“Reactions” and “actions”: Around 50 protesters gathered in Memphis, in the southern United States, on Friday night to demand justice after the release of video showing the violent arrest of young African American man Tire Nichols a few days later.
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“What are you going to do,” a protester armed with a megaphone asks the city’s police chief at Martyrs’ Park in downtown Memphis.
Pictures of the arrest of Tire Nichols, 29, show long moments of violence perpetrated by the five black police officers after a mundane traffic stop in this major Tennessee city on January 7.
From 6 p.m. on Friday evening, the few dozen demonstrators set out, shouting “No justice, no peace”.
They quickly manage to block one of the city’s main thoroughfares, causing huge traffic jams.
“If we decided to go there tonight, it’s mainly because[Tyre Nichols’ family]has told us that if we’re going to demonstrate, we have to do it peacefully,” explains LJ Abraham, an associative activist from Memphis .
The procession continues to a bridge that spans the Mississippi River, blocking traffic on its four lanes there as well.
For David Stacks, a Memphis resident who came to protest, Tire Nichols’ death should “bring everyone together and be an eye opener for the African American community.”
“It’s more important than what’s happening in the neighborhoods and across the city,” said the 38-year-old black business owner.
The protesters in attendance are not all from Memphis, some were from neighboring states prior to the video’s release.
For Monica Johnson, a 24-year-old Atlanta activist, it is now important that police are “accountable” and all officers involved are convicted.
“We are demanding the dismantling of the Scorpion unit” involved in the beating of Tire Nichols, she said.
Despite the unrest expected by authorities at the time the video was released, downtown Memphis remains calm and businesses remain open.
A few police officers patrolled on horseback in the morning, but it was mostly tourists who roamed the streets of the blues capital of the world.
Robert Walters, an African American musician, came to Memphis to judge a blues competition.
However, faced with the prospect of some civil unrest, the 67-year-old retired military man had decided to leave the company before the video was released.
“In this day and age, you’d be right to think that something like that couldn’t happen,” he says of the brutal arrest of Tire Nichols.
“I’m a black man in America. And that fear is still something that my son and I grew up with,” he adds.
The fact that the police officers involved were African Americans “hurt” him and was a “strong disappointment” for him.
“It shows that anyone can fall into this trap of lust for power,” says Robert Walters, before stating, “It shouldn’t be happening. Point.”