Three weeks after the violent death of black man Tire Nichols at a Memphis traffic stop, police disbanded a special unit involved in the case. This step is “in everyone’s interest”, said yesterday the police of the North American city.
Members of the special unit “agreed unreservedly” with the decision. The Nichols family supported the dismantling of the task force created in 2021 to tackle illegal activity in high-crime neighborhoods.
beaten to death?
The death of Tire Nichols has been causing outrage across the United States for days. Five police officers – like the victim, African American – were arrested and charged. They are suspected of beating 29-year-old Nichols to death during a traffic stop on January 7. The five suspects belonged to the now disbanded special unit.
They are charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping, among other things. Second-degree murder is an intermediate stage between murder and manslaughter in the state of Tennessee, where Memphis is located. Kidnapping, in this case, refers to the illegal detention of a human being.
Demonstrations in Memphis
Video footage of the operation shows officers trying to knock Nichols out with tear gas and a stun gun. Her victim tries to run away, the cops stop her. Later, Nichols is seen moaning in pain as the officers repeatedly punch and kick him while he is lying on the ground.
Dozens of protesters protested police violence in Memphis yesterday. They called for police reform and demanded that those responsible for Nichols’s death be held accountable.
In the USA, deadly police violence against black people repeatedly causes horror and outrage. Most of the time – if not in the case of Nichols – white police officers are the perpetrators, as in the case of George Floyd, who was killed in Minneapolis in May 2020 when he was arrested.