The mood in Memphis is so tense after five black police officers mistreated a black man so badly that he died three days later.
A White House statement said President Joe Biden spoke Friday with the victim’s mother and husband to express his condolences and those of First Lady Jill Biden.
The five police officers, who are black like the victim, were fired last week. On Thursday, they were charged with murder and several other offenses in connection with striking 29-year-old Tyre Nichols at a traffic light after a traffic violation.
At 1 a.m. on Saturday, Norwegian time, authorities released police officers’ corpse camera video recordings, which show abuse for three minutes. The victim’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, watched the videos herself and warned before they were posted that they were horrific.
demonstrations
Before the announcement, I asked anyone who wanted to demonstrate to do so peacefully.
– I don’t want us to burn the city, destroy the streets. Because that is not what my son stood for. She said if you want to support me and Tyre, you should protest peacefully.
After the video was released, protesters gathered in a park near the White House in Washington, D.C., as well as in Memphis and other cities across the country.
– Say his name! Nichols Pictures! shouted protesters in Memphis.
Dozens of protesters blocked a heavily trafficked bridge on Interstate 55, one of the two major bridges connecting Arkansas and Tennessee over the Mississippi River.
White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre said Friday that she is in contact with various agencies to ensure they are prepared in the event of a riot.
President Joe Biden himself said he was “upset and full of pain”.
– Biden said Saturday night NST that the recording announced this evening will make people angry, and rightly so.
He urged the protesters to remain calm.
– The President said that everyone who demands justice must refrain from resorting to violence or sabotage.
hit and kick
The video clip shows images of Nicholls being beaten by police officers as they hold him down. They beat him repeatedly with fists, shoes and batons as he called out to his mother and begged, “I just want to go home.”
The footage shows the wildest moments as you can see the police officers chasing Nichols down and knocking them away. They leave him on the sidewalk, propped against a police car, greeting each other with clenched fists and celebrating what they’ve done.
Three minutes
Attorneys for the Nichols family compared the attack to the 1991 case of Rodney King of Los Angeles.
The 29-year-old FedEx employee man runs for three minutes. Along the way, the cops yelled at him.
– I’m going to take a (expletive) out of you, says one of the officers in the recording. The body cam shows the officer raising the baton while at least one other officer is raising Nichols.
After Nichols is violently pulled from the vehicle by the first officer, Nichols can be heard saying “I didn’t do anything” as a group of police officers try to get him to the ground.
– Lie down!, shouts one, while another shouts that an electric shock weapon should be used against Nichols.
Soon after, after being laid on the sidewalk, Nichols replied, “Well, I’m laying on the floor.” Moments later, as the cops continue to scream, Nichols says:
– Listen, I’m lying on the floor.
An officer yells, “Put your hands behind your back before I crush (expletive)”. Moments later, one of the officers shouted: (expletive), put your hands behind your back before I break them.”
– You’re doing too much at the moment, Nichols says loudly to the police officers.
– I just want to go home, he says.
– Stop, I’m not doing anything, he shouted after a moment.
The camera fades briefly, before Nichols is seen running as a police officer uses a taser on him. Then the officers started running after Nichols.
After striking him, the officers wandered for several minutes while Nichols was placed in front of a police car, where he fell to the sidewalk.
He was taken to hospital with serious injuries and died three days later.
Excessive use of force
This young man was terrified. Not by one, not by two, but by five police officers we now know acted musically, said attorney Antonio Romanucci, who is representing the Nichols family.
Romanucci said the officers worked in concert to inflict harm, fear, suppress freedom, and suppress constitutional rights, resulting in murder.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelynn Davis called the officers’ actions “outrageous, reckless and inhumane”. It says it was not possible to document the reckless driving charges that led to Nichols’ suspension.
She told the Associated Press that there is no video recording that can show Nichols was driving recklessly. What can be seen is a recording showing that the police officers were already in the hundreds.
– The officers were aggressive and noisy. They used profanity and may have intimidated Nichols from the start, she says.
We know something happened before this policeman or these officers got out of their cars. Knowing what it’s like to chase police officers, you know it takes something to chase after them. But we don’t know what happened, she says.
All we know is that the use of force in this case was excessive, says Davis.
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