Latest News

Government Commissioner Venson François is expecting Mercy on February 8 in Artibonite department in connection with his alleged links to Savien gang leader Luckson Elan.

Voice memos suggesting an understanding between the government official and the gang leader, who is suspected of being involved in the killing of police officers, went viral on social media.

On 25 January, six officers were executed and two others injured in the attacks on Liancourt police station. The perpetrators also stole two vehicles and several weapons, and put the agents’ bodies on display.

According to a Departmental Intelligence Service report to the Departmental Directorate of Artibonite (DDA), the attack was allegedly planned by three senior National Police officials, including two inspectors general and a division commissioner.

“Their primary objective is to cause chaos in Artibonite, which would result in the assassination by police officers of the St. Marc District Commander and the DDA,” reads the document leaked to the press.

In the same way, he could have aimed to incite the police against all commanders of the Artibonite jurisdiction, physically attack the director of the DDA and use elements of social media to steer opinion towards the institution’s failure, the statement said Report .

The officers’ killings sparked violent protests in that capital and other cities such as Gonaïves, Saint Marc and Cap Haitien.

In Port-au-Prince, agents attacked the residences of Prime Minister Ariel Henry and the facilities at Toussaint Louverture International Airport on the same day that the head of government returned from the seventh summit of the Latin American Community-Caribbean States based in Argentina.

Shortly thereafter, Henry called for calm and ordered the police high command to deal with the protesters’ demands.

jha/ane

At a funeral in Memphis, hundreds of people said goodbye to African-American Tire Nichols, who was beaten to death by American police. At the ceremony at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris offered her condolences to the 29-year-old’s family. “We cry with you and the people of our country cry with you.”

The first black female vice president in U.S. history condemned the brutal beating of five black police officers against Nichols as an “act of violence” on the part of those who should be responsible for security. The Democratic Party politician also asked Congress to pass a law against police violence named after George Floyd, killed in a brutal police operation in Minneapolis in 2020.

President “Joe Biden is going to sign it and we shouldn’t delay him,” Harris said. The bill has long failed in Congress due to opposition from conservative Republicans.

Floyd’s relatives and other victims of police violence also attended the ceremony in Memphis, Tennessee. The eulogy was delivered by well-known civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who called for violent police officers to be held accountable.

Police officers brutally beat Nichols on Jan. 7 during an overnight stop in Memphis. The 29-year-old died three days later in a hospital.

Last week, five officers fired after the incident were charged with second-degree murder. In Tennessee, this corresponds to an intermediate stage between murder and manslaughter. Like the victim, the five men, who belonged to a defunct special unit of the Memphis Police Department, are African American. Authorities released video footage of the incident on Friday. However, the unrest feared by the authorities did not materialize.

In the USA, deadly police violence against black people repeatedly causes horror and outrage. Often – though not in the case of Tire Nichols – white police officers are the perpetrators.

Kyiv While western allies are sending heavy weapons to help Ukraine In order to recapture occupied territory, Moscow intensifies its attacks on the Eastern Front. President of Ukraine, Volodmir Zelenskyysaid this Wednesday the 1st that Russian forces are about to launch a new offensive.

Both sides have been preparing for heavier ground fighting for months. During Russia While Kyiv continues its goal of conquering the entire Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, it continues its fight for the complete expulsion of Russian troops.

The Russian President’s Army, Wladimir Putin, has conducted artillery strikes with an intensity not seen since September and dispatched tens of thousands of troops to test Ukraine’s defenses on a 225 km front line in Donbass. “Russia really wants some kind of big rematch,” said Zelenskyy. “And she’s already started.”

Debris in Bakhmut, a city contested by Ukrainians and Russians: in search of a symbolic victory Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP 02/01/2023

In the city of Bakhmut, Russian forces are building pressure, sending waves of fighters to break down Ukraine’s resistance and targeting supply lines in a campaign that could secure Moscow’s first significant victory in months.

Bakhmut and the surrounding areas have become the focus of intense fighting, with increasing importance as both sides add forces to the fight. By stepping up its efforts in Bakhmut, Moscow is trying to gain the key to taking the entire Donbass after months of bombing with little profit.

Andri Yusov, who represents the intelligence branch of Ukraine’s defense ministry, said he expected fighting to intensify across the board in February and March. “We are on the eve of a very active phase,” he told Ukrainian national television.

In the east, in the city of Kramatorsk, at least two people died in a Russian bomb attack on a residential building on Wednesday. “Russian occupiers hit a residential building in the city center with a rocket,” regional governor Pavlo Kirilenko said in a Telegram message.

Ukraine and Russia have been locked in a grueling battle for almost a year. Since September, as Ukraine reclaimed territory in counteroffensives in the northeast and south, fighting in the east has stalled in muddy and frozen trenches, with each army inflicting heavy casualties on the other side while amassing insignificant gains.

But since the Kremlin appointed General Valeri Gerasimov to take command of the warAccording to Ukrainian military officials, Russia has strengthened its troops in the Donbas.

Ukrainian intelligence estimates that Russia now has over 320,000 troops in the country about twice the size of Moscow’s initial invasion force. Western officials and military analysts say Moscow also has 150,000 to 250,000 troops in reserve, training or stationed in Russia, ready to join the fight at any time.

“They are preparing for more war, they are mobilizing more troops, more than 200,000 and even more,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told journalists on a visit to South Korea on Monday.

Continued after the ad

“They are actively acquiring new weapons, more ammunition, increasing their own production, but also acquiring more weapons from other authoritarian states like Iran and North Korea.”

A Russian army soldier carries his gear after training at a military camp in the Russiancontrolled Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine Photo: Alexei Alexandrov/AP 31/01/2023

An increase in Russian bombardment accompanied the buildup of forces. Konrad Muzika, a military analyst at Rochan Consulting, which tracks Russian military actions, said Russian artillery shells have increased from an average of 60 a day four weeks ago to more than 90 a day for the past week from 111 locations a day.

He also said that “the Russians are taking a lot of equipment out of the camp areas”. Still, he agreed with other analysts who say Russia will struggle to equip large numbers of new soldiers with tanks, armored vehicles and other effective equipment. /AP, NYT and AFP

Elghawaby, amid controversy since her appointment as special adviser on the fight against Islamophobia, has apologized for “hurting” Quebecers. A mea culpa came just hours after Justin Trudeau tried to defuse tensions over the whole affair. The prime minister dedicated an educational effort on Wednesday, urging everyone on both sides not to indulge in Quebec bashing or excessive condemnation, but rather to move forward in dialogue.

Amira Elghawaby, walking through the federal parliament to meet the leader of the Bloc Québécois, faced the cameras for the first time. “I’m convinced, I know it, I said it, that people in Quebec are not racist,” she said as she exited the meeting. ” It wasn’t my intention. And I sincerely apologize for the hurt I caused with my words,” she said in French.

At the beginning of the interview, the special adviser initially only apologized in English. As a member of the Muslim community, Ms Elghawaby said she understood very well the feeling of being the victim of stereotypes and prejudice. “And I understand that the words and the way I used them hurt the people of Quebec,” she said. La Presse had published some of her old writings, in which she particularly pointed out that “unfortunately, the majority of Quebecers [guidés] out of anti-Muslim sentiment.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau viewed her apology as evidence that she is “a sensitive person who is open to the concerns of others on a difficult matter”. He claimed he didn’t ask her to apologize.

However, this plea for forgiveness did not satisfy the Quebec minister responsible for secularism, Jean-François Roberge, who again called for his resignation.

“I appreciate her apology, but I still don’t think she has the credibility and legitimacy to hold office,” he quipped as he left the Council of Ministers. Ms Elghawaby’s earlier comments “are terrible” and “amount to racism”. Mr Roberge feels her apology comes too late after initially trying to explain herself.

change in tone

Although Justin Trudeau maintains his support for Ms Elghawaby, his speech on Wednesday had changed. The prime minister appeared before the press on his arrival at the caucus in the morning to recall for a few minutes the history of Quebec, which today explains its position on secularism.

“I want to be very clear: Quebecers are not racists,” he said. Mr. Trudeau, while deploring the Quebec bashing of some and the “extremely defensive response” of others in Quebec, returned to the quiet revolution that led Quebecers to become ardent defenders of individual rights and freedoms. This defense “entails a certain distance or even distrust [envers] religion,” he said.

Asked if he thought Ms Elghawaby understood this perspective, Mr Trudeau said he was “happy” that she was meeting Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet, as well as possibly Québec solidaire representatives.

I appreciate her apology, but I still don’t believe she has the credibility and legitimacy to hold the position.

Mr Trudeau admitted knowing “some of what he said” before appointing the former columnist to his post. But he says he’s also spotted “some others coming out now.”

However, “someone who has been an activist for a cause for many years” will be “different” once they become a government official on record, he argued.

Some Quebec liberals have expressed the wish that this should be the case. Ms Elghawaby said she sees her role as “expressing the pain that religious minorities feel” when they face discrimination. She reiterated that she believes “Act 21” is discriminatory.

“If her militant past is any indication a priori towards Quebec, that remains an issue,” said bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet before sitting down with her. The leader of the bloc will comment on Thursday’s meeting. It is possible that he may call for his resignation, as did the Quebec government and the Conservative Party in Ottawa.

Mr Blanchet criticized the post itself for specifically targeting Islamophobia rather than racism overall. Which he says might have “stigmatized an issue.”

Liberal Disagreements

The appointment appears to have caused unrest in the Quebec Liberal faction. Ministers and MPs have regretted these earlier statements made by Mrs Elghawaby in recent days. Justin Trudeau’s Quebec lieutenant Pablo Rodriguez said he was “deeply hurt”. He will meet her again on Thursday.

Ministers François-Philippe Champagne (Innovation, Science and Industry), David Lametti (Justice) and Pascale St-Onge (Sport) were also uneasy. MP Anthony Housefather said he believed she “needed to be enlightened on the Quebec issue” but that it was “a duty on both sides”.

English-speaking elected officials, on the other hand, defended Ms Elghawaby and denounced the fact that all controversy was rooted in racism. “Unfortunately, the reaction and judgment of some about the nomination speaks to the deep-seated issues of racism and prejudice that still exist in our society — even among our elected officials,” George Chahal, Sikh MP for Calgary, said in a written statement on twitter.

His colleague Salma Zahid complains that once again a veiled woman is the victim of criticism. A comment also made by Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democrats, who is Sikh and wears a turban.

With Alexandre Robillard

To see in the video

Nearly a week after video of the fatal caning of a defenseless young African American man named Tire Nichols by five black Memphis police officers was released, two officers and three Memphis firefighters were demoted from their posts for their actions and omissions during car night. Authorities have so far avoided what they feared most, a nationwide protest, but they have failed to silence voices calling for a debate on police reform that has too often been postponed in the United States.

This Wednesday, the first day of Black History Month, the city of Memphis, Tennessee, released the boy at a funeral set to the rhythm of gospel music, at which Reverend Al Sharpton, a key figure in the struggle for civil rights over the past half century, was in charge. Also in attendance were relatives of other notorious police victims and a handful of politicians ranging from congressmen to mayors, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, who arrived with a group of officials sent on a comfort mission by the White House.

Harris took the floor at Sharpton’s request to celebrate the “extraordinary lesson” being offered by the victim’s parents these days. “When a mother gives birth to a child, all she wants is for it to be safe for the rest of her life,” she said. “When we talk about citizen security, we need to understand what this concept of truth means. Tire Nichols should have been safe from those charged with protecting him.”

The funeral became a cry for police reform in the United States and a firm call to Washington, where legislation promoted by then-Senator Kamala Harris, among others, called for changing the rules of daily uniformed violence in the United States was and has been languishing for two years because of the republican blockade. “As Vice President, I am demanding that Congress pass the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act,” Harris said. “Joe Biden will sign it. We cannot admit any further delays. It’s non-negotiable.”

Tire Nichols’ mother at her son’s funeral, surrounded by the Reverend Al Sharpton, her husband and family attorney Ben Crumps, among others. – (AFP)

Subscribe to EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.

Subscribe to

The legislative initiative came after the death of African American George Floyd by suffocation under the weight of white agent Derek Chauvin’s knee. It happened in May 2020 and lit a fuse that other tragedies (unpunished police abuse with the proper names Amadou Diallo, Eric Garner or Trayvon Martin) previously failed to ignite.

Floyd’s killing led to a bill bearing his name being introduced by Congressional Democrats in 2020 and again in 2021. The bill aims to establish a national police misconduct register to prevent agents’ criminals from avoiding the consequences of their actions by moving to another jurisdiction. There are more than 18,000 police departments in the United States, and each imposes its own rules.

The law also proposes increased scrutiny over agents’ behavior and condemns acts mediated by racial or religious prejudice. Defenders of the proposed regulation reiterate that it “would save lives” by, among other things, banning strangulation to immobilize a detainee. It also reserves “deadly force” as a “last resort”.

Both times, the initiative crashed into the Republican wall in the Senate over disagreements over the concept of “qualified immunity,” which helps agents in situations where they suspect their lives are in danger. One of the main arguments against it is that it would deter those who aspire to a career in the police force. Now that after the last general election the Conservatives have a majority in the House of Lords who will present

While these measures have been touted as a master plan to disempower the police force and wreak havoc on the country’s streets, such a law seems unlikely to pass.

“Slow and frustrating progress”

President Joe Biden used the second anniversary of Floyd’s death to sign a limited-scope executive order on police reform. “I know progress can be slow and frustrating,” Biden said that day in the White House. “But today we act.”

Image from police video showing Tire Nichols on February 7 after the beating that killed him three days later. PA

At the moment, this action does not seem to be felt on the streets: according to the organization Mapping Police Violence, a sentinel on police abuse, the number of deaths from bullets at the hands of agents has remained practically the same since 2020 (1,123, in 2022). According to this data, a black person is almost three times more likely to die at the hands of the police than a white person.

All in all, it wouldn’t be fair to say that nothing has changed in the wake of the Floyd tragedy, which sparked a nationwide protest wave and put the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement at the center of the conversation. That of Nichols, a 29-year-old delivery man who loves photography and skateboarding – who was pulled over on January 7 for an alleged traffic violation when he was just “trying to get home,” as he told the uniformed officers making their ride ended with beatings, kicks and clubs – will at least be remembered as a case in which the police subsequently acted with unusual speed and determination. The five main suspects, whose “elite” unit belonging to a program called Scorpion was dismantled, have already been released and charged with crimes as serious as murder, abuse of office or kidnapping.

The spread of the video was also faster than at other times; They lasted three weeks instead of several months or even a year as before. What followed the expected pattern was the discrepancy between what the agents declared to have happened in the report and what actually happened on the record. Nichols died in hospital three days later. The ambulance that took him there took 22 minutes to arrive.

Demonstration in Memphis for the death of Tire Nichols. The banner reads: “End police terror.” DAVID DEE DELGADO (Portal)

The rapid resolution of the crisis after the facts became known was influenced by the fact that the accused, like the victim, were black, which did not prevent the racist interpretation of an event speaking of the “dehumanization of African Americans” in the United States. “American citizen before police,” according to some analysts. Also crucial was the role of Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, the first black woman to hold the position. In 2020, he was working in Durham, North Carolina, and was a during the riots that followed Floyd’s killing the most critical voices within the establishment.

The Memphis Police Department website has a section titled Reimagining Policing. That didn’t stop the Scorpion program from taking off in 2021, just as killings in the city skyrocketed: four squads of 10 officers each authorized to patrol the city’s crime hotspots in unidentified cars. They were also allowed to stop drivers indiscriminately to investigate homicides, aggravated assaults and robberies.

The Memphis isn’t the only program of its kind launched in the United States. What unites all of this is the fact that they operate with greater discretion and less supervision than regular police officers. “Some of these units have touted impressive records of arrests and weapons confiscations, although these statistics do not always correlate with a decrease in crime. They are all based on the idea that police officers need less surveillance to be effective. That’s a fundamental misunderstanding,” Radley Balko, author of a book on “the militarization of American police forces,” told the New York Times Monday.

California police kill man with amputated legs running from officers

The organization Mapping Police Violence calculates that in 2022 there will be only nine days in the United States on which there will be no deaths from police bullets. Last Thursday wasn’t one of those days.

Huntington Park police agents, south of Los Angeles, killed Anthony Lowe, a 36-year-old man who had both legs amputated that day. The event is captured by a cell phone recording taken in a car. In it, Lowe is seen walking away from his wheelchair. He appears to be running away from two police officers who come towards him with their pistols. The video does not show the moment of shooting.

The Huntington Park Police Department said in a statement that officers were there to respond to a stabbing allegedly committed by someone in a wheelchair; that they tried to arrest Lowe; and that he ignored his orders. “Threatened to advance [hacia los policías] or by throwing the knife at the officers.” Nothing of this can be seen in the pictures.

Lowe’s family have called for the officers to be fired and charged with murder.

Follow all international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

The transgender substitute teacher is fired after she shared salacious TikTok videos of herself with sixth-grade students – and clips where she discussed hormone therapy and her transition

• Lydia Lamere, a substitute teacher at King Middle School in Portland, was removed from the classroom on January 20
• Students had shared Lamere’s social media posts after Lamere reportedly wrote the TikTok handle on a whiteboard in front of the class
• Lamere, who was born a male, discussed hormone replacement therapy in the posts and posed in a towel in the bathroom

By Harriet Alexander for

Published: 02:30 GMT, 02 February 2023 | Updated: 02:30 GMT, 2 February 2023

Lydia Lamere taught at King Middle School in Portland until the end of January

A transgender substitute teacher in Maine has been fired after she was accused of sharing her TikTok handle in class and encouraging students to visit her page.

Lydia Lamere’s now-deleted posts included her discussing hormone replacement therapy and posing in the bathroom wearing only a towel, The Maine Wire reported.

Another site, Reduxx, said that Lamere, who was born male, also had discussions about BDSM on her site.

A student in Lamere’s class at King Middle School in Portland told her father, Mark Davey, that classmates at her school were discussing Lamere’s post.

“My daughter showed me group text messages where all the students were talking about it,” Davey said.

“Their gender or sexuality has nothing to do with why I get upset.

“The violation here is the sexualization of children.”

Some of Lydia Lamere’s now-deleted TikTok images were obtained by The Maine Wire

Davey alerted principal Caitlin LeClair on Jan. 19.

Lamere shared her TikTok handle with students in class, a father said

The next day, LeClair emailed parents to inform them that Lamere would no longer teach at the school

“On Thursday, I was made aware of concerns about students accessing videos on TikTok late on Wednesday,” LeClair wrote.

“Throughout the day, it became apparent that many students were talking about the TikTok account.

“As a result of our investigation, the employee will not be returning to King.

Tess Nacelewicz, communications coordinator for the Portland Schools, said the school has not contacted law enforcement regarding the Lamere investigation.

She said the school interviewed Lamere and conducted a criminal background check, but school officials had not checked the salacious social media accounts.

Lamere’s TikTok page now has just a handful of videos made since the riot.

Lamere said in a recent post that she had been dozed and had “the eye of Sauron” on her

Lamere celebrates life anniversaries in her posts, which a father says sexualize children

Lamere can be seen in a Facebook post. She has since deleted many of her social media posts

The rest was done privately.

“Idk if you’ve ever had the Eye of Sauron on you, but it’s really very scary,” writes Lamere.

“I’m glad I’ve lived a good life without much to hide, but I don’t want the public to dissect every moment of my digital life over the last 4 years.

“For those who don’t know, I’ve been very drunk this week. Very tiring, any help would be appreciated.’

• Former Wagner commander fled Russia to Norway
• The 26-year-old took part in the fighting near Bakhmut
• Says he was afraid of being executed by his own side
• Wants to testify about crimes in Ukraine

OSLO, Feb 1 (Portal) – A former commander of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who fled to Norway told Portal he wanted to apologize for the fighting in Ukraine and spoke out for being the perpetrators of atrocities in the conflict to bring to court.

Andrei Medvedev, who crossed the Russian-Norwegian border on January 13, said he witnessed the murder and ill-treatment of Russian prisoners who were brought to Ukraine to fight for Wagner.

Medvedev said he fled across the Arctic border, climbing through barbed wire fences and dodging a border patrol with dogs while hearing gunshots from guards through a forest and across the frozen river that separates the two countries.

The 26-year-old is now seeking asylum in Norway.

“Many consider me a scoundrel, a criminal, a murderer,” Medvedev said in an interview. “First of all, I want to say sorry over and over again, and while I don’t know how it would be received, I want to say I’m sorry.

“I want to explain that I’m not that person. Yes, I served with Wagner. There are some moments (in my story) that the people I’ve even been through don’t like, but nobody’s born smart.”

last update

Watch 2 more stories

Appearing relaxed and confident, Medvedev said he wanted to speak about his experiences in the war so that “the perpetrators of their crimes in Ukraine will be punished.”

“I have decided to take a public stand against this to help ensure that perpetrators are punished in certain cases and I will try to do at least a little bit.”

Wagner is embroiled in a bloody battle of attrition in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

A special report published by Portal last week found a cemetery in southern Russia where men who were convicts recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine were buried.

Kripos, Norway’s national criminal police service responsible for investigating war crimes, has started questioning Medvedev about his experiences in Ukraine. He has witness status.

Portal could not immediately verify his claims.

Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, previously said Medvedev worked in one of Wagner’s Norwegian units and “mistreated prisoners.”

“Be careful, he’s very dangerous,” Prigozhin said.

Wagner did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

FROM ORPHAN TO WAGNER

Medvedev was born in the Tomsk region of Siberia. He said he was placed in an orphanage when he was about 12 after the death of his mother and the disappearance of his father.

He said he was drafted into the Russian military in 2014 at the age of 18 and served with the 31st Airborne Brigade in Ulyanovsk.

“It was my first mission in Donbass,” added Medvedev, without giving any further details.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was ousted in Ukraine’s Maidan revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, while Russian-backed separatists in Donbass — made up of Donetsk and Luhansk — sought to break away from Kiev’s control .

Medvedev said he had served several prison sentences, including one for robbery, and the last time he got out of prison, he decided to join the Wagner group in July 2022.

Medvedev said he was not recruited directly from prison but decided to join because he realized he would likely be mobilized in the regular Russian armed forces anyway.

He signed a four-month contract for a monthly salary of around 250,000 rubles ($3,575). He entered Ukraine on July 16, he said, and fought near Bakhmut.

“It sucked. The roads to Artemovsk were littered with the bodies of our soldiers,” he said, using the Russian place name for Bakhmut. “The losses were heavy. … I saw many friends die.”

At Wagner, Medvedev led a squad, took orders from a platoon commander, and planned combat missions. He said he saw “brave acts from both sides”.

Medvedev said he witnessed two people who did not want to fight being shot dead in front of newly recruited prisoners.

“The scariest thing? To realize that there are people who consider themselves your countrymen and who could come and kill you instantly or on someone’s orders,” he said. “Your own people. That was probably the scariest thing.”

Medvedev left Wagner at the end of his four-month contract, although his superiors told him he needed to serve longer, he said.

When asked if he wasn’t afraid of being shot for refusing to fight, Medvedev said: “You kind of forgot to instill in me the instinct of self-preservation growing up in an orphanage. So not really.”

($1 = 69.9305 rubles)

Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, Janis Laizans and Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Arrangement by Rosalba O’Brien and Leslie Adler

Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.

Gwladys Fouche

Thomson Portal

Monitors coverage from Norway for Portal and loves to go to Svalbard in the Arctic, oil rigs in the North Sea and guessing who will win the Nobel Peace Prize. Born in France, she has been with Portal since 2010, has worked for The Guardian, Agence France-Presse and Al Jazeera English, among others, and speaks four languages.

Rev. Al Sharpton and Vice President Kamala Harris during the memorial service for Tire Nichols at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee on February 1, 2023. ANDREW NELLES/AP

“Someone good” who was killed too early by “an act of violence” by the police. Speakers rose up against police brutality on Wednesday, February 1, at the funeral of Tire Nichols, a young African American man whose fatal beatings at the hands of black police officers shocked the United States.

After embracing Tire Nichols’ mother for a long time in the church in Memphis, where this tribute was organized, the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, addressed sharp words to the agents, who kicked him to the screams that he had done nothing and called for help.

“Doesn’t he have the right to safety?” ‘ the Vice President began. “Here is a family who lost their son and brother after an act of violence” committed by “those responsible for their protection,” and “this act of violence was not intended to ensure public safety,” she said before the Quantity.

“We’ll win someday”

Tire Nichols was “a good man, a beautiful soul, a son, a father, a brother, a friend, a man gone too soon,” said the Rev. J. Lawrence Turner at the opening of the service at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. “Today, as we celebrate the life of Tire and comfort his family, we inform this nation that the repeat of this episode hashtag Black Lives Matter has been canceled and will not be renewed for a new season. ‘ he started. “We’ll win eventually. »

A powerful symbol, a brother of George Floyd, a black man in his 40s whose death at the knee of a white police officer sparked massive anti-racism demonstrations in 2020, was present, as was Breonna Taylor’s mother. Killed by police at her Kentucky home in the middle of the night in 2020, this 26-year-old African American woman has become an icon of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Reverend Al Sharpton, a figure in the civil rights struggle, delivered the eulogy. He was particularly affected by the fact that five of the police officers involved were black themselves. “In the city where [Martin Luther] King lost his life (…), you beat a brother to death,” he said. “There is nothing more insulting to us that we fought to get the doors open, that you would come through those doors and behave like the people we had to fight so that you could get through those doors,” he said the crowd rose to give him a standing ovation.

Through tears, RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tire Nichols, called for a round of applause for Congress to pass a police reform bill to be named George Floyd, which has stalled for now. “Because if we don’t do the blood, the next child that dies will have that blood on their hands,” she pleaded. “This is just the beginning,” promised Rodney Wells, Tire Nichols’ father-in-law. “We look forward to justice for all families (…), not just for ours.”

Seven police officers and three firefighters were involved

For a harrowing few minutes, a relative of Tire Nichols recited a poem she had written around Mr Nichols’ words to the police officers who beat him: ‘Just trying to get home. »

Test your general knowledge by writing the “world”

Discover

Tire Nichols, 29, was arrested Jan. 7 by special forces officers in Memphis on charges of a traffic violation. Beaten up, he died in hospital three days later.

Images of the tragedy, captured by the agents’ onboard cameras and surveillance cameras, were released on Friday. We see the police brutally dragging the young man out of his vehicle. Pinned to the ground, he is sprayed with tear gas and attacked by an electric pulse gun. He then fled on foot to his mother’s house. If caught, he is beaten with kicks, fists and clubs.

Also read Death of Tire Nichols: the images of his violent arrest

Three firefighters and two new police officers face disciplinary investigations into the murder, for which five black officers have already been fired and charged with murder, the Memphis Police and Fire Department said Jan. 30. Preston Hemphill, a white police officer who has been on duty in this major southern United States city since 2018, was “suspended from the beginning of the investigation (…) at the same time as the other agents,” local police spokesman Kim Elder said , in a statement.

Tire Nichols’ ordeal caused horror and incomprehension in the United States. Several demonstrations in his honor took place across the country this weekend, without assuming the scale of the extraordinary mobilization that followed the death of George Floyd, who was choked to death by a white police officer in 2020.

Also read: Article reserved for our subscribers United States: the video of the fatal arrest of Tire Nichols revitalizes the debate on police violence

As a sign of the attention the White House is giving to this matter, President Joe Biden spoke to Tire Nichols’ parents last week. RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells were also invited by the parliamentary group that brought together African-American elected officials to attend Mr. Biden’s State of the Union address in Congress on Feb. 7 in Washington.

The world with AFP