Videos showing the violent arrest of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, a Memphis man who died 3 days after he was beaten by police in a traffic stop Jan. 7, has been released by Memphis officials. Protesters gather in a park near the White House, in Memphis and other cities as the video was released. The Associated Press has the story:
Protesters, Police Unions condemn Memphis Police
Newslooks- MEMPHIS (AP)
Protesters and police unions around the country are condemning Memphis police after the public release of video showing five officers savagely beating Tyre Nichols, who later died.
Protesters gathered in a park near the White House, in Memphis and other cities as the video was released.
President Joe Biden says he is ‘outraged’ after seeing video of Memphis police beating of Tyre Nichols, calls for ‘peaceful protest.’
In Memphis, protesters chanted: “Say his name! Tyre Nichols!” and several dozen protesters blocked a heavily traveled bridge on Interstate 55 that is one of two main spans connecting Arkansas and Tennessee over the Mississippi River.
Unions in California and Hawaii issued a joint statement calling the actions of the officers “repugnant and the complete antithesis of how honorable law enforcement professionals conduct themselves.”
The Prosecutors Alliance of California calls the killing senseless and in California’s capitol of Sacramento, Mayor Darrell Steinberg said: “I am filled with anger, with sorrow and revulsion.”
Video showing five Memphis police officers beating a Black man was made public Friday, one day after they were charged with murder in the death of Tyre Nichols.
The footage shows the Black officers savagely beating the 29-year-old FedEx worker for three minutes in an assault that the Nichols family’s legal team likened to the infamous 1991 police beating of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King.
Cities across the country braced for large demonstrations. Nichols’ relatives urged supporters to protest peacefully. ___
WASHINGTON — The national president of the Fraternal Order of Police has issued a scathing statement over the actions of five former Memphis police officers involved in the arrest of Tyre Nichols.
Patrick Yoes says the officers’ encounter with Nichols “does not constitute legitimate police work or a traffic stop gone wrong.” Instead, Yoes called it a “criminal assault under the pretext of law.”
Nichols died three days after a Jan. 7 confrontation with the officers during a traffic stop.
