The city of Memphis, the state of Tennessee and other cities (such as Atlanta and New York) and states in the country are on alert this Friday for the possibility of violent protests when, around six in the afternoon, local authorities release the video of the Tire Nichols, a 28-year-old black man, was beaten "appallingly" by five police officers, also black, who pulled him over (apparently for no reason, according to his boss) at a traffic stop.
Nichols died in hospital three days after the incident, due to heart and kidney failure, although his mother, RowVaughn Wells, told CNN that he was admitted "in pieces", with marks all over his body from the beating and " head swollen like a watermelon."
"They broke his neck," the woman said.
Police initially said Nichols was arrested on January 7 at a checkpoint for "reckless driving" and fled on foot, after which there was a "confrontation" with pursuing officers.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn
CJ
Davis told CNN on Friday that there is no evidence that he did anything to get himself arrested.
RowVaughn Wells, mother of Tire Nichols, cries at a news conference in Memphis, Tennessee, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Gerald Herbert / AP
He further described the footage of the arrest as an "act of contempt for humanity", which he likened to the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1991 by police, an incident that sparked anti-racism protests in the city.
The five agents involved were arrested and charged with second degree murder this Thursday by the Prosecutor's Office;
four of them are free after posting their bail, according to Fox News.
Authorities privately showed the video from the officers' cameras to Nichols' family on Monday.
Her mother was only able to see for the first minute, the family's attorneys, Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, said.
"She was a pure, blatant, non-stop beating" for three minutes, Romanucci said that day.
"They treated him like a human piñata," the lawyer said this Friday, "it is appalling, deplorable, appalling, violent." "We are seeing evidence of what happens to black and brown people in simple traffic stops," he added, qualifying it of "troublesome".
"Our family is grieving right now and this is very difficult to process," Nichols' mother said at a candlelight vigil in Memphis' Tobey Park on Thursday, calling the content of the video "horrifying."
But he asked people to protest peacefully after his publication: "I don't want us to burn down our cities, tear up the streets, because that's not what my son stood for."
It will take time to analyze the evidence for the death of a black man after being arrested
Jan 26, 202300:26
The five officers involved are Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith.
They were fired last week after an administrative investigation found they violated the use-of-force policy and were "directly responsible" for "physical abuse" of Nichols.
The police officers are part of a
special squad
created in November 2021 to combat crime called
Scorpion
(scorpion, in Spanish), authorities confirmed Thursday.
The new unit was announced hen the city's homicide rate was skyrocketing and residents were clamoring for police action, NBC News reported.
'I'm disgusted by what I saw': Tire Nichols arrest videos shocked experienced FBI agent
Jan 26, 202302:07
The attack on Nichols has heightened scrutiny on the city's reliance on specialized units to crack down on violent crime.
Other cities across the country have also launched similar initiatives, which activists for police reform say contribute to abuse and undermine public trust.
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