Tyre Nichols
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The five former police officers involved in the death of Memphis man Tyre Nichols have been officially indicted by a federal grand jury.
On Tuesday (September 12th), the Justice Department announced that the five former Memphis Police Department officers were indicted on four federal criminal charges in relation to the 29-year-old Black man after he was assaulted on January 7th, accusing them of violating his civil rights. “Tyre Nichols should be alive today. No one in this country should have to bury a loved one because of police violence,” said Kristin Clarke, head of the civil rights division of the Justice Department.
The four counts consist of two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law. The grand jury concluded that the officers – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith – unlawfully assaulted Tyre Nichols and then refused to disclose his injuries to medical responders and willfully refused him medical aid. Nichols would die three days later in the hospital due to injuries sustained from the brutal beating inflicted on him. Those two counts could carry a sentence of life in prison if convicted for each defendant. The other two counts of witness tampering and obstruction carry a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The federal charges are separate from the charges brought by Tennessee state prosecutors against the former officers, who are also Black. Those charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and official misconduct came after the five were fired and barred from working with law enforcement in the state. Memphis Police Department also disbanded the SCORPION unit they were attached to. The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office welcomed the federal charges, adding that the trials would likely intersect.
“We all heard Mr. Nichols cry out for his mother and say, ‘I’m just trying to go home.’” Said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a video statement before adding, “The Justice Department will continue to hold accountable officers who betray their oath.”
In a statement released to the press afterward, the Nichols family attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said of the indictments: “We applaud AG Garland and Assistant AG Clarke for their tireless efforts to create federal accountability for these officers who were selected to be part of the Memphis Police Department’s SCORPION unit and savagely ended Tyre’s life, setting a critical precedent for accountability and justice.”
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In new documents, the Memphis Police Department claims one of the cops involved in the beating death of Tyre Nichols allegedly sent a photo of him to five other people afterward.
According to reports, the Memphis Police Department revealed in documents released by the state on Tuesday (Feb. 7th) that they found that one of the five officers charged with the beating and death of Nichols took a picture of him as he sat propped up against a police cruiser afterward. That officer, Demetrius Haley, would later admit to “sending a photograph of Mr. Nichols to … two fellow officers, a civilian employee of the department and a female acquaintance,” in addition to another unidentified person. The document also states that Haley allegedly used a personal phone, which is against police procedure.
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The revelation came as part of a filing by the police department on January 25th with the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission to request the decertification of Haley and the other four officers. That decertification would prevent the men from working with another department in the state of Tennessee.
Haley was identified as the officer who forced Nichols out of his car at the traffic stop on January 7th. Internal reports showed that Haley never told him why he was stopped or that he was under arrest. They described the photo-sharing as part of a pattern of “blatantly unprofessional” behavior that included the former officers, who are Black, laughing after beating Nichols, “bragging” about their actions, and hurling repeated profanities at Nichols. He would die of his injuries three days later.
Haley and the other four officers involved in the assault after the 29-year-old Nichols was detained would be fired days and indicted on multiple charges multiple criminal charges which include second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official oppression, and two counts of official misconduct. The actions took place before the city released the video of the officers beating, restraining, and using a taser on Nichols. A sixth officer who is white, Preston Hemphill, was fired a month after for his role in the incident but has not been charged. City attorney Jennifer Sink stated on Tuesday that up to 13 other officers involved in the incident could face disciplinary action within the coming weeks.
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Three of the five Black Memphis police officers charged with second-degree murder in the death of Tyre Nichols have been given the boot by the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
“A few days ago, on behalf of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, we joined with all other caring, thoughtful, decent, and fair-minded people in America and around the world in extending our deepest sympathy to the family of Tyre Nichols,” the fraternity wrote in a statement dated January 31. “We have since learned that three of the former Memphis police officers involved in the horrific incident were members of our organization. That is devastating! Effective immediately, the Fraternity has revoked the membership of the three former Memphis police officers and all related privileges they may have enjoyed as members of our Fraternity.”
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Omega Psi Phi also referenced a statement posted to its website two days prior to its most recent announcement in which the fraternity called Nichols’ violent treatment “unacceptable,” declared that its members “expect law enforcement officers to protect life and serve our communities with the highest regard for safety and humanity,” and characterized the behavior of the Memphis officers as “the complete opposite.”
The statement released Tuesday doesn’t specifically identify the three former officers who are no longer welcome members of the fraternity, but one should expect that all five ex-cops will find themselves unwanted around all Black frats, cookouts, house parties or any other events reserved for skinfolk who are still largely recognized as kinfolk.
Basically, the Black community isn’t interested in seeing any of them unless they’re behind bars wearing a convicted prison inmate jumpsuit.
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The funeral of Tyre Nichols was held in Memphis, and Vice President Kamala Harris delivered remarks along with the Rev. Al Sharpton calling on officials to deliver justice.
The funeral service was held on Wednesday (Feb. 1st) at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, with hundreds attending. Nichols’ family was front and center, mourning the 29-year-old who died three days after being beaten to death by police officers during a traffic stop on January 7th. Other attendees included the families of those who also lost their loved ones to police brutality, including the family members of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Botham Jean, and Eric Garner who were there with officials from the city. Director Spike Lee was also in attendance along with Nichols family attorney Ben Crump.
Members of Nichols’ family took the podium to share their love for him. His mother, RowVaughn Wells spoke tearfully about her son. “Tyre was a beautiful person and for this to happen to him is just unimaginable,” she said. “I guess now his assignment is done. He’s been taken home.”
Vice President Harris spoke at the podium, first honoring Tyre Nichols’ parents before calling out the violence and police brutality that was the source of Nichols’ death. “This violent act was not in pursuit of public safety,” she said. “Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe? Tyre Nichols should’ve been safe.” Harris continued by demanding that Congress pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, created to increase accountability for misconduct by law enforcement nationwide, in addition to banning acts of excessive force such as chokeholds. “Joe Biden will sign it and we will not delay, and we will not be denied,” she said as Ms. Wells wept and clapped. “It is nonnegotiable.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy, forcefully calling out the five Black police officers involved in Nichols’ death. “In the city that Dr. King lost his life, not far away from that balcony, you beat a brother to death,” he said. “There’s nothing more insulting and offensive to those of us that fight to open doors than you walked through…and act like the folks we had to fight for to get you through them doors.”
He also called for an end to qualified immunity and echoed Harris’ calls for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to be passed. “Why do we want the George Floyd in Policing Act passed?” Sharpton asked. “You’d have to think twice before you beat Tyre Nichols. You’d think twice before you shoot someone unarmed.”
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Ciara tried to talk sense into white nationalists’ favorite Black bobblehead, Jason Whitlock, who can’t seem to stop himself from going out of his way to make stupid remarks regarding the police-involved death of Tyre Nichols.
Recently, Jason Whitlock sat down with the Calvin Candie to his Stephen, Tucker Carlson, and erroneously blamed Nichols’ violent death on Black single mothers.
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“Everybody involved in this, on the street level, was either 24 to 32 years old. Everybody, it was a group of young Black men, five-on-one. It looked like gang violence to me. It looked like what young Black men do when they’re supervised by a single Black woman, and that’s what they got going on in the Memphis Police Department.”
“They’ve elected—or put some Black woman in charge of the police force, and we’re getting the same kind of chaos and disunity and violence that we see in a lot of these cities that are run by single mothers,” Whitlock continued, in reference to Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis. “If we want to discuss the breakdown of family that leads to disrespect for authority, that causes you to resist the police and run from the police and not comply with the police, because you resist authority at all times, because there was no male authority in your home, let’s have that discussion.”
Yeeeeah—this is beyond a reach.
Whitlock is clearly using Nichols’ death to arbitrarily take shots at single Black mothers, which makes no sense since Nichols had a stepfather in his life. Rush Limbaugh’s Black doppelganger also appears to be insinuating that if a Black woman is a single mother she couldn’t possibly be qualified to run a police department (or anything, for that matter).
Anyway, Ciara called him all the way out on his misogynoir and general anti-Blackness, but Whitlock is a dedicated house negro and he would not be dissuaded from his special brand of self-loathing.
“As a black man to get on national tv and say something like this is irresponsible,” Ciara tweeted. “A lot of amazing kids have come from single mothers. For you to also undermine single black women in the midst of this tragedy is so sad. This woman just lost her son! Do better!”
“Appreciate the feedback, Ciara. But at some point, we are going to have to deal with the negative impact of baby-mama culture,” Whitlock replied. “It’s destructive and unsustainable. Come up out of the denial. Denial won’t fix the problem. Thanks.”
Again, what does “baby-mama culture” have to do with Nichols? What do Black single mothers have to do with this story at all? It’s like Whitlock is throwing them under a bus that wasn’t even driving down their street.
WTF is wrong with this man?
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The specialized SCORPION police unit whose officers were charged for the death of Memphis black man Tyre Nichols, was shut down permanently over the past weekend.
According to a statement from the Memphis Police Department issued Saturday (Jan. 28), Chief C.J. Davis met with officers of the SCORPION (Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods) Unit. All agreed “unreservedly” to disband the unit in order to foster more healing and work with the community. Chief Davis also called for a review of all other specialized units in the department to take place. The full statement was later issued via their Twitter account.
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The permanent abolition of the unit was one of the demands of the family of Tyre Nichols, protesters and other city officials as more details of the brutal beating became known. Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, who represent the Nichols family, released an official statement later that afternoon.
“The Nichols family and their legal team find the decision to permanently disband this unit to be both appropriate and proportional to the tragic death of Tyre Nichols, and also a decent and just decision for all citizens of Memphis. We hope that other cities take similar action with their saturation police units in the near future to begin to create greater trust in their communities,” the statement said.
The SCORPION unit was created shortly after Davis was hired as chief of police in 2021 as a way to lessen the number of homicides in the city with a focus on other crimes including reckless driving. Twenty-nine-year-old Nichols was confronted by five black officers from the unit at a traffic stop Jan. 7. Nichols was allegedly driving reckless and was pulled over.
Chief Davis would later state to NBC News that they were unable to find evidence for that stop on video. The five officers – Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and Justin Smith – brutally beat him. Nichols was taken to the hospital in critical condition. He died of his injuries Jan. 10.
The city released the footage of the assault Friday evening (Jan. 27), sparking further outrage. That same day, all five cops posted bond and are out of jail ahead of their Feb. 17 court appearance.
Justin Timberlake, Questlove, Ciara, Viola Davis and Tyler Perry were among the celebrities sharing reactions on social media about Tyre Nichols, who died earlier this month following an altercation with Memphis Police Department officers during a traffic stop in Tennessee.
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Body camera and surveillance video of the Jan. 7 stop was released Friday (Jan. 27), showing the beating that led to the 29-year-old’s hospitalization and death from his injuries. Included in the footage is Nichols telling the officers, “I’m just trying to get home,” and also screaming for his mother. On Thursday, the five police officers, who had been fired, were charged with murder.
Perry took to Instagram to share a photo of Nichols and describe his own conflicted feelings about whether to watch the footage of the incident. “Many people can’t imagine it happening to them because honestly, it never will,” he wrote about himself initially wanting to avoid the video. “I was determined to see what that space felt like for once, I would cover my ears and not let in the outside.”
Explaining that his goal “wasn’t possible,” he continued, “So today I will cry, I will be depressed, I will curse, I will be outraged, I will want to burn some shit up, I will be in agony, I will let my heart break for his family, I will moan with his tenor harmony from my own experience that is every Black man that’s ever called for the safety of the arms of mamma, I will inaudibly scream.”
Debbie Allen, Tina Knowles and Kym Whitley were among those who praised Perry’s post in the comments section. Knowles wrote that she, too, struggled with whether to watch but ultimately “was compelled to make myself watch it” and described what she saw as “heartbreaking.”
Davis and Niecy Nash both took to Instagram to share a black square featuring the words written in white, “I’m just trying to get home.” In the caption of their identical posts was a message attributed to MeToo founder Tarana Burke that read, “Sometimes a hope. Sometimes a prayer. Sometimes a frustration. Sometimes a fear. Sometimes impossible.” The posts also added the hashtag #werehereagain.
Timberlake, who was born in Memphis, tweeted that he was heartbroken and angry. “I stand with my hometown and the people of Memphis as we demand justice and accountability,” he wrote.
Questlove shared a number of posts and messages about the incident, including one discouraging people from watching the footage: “For The Love Of God. Torture P*rn Is Not Going To Serve Your Soul.”
W. Kamau Bell was among the social media users making comparisons to police officers beating Rodney King in 1991. “I remember the Rodney King assault,” Bell tweeted. “I remember how many of us thought the footage would change everything, Finally there was ‘proof’. Now there’s footage everyday of police brutalizing us. This footage is in HD & often comes from the police. Nothing changes.”
LeBron James retweeted a message from activist and podcast host Brittany Packnett Cunningham about systemic racism and the fact that all five of the officers from the traffic stop are Black. James added, “Too factual!!!”
These and other reactions, including ones from President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, Octavia Spencer and Mark Ruffalo, are below.
I’m heartbroken and angry to see another family, another community hurting due to police brutality. I stand with my hometown and the people of Memphis as we demand justice and accountability. #JusticeforTyreNichols— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) January 28, 2023
My heart is crushed. I couldn’t watch the full video because it hurt so much to see something like that. I pray for those with hate in their hearts. I pray for the lost souls of people. There is no need to take anyone’s life. Rest In Peace Tyre. #JusticeForTyre 🖤 pic.twitter.com/D6EmofKE9W— Ciara (@ciara) January 28, 2023
My heart goes out to Tyre Nichols’ family and to Americans in Memphis and across the country who are grieving this tremendously painful loss. There are no words to describe the heartbreak and grief of losing a beloved child and young father.⁰⁰Here’s my full statement. pic.twitter.com/ghROhSGtao— President Biden (@POTUS) January 28, 2023
As we mourn the loss of a man who had much ahead of him, I want to showcase #TyreNichols in his true essence. He was a loving father, considerate son, & loyal friend with a passion for skateboarding & photography. Rest in power & know that we’ll seek justice.🎥: Austin Dean pic.twitter.com/fYAKPfdlzv— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) January 28, 2023
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
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On Friday evening (Jan. 27), the Memphis police department shared the footage of Tyre Nichols being beaten so badly by its former police officers that the 29-year-old eventually succumbed to his injuries.
The five Black cops who beat Nichols to death have been arrested and indicted for charges including murder and kidnapping, and after much salivation for it by mainstream media, the footage is now out in the world. NewsOne reported on what can be seen (be warned the footage is graphic and disturbing, and you are under no obligation to watch):
The video, which was released on the city of Memphis’ Vimeo account, comes just a day after five Memphis police officers responsible for the beating death of the 29-year-old were charged with second-degree murder.
If you would like to watch the videos click here. The videos contain graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised.
Ahead of the release, Nichols’ mother RowVaughn Wells gave an emotional speech at a news conference Friday, where she said she was still processing the tragic death of her son.
Four videos were released in total. In the first clip, Nichols can be heard saying “I didn’t do anything” and complying with the seemingly aggressive officers. He can also be heard saying “I’m just trying to go home.”
The incident occurred on Jan. 7 when Nicholes was stopped on suspicion of reckless driving. So far, there is no evidence of reckless driving. He died several days later and an autopsy, ordered by his family, said the cause of death was due to internal bleeding.
Protests have already begun. If only the same energy being used to urge people to protest peacefully was used to urge cops not to kill people.
Pray for Trye Nichols and his family. May he rest in power and may justice be served.
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