The Last Sunset: Was Tyre Nichols Killed by Cops on Steroids?

Everyone is guessing at possible explanations for the barbaric murder of the young unarmed Black man in Memphis, but no one is looking at the elephant in the room.

Memphis Sunset: Photo by Terrance Raper on Unsplash

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If you can stand it, take a look at the five Black police officers who beat Tyre Nichols to death on January 7 of this year. Look at their thick necks in the mugshots. And remember how much bigger they are compared to the 145 lb. Nichols.

If you can stand it, notice how the officers hulk away in the video after taking turns kicking Nichols in the face AND head. Something besides the inhumane violence is wrong in these pictures.  These men don’t look normal.

Granted, it’s impossible to look at them now without seeing the tragic death of the 29-year-old aspiring photographer who lost his life at their hands for no apparent reason.

But look at them we must.

Because those thick-necked agents of death are physical reminders of the elephant in the room. The video none of us really wanted to see reveals an act so barbarous, so unnecessary, so patently senseless that we must look beyond the predictable soundbites we have all heard before.

We cannot blame racism this time. 

Not when Tyre Nichols and all five cops were Black.  (Except, of course, to consider the larger socio-philosophical question of internalized self-hatred within a system rife with racism. However, that is a subject for another time.)

But when it comes to blame, perhaps it is only partially true that the inherent brutality of police culture is at fault. Perhaps there’s more to it than that.

Police culture’s dirty little secret is what we need to be looking at and talking about. Steroids.  Lots of cops are on steroids.  Not just in Memphis but in cities all over America.

We have known about this for decades. 

But nobody is doing anything about it.

As far back as 1989, 60 Minutes broadcast a special report on the wide use of steroids by police.

In “Beefing up the Force,” the celebrated news program talked with three former police officers in New York, Florida, and Oregon—all of them weightlifters, all on steroids—who admitted to uncontrollable anger and aggression after taking steroids to bulk up for the streets.  Today we call that kind aggression “roid rage.”

In 2009, ABC News reported that police juice up on steroids to get an ‘edge’ on criminals. This is especially true of police who work tough beats in high crime areas.

The ABC report focused on a 33-year-old cop who turned to steroids after he and his partner were jumped and nearly killed by a suspect who was high on PCP. Overcome with how close he came to death during the fight, he turned to steroids to ensure he’d have enough strength to handle another such attack.

But the original reporting on the issue goes as far back as 1987

when the Miami Herald published a groundbreaking story called: “Steroid-Using Police Causing Brutality Fears.”

The Herald piece was cited in 2017 by Professor John Hoberman of the University of Texas in his book Dopers in Uniform: The Hidden World of Police on Steroids.

It described the criminal exploits of a gang of rogue policemen involved in the Miami Vice–style world of drug trafficking in southern Florida. This investigation may have been the first time that anabolic steroids were publicly linked with violent criminal behavior by police officers.

What they are

Anabolic steroids are synthesized male sex hormones that promote muscle mass. When prescribed legally, they’re used to treat anemia, growth problems in children, and chronic infections like HIV.

Steroid use without a prescription is illegal. Although the exact number is not known, one police psychologist estimates that 25% of police officers in urban settings where there are gangs and high crime rates are on steroids. Cultural acceptance of bodybuilding within police culture and access to online suppliers has made it easy for cops to get their hands on the stuff.

Most take them for defensive purposes. But according to medical experts, a common side effect is violent, aggressive behavior that can contribute to poor judgment and even police brutality.

Out of control

In Dopers in Uniform, Professor Hoberman argues that major urban police departments are out of control in two ways.

The more notorious form of lawlessness is the use of unjustified deadly violence against suspects or bystanders, which is tolerated by police commanders and almost never results in disciplinary action.

The second, virtually unpublicized form of lawlessness is felony anabolic steroid use, which is tolerated by police commanders and almost never prosecuted. Cops on steroids, like the great majority of hyper-violent cops, are above the law.

Wide availability and the protection of police unions.

Thanks to The Gym, anyone from California to Qatar can obtain an illegal supply of anabolic steroids. As Morley Safer said at the end of 60 minutes, “You can get them in any gym in the country. All you have to do is ask.” The Gym is a virtual community where cops, athletes, and members of the military can turn to steroids in order to summon the extra strength needed to push their bodies body further.

According to Professor Hoberman—and there’s no surprise here—police unions across the country have consistently objected to random drug-testing for steroid use among police officers. The union’s fundamental purpose “is to preserve an officer’s freedom of action and to protect him from disciplinary measures or punishments to the greatest extent possible, regardless of the offense with which he has been charged.”

But sooner or later, the truth will out

It comes out in over-the-top police violence like the tragic brutality we’ve witnessed in the beating of Tyre Nichols. It’s impossible to blame him for trying to get away after they pulled him over and dragged him out of his car, when according to Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn J. Davis, there was no apparent reason for the stop.

Personally, I would have tried to get away from those cops too. It was dark. They didn’t ask for his license. They didn’t tell him to show his hands. They had already begun to rough him up. They didn’t follow any of the lawful procedures required in this situation.

The law of self-preservation dictates that anyone in a similar situation should try to escape. Unfortunately, that is undoubtedly what ramped-up the cops’ aggression.

If any or all of those five former Memphis cops were on steroids—and I do not know if they were or not—what you have is adrenaline on top of roid rage.

We are looking at the wrong things.

So far, I’ve listened to Charles Blow of the New York Times, the head of the NAACP Derrick Johnson, former Congresswoman Val Demings who is a former police chief and a 27-year veteran of police work, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Rev. Eddie Fisher, the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Memphis, who was interviewed at length on the PBS NewsHour shortly before the video was released.

All of them raise important questions about why Tyre Nichols may have been killed. And they’re all correct. Brutality is part of police culture. Special units like the now dismantled SCORPION unit in Memphis should have seasoned officers and rigorous oversight. Congress failed to pass meaningful police reform after the death of George Floyd largely because the public stopped caring so much after the pandemic.

But no one mentioned the elephant in the room. Cops on steroids. It’s high time someone finally did. High time someone did something about it.

Tyre Nichols loved to photograph sunsets. You can see examples on the “Masterpieces” tab of his website. According to his mother, on January 7th he was probably on his way home from Shelby Farms, a 4,500-acre park in the heart of Memphis — where he had probably taken in the sunset.

He did not realize—how could he?—that it was the last sunset he would ever see.

©2023 Andrew ‘Jazprose’ Hill

Thanks for reading/listening.