The latest incident regarding police brutality probably has some people wondering how black law enforcement could do that to their kind.

Simple, they didn’t see Tyre Nichols as their people. Allow me to explain.

When I enlisted in the Air Force, the day we got there, you were herded onto buses in groups that would eventually become your flight. Technical Instructors gave recruits their nicknames before receiving their uniforms: “Rainbows.” This nickname indicates that you have not been assimilated into the military culture because you are easily distinguishable from someone else due to your choice of clothing, hairstyle, and shoes. During zero week, the military gradually changes people from individuals to nameless faces by way of the same haircuts regardless of race, the same uniforms, the same boots, and abandonment of names in favor of “trainee.” Over the next eight weeks in Air Force Basic Military Training (BMT), trainees are turned from civilians to airmen by way of education, feats of camaraderie, and harsh training.

The point is that military indoctrination can brainwash some to see those in uniform not as individuals but as brothers and sisters in arms and anyone not wearing the uniform as a civilian. Civilians are not the same, have not received the same training, and therefore do not deserve the same level of respect from military members as those who have survived the harsh BMT conditions to become Airmen, Seamen, Soldiers, or Marines. Once you graduate and become a part of the military, you are military and nothing else.

The same is true of police training.

While the training is not as rigorous, nor as long, once you graduate to become an acting member of law enforcement, you are in, and some rules come with that. Protecting your brother/sister in arms is paramount, as is the willingness to give your life to protect them, whether they are correct or incorrect in their actions.

Loyalty to one another at all costs will allow crimes against any member of humanity to occur, no matter if the offending officers are the same race as the victim. Those black cops who beat Trye Nichols could not see that young man as a black man who might have needed their help instead of their brutality. They only saw what the police academy trained them to see: a black man is a threat, especially when he runs, so catch him and make him pay at all costs. All of his cries for help did not matter. All his pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears. They had a young black man who ran away from them, evading arrest (he had apparently done something worthy of him running away) and making their job harder. So, when they caught him, they did what law enforcement does to people of color regularly, brutalizing him to assert dominance.

We see this common trend of black people handled by law enforcement and the shockingly familiar occurrence of black people dying after run-ins with the law. In contrast, the most dangerous white people receive less aggressive treatment, even after committing mass murders. The disparity of treatment between white people who commit crimes and black people who commit crimes signifies an explicit prejudice towards black people and the subsequent treatment they should receive as alleged or potential criminals. Even if the black threat is nonviolent, law enforcement chooses to execute orders with extreme aggression that will neutralize the threat before it begins, even if the black person committed no violence.

Neutralizing the danger is the goal of police when they see black people. Protecting the innocent is the goal when they see a white person. And we as civilians have to learn NOT to see the color of the person wearing the badge because they represent one color: Blue.

And in the United States of America, blue doesn’t mix well with black or brown.

Tyre Nichols, Victim of Police Hate (and Racism)