Jeffrey St. Clair: The Murder of Tyre Nichols

January 29 - February 4, 2023 CP+ [The Murder of Tyre Nichols]( by Jeffrey St. Clair It’s often said, and usually true, that police only show up after a crime has been committed. But that wasn’t the case with Tyre Nichols. There were plenty of police (including some “elite” officers) on the scene when Nichols was being savagely assaulted, in a crime that took his life. Swaddled in body armor, adorned with all kinds of weapons, of varying degrees of lethality, none of these lawmen intervened to save his life, none of them tried to stop a homicide from taking place before their eyes. Some actually joined in, others just stood and watched, giving the assailants, Nichols’ killers, an appreciative pat on the back, as if they’d made a good tackle in a football game. How do you reform this? [READ THE REST ON CP+]( [DOWNLOAD IN PDF FORMAT]( [Mandela's Death]( by TJ Coles Declassified US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents from the 1980s reveal that the Agency expected that Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), future President of South Africa, would die in prison. The CIA hoped that the Ronald Reagan administration (1981-89) would be able to co-opt the African National Congress (ANC), of which Mandela was a leading figure, and nudge the organization closer to elite US interests. In reality, Mandela survived three more decades and went on to lead the country out of its formal Apartheid system. The documents also discuss the inevitability of the end of Apartheid and seek ways to work with black South African politicians to achieve US planners’ foreign policy goals. [READ THE REST ON CP+]( [DOWNLOAD IN PDF FORMAT]( [The Harms of Solitary Confinement]( by Christopher Blackwell It spread through our living unit in a matter of weeks. We were sick, and most of us knew it was probably COVID. A staff member that worked in the prison’s Correctional Industries Laundry Service had tested positive and been placed on leave. Prisoners knew they were sick, but no one wanted to report the symptoms because we all knew what came with that—an unwanted and unhelpful trip to solitary confinement-like conditions. A cell stripped down to nothing but the small box of property you were allowed to bring as you scrambled to prepare for a trip into a concrete box. Each time COVID has entered the prison, the majority of prisoners inside have contracted the virus, so why add a trip to isolation if it doesn’t help to curb the spread? This is the question many prisoners continue to ask. [READ THE REST ON CP+]( [DOWNLOAD IN PDF FORMAT]( [CP+ Archive]( [Check Your Subscription Status](     CounterPunch | P.O. Box 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 [Unsubscribe {EMAIL}]( [Update Profile]( | [Constant Contact Data Notice]( Sent by counterpunch@counterpunch.org powered by [Trusted Email from Constant Contact - Try it FREE today.]( [Try email marketing for free today!](