A tribute to Tyre Nichols, the Black Man who died in the arms of a Memphis police officer in the aftermath of his death

As protesters gathered across US cities over the weekend following the Memphis police beating that led to the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, officials have said the investigation into the incident will continue amid questions over whether there could be additional charges.

Lawmakers in Tennessee say there is more to be done in the wake of Nichols’ death, even as five Memphis police officers have been fired and charged with his murder.

As the investigation continues, Nichols’ family attorney Ben Crump said he thinks there will be additional fallout, but “whether that’s going to lead to criminal charges, we have to see.”

“Anything we did last Thursday regarding indictments precludes us from bringing other charges later,” Steve Mulroy said, when asked if there might be additional charges brought.

They waited until 7 p.m. Friday to publicly release the agonizing footage of Nichols’ fatal encounter with officers, allowing time for local politicians, activists and Nichols’ family to make pleas for calm in the community.

After they arrived at the scene of the fatal beating, they found Nichols laying on the ground, as a result of a report of a person pepper sprayed.

An ambulance was called to the scene after Nichols complained of shortness of breath, according to police. He was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the man died from injuries he sustained in the use-of-force incident with officers.

“All of these officers failed their oath,” Crump told CNN on Sunday. “They failed their oath to protect and serve. Look at that video: Was anybody trying to protect and serve Tyre Nichols?”

As a makeshift memorial grew on the corner where Nichols was beaten, protesters in cities such as New York and Atlanta held up signs bearing the name of the Black man who the country heard calling for his mother as he was kicked, beaten and pepper- sprayed.

His family remembered him as a good son and father who enjoyed skateboarding, photography and sunsets. They mourned the moments they won’t have again because of his smile and hugs.

The Memphis Police Department and the Era of Investigating the Nichols-Chern-York Officer Confruntation: A Statement by Mills

The unit was permanently abolished by the Memphis Police Department after listening to the family and community leaders of the officer who died in the line of duty.

“That reprehensible conduct we saw in that video, we think this was part of the culture of the SCORPION unit,” Crump said. We demanded that they dismantle before we see any more tragedies like this.

“I think the smart move and the mayor is correct in shutting it down. These are not representative of the Memphis Police Department.

We have to change the culture. We need to let Mr. Nichols’ legacy be that there will be police reform in this country.

Easter-Thomas believes that the city of Memphis has faith and hopes that the system will get it right this time.

The officers charged in the encounter with Nichols – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr. – are expected to be arraigned on February 17. They face charges of second-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping, among other counts.

The attorney for one of the officers indicted, Mills Jr., put out a statement Friday night saying that he didn’t cross lines “that others crossed” during the confrontation. The attorney told CNN that Mills was a victim of the system he worked in.

The two sheriff’s officers from the county were put on leave pending an investigation after video of the incident was released. “I have concerns about two deputies who appeared on scene following the physical confrontation between police and Tyre Nichols,” Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. said Friday.

The Memphis Black Caucus and the Justice in Policing Act: a message from Tennessee’s top democrats in the wake of Tyre Nichols

He specifically urged federal lawmakers to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was twice approved by the House but stalled in the Senate in 2021.

The Congressional Black Caucus is requesting a meeting with President Joe Biden this week to push for negotiations on police reform, caucus chair Steven Horsford wrote in a news release Sunday.

Gloria Sweet-Love, the Tennessee State Conference NAACP President applauded Memphis Police Chief Davis for not waiting six months to fire his officers who beat up a teenager.

She had no reaction for Congress who she called to action by failing to craft and pass bills to stop police brutality. The blood of Black America is on your hands. Stand up and do something.

Top Democrats in Tennessee’s state legislature say they will propose new legislation targeting police training, discipline, mental health and more in response to the death of Tyre Nichols.

While Democrats hold the minority with 24 representatives compared to the Republican majority of 99 representatives, Rep. Joe Towns Jr. said this legislation is not partisan and should pass on both sides of the legislature.

Memphis Police Officers Who Were Bound For Their Conduct: The Case Of Tyre Nichols and the Future of the Memphis Police : Sensitivity to Police Incrimination

“You would be hard-pressed to look at this footage (of Tyre Nichols) and see what happened to that young man, OK, and not want to do something. If a dog in this county was beaten like that, what the hell would happen?” There was Towns, they said.

The official response to the vicious beating by Memphis police of Nichols is already underway, two days after the video was made public.

Meanwhile, protesters continue to take to the streets of Memphis and elsewhere around the nation to express outrage over the incident and again rally against the treatment of Black people by police.

The attorneys hope that other cities take the same steps with their saturation police units as they have done with other departments. “We must keep in mind that this is just the next step on this journey for justice and accountability, as clearly this misconduct is not restricted to these specialty units. It extends so much further.”

House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, Rep. G.A. Hardaway and Rep. Joe Towns, Jr., announced their plan during a press conference on Saturday.

Among the issues the bills aim to address are implicit bias training, mental health evaluations for police officers, limits on officers transferring departments after facing discipline or being fired and a reevaluation of low-level traffic stops, NBC News reported.

Republicans hold a sizable majority in the Tennessee General Assembly, but the Democrats said they were confident they could get bipartisan support because of the magnitude of the incident, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.

“Without federal police reform, I think we’re going to continue to see these hashtags proliferate so much that we can’t keep up with them,” Crump told ABC’s This Week.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would ban chokeholds, prohibit no-knock warrants, and end qualified immunity for law enforcement officers.

Memphis Law Enforcement After Nichols’s 2014 Stabbing: A Case Study Against a Black Man and a Bullying Bullying Officer

Five former officers were indicted Thursday on charges of second-degree murder and kidnapping. One day later, officials released police body camera and street surveillance footage of the deadly encounter after a January 7 traffic stop.

“They’ve learned from them and it shows in their response,” said Johnson, who helped restore order in Ferguson, Missouri, after the 2014 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old unarmed Black man.

“A year ago, two years ago, we wouldn’t have seen some of the things we’re seeing here,” Johnson said of Memphis law enforcement’s handling of Nichols’ death.

There was an initial statement from police that there was no forced entry in Taylor’s case. The officers had entered her home with a battering ram. Minneapolis police initially said Floyd “appeared to be suffering medical distress.” But video showed Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for several minutes.

On hearing of that initial account, the Memphis police chief thought it was just a weird summary of what happened during the traffic stop. She said she was “outraged” after viewing the video.

Law enforcement and Legal Analysts are now pointing to Memphis as an example of how to maintain trust in the community after fatal police encounters.

“We are now looking at cops through a different prism and when cops don’t act, when cops allow an event to happen over four, five, ten minutes, then maybe they should be held responsible to an even higher standard,” Mark O’Mara, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, said Saturday. We are in a new era where police behavior can be looked at under a different eye for potential prosecution.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/us/memphis-police-tyre-nichols-case/index.html

Memphis Police Tyre Nichols Case: Rapid Criminal Charges in a “Breaking Blueprint” of a Memphis Family Law Enforcement Case

The preliminary results of an autopsy commissioned by attorneys for Nichols’ family said he suffered “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” family attorney Benjamin Crump said this week.

On January 15, noting the serious nature of the officers’ conduct during the stop,Chief Davis vowed “immediate and appropriate action.” She said that the department was giving notice to the officers.

The officers were fired for failing to use excessive force, Duty to intervene, and Duty to render aid.

“The police department obviously learned something from … other high-profile cases when district attorneys were not transparent, when they did not act quickly,” said Areva Martin, an attorney and legal affairs commentator.

“They did the right thing in this case by convening a grand jury, investigating the case quickly, and then charging these officers, bringing them into custody.”

Crump, in a news conference Friday, called Memphis’ rapid criminal charges – compared to other cities that have waited months or years in brutality cases – a “blueprint” for police departments, prosecutors and political leaders in future cases.

CNN political analyst Bakari Sellers said the swiftness of the charges reminded him of the case involving the April 2015 death of Walter Scott, who was fatally shot in the back after officers pulled him over for a broken brake light in South Carolina.

The ex-North Charleston cop was indicted on a murder charge two months after the shooting. The trial of the officer who killed Scott ended in a mistrial but he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating civil rights. He was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/us/memphis-police-tyre-nichols-case/index.html

A New Look at Protests in Memphis, Tennessee During the Workday of the Fourth Friday Night (Videos of a Demonstration)

“The last thing you want to do is take a high tension event and then add that thing that’s going to increase tension … on a Friday night knowing that people don’t have to be at work in the morning CNN law enforcement analyst John Miller said that they had the whole weekend ahead of them.

The delay allowed authorities to show the public the wheels of justice were turning quickly. The additional time also allowed officials to “unite the faith community in Memphis, the voice of the family and the family’s lawyers, and the key community contacts” in calling for calm.

Police departments across the country – including in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Nashville and New York – said they were either monitoring events or already had plans in place in case of protests.

We have been watching many of these cases over the last few years. When law enforcement authorities come forward and are transparent, we see a peaceful response from the community.

Mostly peaceful protesters in Memphis took to Interstate 55 Friday night after the videos went online, blocking both lanes of the highway’s bridge connecting the western Tennessee city to Arkansas. There were no people arrested.

After paramedics arrived, he was left on the pavement without assistance and an ambulance showed up.

What Memphis Police Did to Prevent the Memphis PD Shooting: The Complete Investigative Team and the Investigating Against the Execution of Tyre Nichols

The footage stunned hardened law enforcement experts. Officials across the country expressed outrage – including President Joe Biden, who said it was “yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day.”

Cheryl Dorsey, a retired sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department, said the footage has left unanswered questions about what MemphisPD did to prevent the tragedy.

“All of this was preventable,” she told CNN Saturday. “You have officers who are young on the job, unsupervised out there doing what they do on a regular basis. This was not something they are used to doing.

Memphis City Council Chairman Martavius Jones grew emotional after watching the video, telling CNN that despite the positive shift in the handling of brutality cases, much more needs to be done.

The officers and paramedics on the scene, as well as those who filed the paperwork, are being looked at by the district attorney.

The district attorney said that charges were brought against the five officers who were mostly responsible for the death of Tyre Nichols.

The Memphis Police Department has an investigation of the incident of Tyre Nichols at the second site of the Memphis Fire Marshal Collision

“I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it. And I think we’re going to find there’s more to this as we go into the trial,” Memphis City Council member Jeff Warren said. I don’t believe we are on top of this yet.

We must make sure that we look at our police department to see where we were weak, what happened with procedures, and what happened with our oversight.

A sixth and seventh officer were put on leave with five others and are still being investigated.

The Memphis Police Department said in a news release that Hemphill and other officers have been the subject of an investigation.

That body-cam video does not show Hemphill at the second site, where the county’s district attorney has said Nichols was beaten and suffered his serious injuries.

The fire personnel terminated over their response to the encounter are emergency medical technicians Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge and fire Lt. Michelle Whitaker, the fire department said Monday.

The two EMTs who responded to the call, based on information they were given on the scene, failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment of the patient, according to the fire chief.

Attorneys for two of the fired police officers commented to CNN. Martin’s attorney, William Massey, said “no one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die.”

Some of the questions will have to do with whether or not the actions of Desmond Mills were in line with other officers during the incident.

The SCORPION police unit that the charged officers were part of was created by Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis.

The attorney said that they either failed by using excessive force, failing him by not intervening, or failing him by not rendering aid.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/us/tyre-nichols-investigation-tuesday/index.html

The Martin Luther King Sr. Case Study: A Discrimination Against the Use of Force in a Memphis Police Officer’s Squad Car

The family is trying to comprehend the breadth of the investigation and also dealing with the loss of a loved one, according to the attorney.

According to a press release from their attorney, the family will hold a press conference at the site where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last speech the day before he was assassinated.

The two discipline cases about the use of force only focused on the officers’ actions and did not examine if their use of force was justified.

In a hearing regarding the incident, Haley said he misjudged the amount of force needed to warrant filling out the form. His lieutenant said Haley was a “hard-working officer” who “routinely makes good decisions” and “he was sure that this was a limited event.” Haley was reprimanded.

The hearing officer wrote that “Officer Haley took full ownership for the accident and was very humble during the hearing” and the violation was dismissed.

Mills graduated from West Virginia State University with a degree in criminal justice and then began his career as a Memphis police officer.

In March 2019, Mills violated procedure when he dropped his personal digital assistant (PDA) into the street while entering his squad car. The device was then run over by a separate car.

It was Mills’ first infraction, and he immediately reported the incident to his union representative, so he received a written reprimand, according to department records.

Later that month, Mills failed to file a response to resistance form when he used physical force to take a woman down to the ground so she could be handcuffed and arrested. In the hearing in August 2021, Mills said he did not realize his actions necessitated use of the form and was again issued a written reprimand.

In March 2019, a loaded handgun was found in the rear passenger side of a squad car used by Martin and his partner. Martin said he failed to do a proper pre- and post-shift inspection, and only inspected the car from the outside. The two traffic stops he and his partner conducted that day involved placing the suspects in the back of the car where the gun was found. Additionally, the officers did not do inspections after the suspects left the vehicle, as is protocol. Martin was issued a three-day suspension without pay, according to the files.

In September 2020, Martin violated protocol by mishandling a domestic abuse complaint between two sisters, one of whose husband requested a report. The man’s wife didn’t want the report to be taken because the parties were intoxicated, and Martin didn’t think it was necessary. The responding officers, including Martin, threatened the involved parties that if they had to take a report, both sisters would be arrested, according to department records.

The hearing officer stated that police officers are directed by department policy to make a complete report on domestic abuse calls. “It is not possible for the officer to make a decision on the perception of the victim’s willingness to cooperate with prosecution based on the victim’s consent.”

“Officer Martin is respectful when dealing with others regardless of their sex, race, age, or rank,” the evaluation stated. “He approaches his calls with a positive attitude and is well received when dealing with the public. He is a leader in arrests and calls, and no one has complained about being arrested.

Smith started working at the department in March. In January of 2021, henywayanydayed a vehicle that was at the rear and caused it to spin and crash into a third vehicle with two people inside. All parties were sent to the hospital in non-critical condition.

The driver of the second vehicle left his lane suddenly after he went right. He admitted to speeding, but said his memory was somewhat unclear due to his minor head injury from the airbag, according to a summary from the disciplinary hearing.