Notorious race-baiter Al Sharpton claims "race was involved" in the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, even though the five Memphis cops accused of murdering him are also black.

Former officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills, Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith have been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.

Al Sharpton's latest theory

Although the facts of the case don't fit the media's typical narrative about police brutality, that hasn't deterred the usual suspects from trying to bring race into the incident.

In an interview with MSNBC's Morning Joe, Sharpton speculated that the five black officers would have behaved differently if Nichols were white.

"Race still is involved, because I don't believe those cops would have done that to a young white," Sharpton said.

Demonstrating the creative leaps of leftist logic, self-described "anti-racism educator" Tim Wise also attempted to tie the incident to a white supremacist conspiracy in a tweet.

Anyone who says the killing of Tyre Nichols can’t be about racism because the cops were also Black really doesn’t understand how white supremacy or anti-Blackness work

— Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) January 27, 2023

Fanning the flames

The police got into two scuffles with Nichols during an attempted arrest for reckless driving on the night of January 7th. Nichols fled on foot before being ultimately taken into custody and sent to the hospital in critical condition.

The authorities haven't issued an official cause of death, but Nichols' family says he died at the hands of police and that the incident is racially motivated.

"This is a pretextual traffic stop, which, let's call it what it is, it's a racist traffic stop," lawyer Antonio Romanucci said.

The city's chief of police, Cerelyn Davis, compared Nichols to Rodney King, whose beating inspired some of the most destructive race riots in American history in Los Angeles.

Biden nods at "outrage"

High-profile attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Nichols family, said the treatment of the sacked officers should be a model for how the country handles cops accused of brutality.

He called for a new law in Nichols' honor that would obligate cops to intervene against other officers who break the law.

"We now have the blueprint, America, and we won't accept less going forward in the future. We won't have Black officers treated differently than White officers under the law," Crump said.

The Biden White House has acknowledged "outrage" while calling for peace as Memphis braces for riots with the anticipated release of bodycam footage Friday night.