Tire Nichols: Memphis braces for violent protests

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A pastor speaks in memory of Tire Nichols January 26 in Memphis

Photo: Gerald Herbert/AP

After the violent death of 29-year-old Tire Nichols, authorities in the USA are expecting numerous violent protests.

Nichols was pulled over by Memphis police on January 7 for "reckless driving."

According to a family lawyer, he was beaten by emergency services for several minutes and later died in hospital.

An autopsy report revealed that he had suffered profuse bleeding from severe beatings.

In the USA, deadly police violence against black people causes horror and outrage again and again.

The Tire Nichols case has fueled renewed anger at police violence in the United States.

This time all five police officers were black themselves.

White police officers are usually the perpetrators, as in the case of George Floyd, who was killed in an arrest in Minneapolis in May 2020.

The authorities had agreed not to release the police video of the incident until Friday evening (local time) because they expect riots.

Schools have already canceled all activities and also postponed actions that were planned for Saturday.

Tennessee's head of law enforcement called the footage "absolutely appalling."

"beaten to a pulp"

The relatives had already seen the video earlier in the week.

They said the footage showed officers brutally beating the 29-year-old for three minutes.

Nichol's mother, RowVaughn Wells, tearfully told CNN that police "beat her son to a pulp."

She asked, "Where was the humanity?" Crying, she described her son's condition in the hospital: "His head was swollen like a watermelon.

His neck was strained to the point of bursting with swelling.

You broke his neck.”

The police used excessive force and no one intervened or helped the victim.

The public prosecutor's office has accused them of, among other things, the "second degree murder" homicide.

Second-degree murder is an intermediate stage between murder and manslaughter in the state of Tennessee, where Memphis is located.

Four of the five officers posted bail Friday morning and were released from custody, court and prison documents show, the AP news agency reports.

Call for peaceful protests

Her family was "in mourning," RowVaughn Wells said, calling for peaceful protests: "I don't want us to burn down our town and tear up the streets because that's not what my son stood for."

US President Biden called for calm on Thursday, declaring, "As America mourns, the Justice Department conducts its investigation and state agencies continue to do their work, I join Tire's family in calling for the protests to be peaceful." Anger is understandable, but violence is never acceptable, he added.

kha/ani/AP/AFP