MEMPHIS — 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.
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.”
MEMPHIS — 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.
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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said he was “very concerned” about the prospect of violence, but called for protests over the death of Tyre Nichols to remain peaceful.
Speaking Friday at the White House before departing for Camp David, the president reflected on his call earlier with Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells.
“I’m obviously very concerned about it,” Biden said when asked if he was worried about violence, “but I think she has made a very strong plea. She’s obviously in enormous pain.”
Biden said that “innocent lives” were at stake Friday as the country awaited the release of police footage of depicting five Memphis officers beating Nichols during a traffic stop.
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NEW YORK — In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, said he and other mayors across the country had been briefed by the White House in advance of the video’s release, which he said would “trigger pain and sadness in many of us. It will make us angry.”
He urged demonstrators to “respect the wishes of Mr. Nichols’ mother. If you need to express your anger and outrage, do so peacefully. My message to the NYPD has been, and will continue to be, to exercise restraint.”
Adams, who during his years as a New York Police Department officer co-founded an organization that advocated for diversity in policing and against abuses of power, said he “felt betrayed” by the officers charged in the Memphis death of Nichols.
“Any officer who engages in violence and brutality tarnishes all the work we have done to keep communities safe,” he said. He added: “They make it harder for the brothers and sisters in uniform to accomplish the incredible work they do, day in and day out.”