The American city of Memphis was preparing for demonstrations on Friday January 27 in response to the publication, scheduled for the end of the day, of a video showing the brutal arrest by five police officers of an African-American, who died three days later. this violent beating.
“
When my husband and I arrived at the hospital and saw my son, he was already dead.
They had reduced him to mush.
He had bruises everywhere, his head was swollen like a watermelon
,” RowVaughn Wells, mother of Tyre Nichols, said in tears in an interview broadcast on Friday January 27 by CNN.
Broadcast on Youtube
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis has warned that the video showing the arrest of the 29-year-old man was "
comparable, if not worse
" to that showing the violent police arrest of Rodney King in 1991. The acquittal , a year later, of the four police officers involved, sparked unprecedented riots in Los Angeles.
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“
We plan to share the video via a Youtube link so that it is accessible to everyone.
It will be done in the late afternoon
," Cerelyn Davis told CNN, adding that the footage illustrated a "
sort of group effect
" among the five officers, who are themselves African American.
"
The video is divided into four different sequences (...) the initial (road) control, the one near Tire's house and the portable camera of several people on the spot
," she said.
Deadly Showdown
On January 7, police wanted to check Tire Nichols for a traffic violation.
A “
confrontation had taken place
” with the agents and “
the suspect had fled
”, according to the police.
Caught up, Tire Nichols had been arrested in circumstances that the authorities have so far avoided describing precisely.
The precise course of the events and their duration remain sources of questions, as does the time that elapsed before the victim received medical treatment.
Complaining of having difficulty breathing, hospitalized, Tire Nichols died three days later.
The five police officers were charged with murder and imprisoned.
Four of them were later released on bail.
“Quick, complete and transparent investigation”
US President Joe Biden called in a statement for a “
prompt, complete and transparent investigation
” into this tragedy and called for the demonstrations to be “
peaceful
”.
The case finds a particular echo in a country still marked by the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, in May 2020, and the demonstrations against racism and police violence, which had followed, federated around the slogan "
Black Lives Matter
" (Black Lives Matter).
The drama has reignited the debate over police violence in the country.
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