By Karanja A. Ajanaku/Tri-State Defender Memphis
Sandwiched between a morning call to disband the police SCORPION unit and protesters who shut down the “old bridge” on I-55 in the evening, the release of video footage showing the inhumane police beating of Tyre D. Nichols was as hard to stomach as forewarned.
For many, the repeated warnings – from multiple quarters – that the footage was horrific proved to be an understatement.
The 29-year-old Nichols, who suffered from the weight-loss causing Crohn’s disease and described at a press conference as weighing less than 150 pounds “soaking wet,” was shown beaten mercilessly by five brutish and now former, fired, and charged Memphis Police Department officers.
Nichols was charged by officers, who acted like madmen from the jump, dragging him out of his car within two minutes of his home, reporting that it was a traffic stop. His initial calm relative to the officers’ hyped aggression from the beginning was a jarring juxtaposition.
Nichols ran freeing himself from the initial encounter, trying to make it home, say his family and their attorneys. He didn’t make it. Caught by the foul-mouthed members of the SCORPION unit, they beat him like a gang of wrestlers, except it wasn’t fake.
MPD released the video footage to the general public as advertised shortly after 6 p.m. With people watching in cities throughout the country, it was aired on networks in segments in its entirety. Police bodycam footage amounted to a buildup. Video captured on a pole bearing a SkyCop camera brought the horror down-to-earth.
From the pulpit Friday morning during a press conference at Mt. Olive Cathedral C.M.E. Church, Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, said she just hadn’t been able to watch what happened to her son and asked those with children not to let their children see it.
RowVaughn Wells, Tyre D. Nichols’ mother, with family attorney Ben Crump alongside, said, “I just want to ask a prayer for my family, this whole community. And I wanna say to the five police officers that murdered my son, you also disgraced your own families when you did this. But you know what, I’m gonna pray for you and your families because at the end of the day, this shouldn’t have happened.”
The officers all face the same charges: second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping causing bodily injury, aggravated kidnapping while possessing a weapon, official misconduct through unauthorized exercise of official power, official misconduct through failure to perform a duty imposed by law, and official oppression.
Read the rest of the story here: https://tri-statedefender.com/horrific-does-not-even-begin-to-explain-the-video/01/28/
