the voice of indigenous people to help tackle climate change, to discover

there inspiring leaders, visit n Y times, dot com, slash, modern dash leaders, here's. What else you need to know the death toll from the massive earthquake in turkey has surpassed. Eight thousand people making it one of the deadliest natural disasters of the century on tuesday. thousands of rescue workers in both turkey and syria waste. Survivors as temperatures dipped below freezing raising fear. That those still stuck in the rubble could die from I prefer me so far more than a thousand people I have been rescued in turkey alone and because the soul of this nation is strong because the back poker, the backbone of this nation is drawn because the people of this nation are strong. The stated a year

strong during his state of the union speech his first republicans. One control of the house, president Biden repeatedly invited were look and their new leader speaker, Kevin Mccarthy, to work with him on that of by partisan legislation that was passed during his First, two years in office, you're right. I want a murder reputation that I look forward to working with you, but vital for those Republicans, no concessions and pointedly challenge them to improve his programme of raising taxes on the wealthy banning assault weapons and capping the cost of corruption drugs, like insolent proposals that are expected to be the foundation, finds election campaign in the Mari public and work together. Last congress was no reason we can work together and find consensus an important things in this context as well.

I cities episode was produced by air. trump Michael Simon Johnson, Alex an shannon live. It was edited by page coward with help from John ketchup contains original music by Diana Wallis and was engineered by Chris. Would our theme music. is by Jim, brandenburg and Ben landfill of wonderingly That's for the date, michael by sea tomorrow,.