MEMPHIS – About 50 protesters gathered today in Memphis, in the southern United States, demanding justice after a video was released showing police violently arresting Tyre Nichols, a young black man who died a few days after the incident.
Waving signs reading “Justice for Tyre” and “End police terror,” they headed to Martyrs Park in the centre of Memphis.
Five police officers have been charged with second-degree murder in the beating of the 29-year-old, who died in a Memphis hospital on January 10 three days after being stopped on suspicion of reckless driving.
At 6pm on Friday local time, (8am SaturdayMalaysia time), the few dozen protesters, chanting “No justice, no peace,” managed to block a major road in the city, causing traffic jams.
The procession carried on to a bridge crossing the Mississippi River.
“Whose bridge?!” shouted an activist with a megaphone; “Our bridge” came the reply from the crowd.
Monica Johnson, a community organiser from Atlanta, said it was “sick” that all the accused policemen were also black, an anomaly among recent high-profile killings of black men, which often involve white officers.
“But it doesn’t surprise me, because we’ve seen for years and for decades that black people have – for a check, for their occupation – done the same thing and served the same system of white supremacy and capital,” the 24-year-old said.
She said the protesters demanded “accountability, conviction for all of the cops involved, and a stop to police making those traffic stops where they kill people.”
“For me there is no good cop,” said LJ Abraham, a community organiser in Memphis.
“And so for me, it does not matter what the race of the cop is. They’re hired to protect us and serve – they’re failing on that across the country, and to say ‘murder’ is the proper word to describe what happened, he was murdered,” she added.
For David Stacks, a black Memphis resident who owns a car detailing business, Nicols’ death “should draw everybody together, open the eyes of” the country’s African-American population.
“Like, this is bigger than all other obstacles and whatever you all have going on amongst each other,” the 38-year-old said.
Authorities had feared that fury triggered by the video could spark widespread violence, but the centre of the city remained calm, with businesses still open.
Earlier in the day, at a Memphis skatepark where Nichols was a regular, Robert Walters, a 67-year-old blues musician visiting the city from Virginia, said the fact the officers were black “hurts.”
“I’m a black man living in America. And that fear is always something that me and my son, we grew up with and we live with,” he said in reference to police brutality.
“These guys, you’d think, of anybody, should know (better), but it just goes to show you that anybody can fall into that trap,” he said.
“I just want people to just be calm and not do anything stupid, not destroy or hurt.”
Candles and flowers had been laid in Nichols’ honour at the skatepark.
“Rest in peace Tyre,” read a handwritten message on the flowers.
“We’re so sorry.” – AFP, January 28, 2023
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