On Friday, the US city of Memphis released a agonizing video showing five police officers beating a 29-year-old black man who was heard calling his mother while he was being beaten, in an incident that sparked calls for protests and fears of possible unrest.
Five Memphis police officers, all black, have been charged with second-degree murder in the beating of Tyre Nichols, who died in hospital on January 10, three days after his arrest, which authorities described as “horrific”.
This Tyre Nichols video should truly disgust every American. The vast majority of police are good people but Police brutality is a massive problem in this nation. Violence won’t fix this but we need Justice for Tyre from the Memphis Police.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) January 28, 2023
On January 7, the cops wanted to arrest Nichols, 29, for a traffic violation and have since been removed from their duties.
A long video captured by police cameras and a street surveillance camera shows the police arresting Nichols, trying to pin him down with a taser, and then chasing him down after he tries to flee from them.
He screams and calls his mother
Scenes show Nichols screaming, calling his mother, and groaning because the officers kicked and punched him repeatedly.
US President Joe Biden said that he feels “great anger and pain” because of these scenes, saying that they “will make people’s anger justified.”
Biden repeated his call to the demonstrators to remain peaceful, saying, “Those who seek justice should not resort to violence or vandalism.”
During a press conference earlier Friday, the victim’s mother, Rovon Wells, called for calm, but she turned to the policemen who beat her son “to death,” as she put it, by saying, “You have shamed your families by doing this.”
Biden spoke with Wells, who he said was “clearly in great pain,” and praised the family’s “courage and strength” and their “strong appeal” for peaceful protests.
In downtown Memphis, about 50 protesters gathered in Martyrs Central Park and later blocked a major thoroughfare and marched chanting “No justice, no peace” and “Say his name: Tyre Nichols.”
An incident reminiscent of Floyd’s death
About 100 people also gathered in New York’s Times Square, chanting similar slogans and holding banners that read “End police terror.”
“While Americans grieve, the Department of Justice investigates, and authorities continue their work, I join the Tire family in calling for peaceful protests. Anger is understandable, but violence is never acceptable,” Biden said in a statement Thursday, urging a “swift, full, and transparent investigation” into this matter. tragedy.
The five policemen were sent to jail Thursday on murder charges after Nichols’ death.
“Tyre’s death is a painful reminder that we must do more to make sure our justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice,” Biden said in his statement.
Lawyer Antonio Romanucci explained that what happened was “simply and clearly a severe, non-stop beating of this young man over a period of three minutes.”
And the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, David Rausch, considered that what happened was “unacceptable,” “criminal,” and “should not have happened,” expressing his “shock” and “disgust” at what he saw. “In a word, it’s absolutely horrific,” he added.
The case caused an uproar in a country still affected by the killing of George Floyd in May 2020 and the demonstrations caused by this tragedy by the Black Lives Matter movement against racism and police violence.
The Nichols case has re-launched the debate over police violence in the country.
