Rev. Al Sharpton and Vice President Kamala Harris during the memorial service for Tire Nichols at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee on February 1, 2023. ANDREW NELLES/AP
“Someone good” who was killed too early by “an act of violence” by the police. Speakers rose up against police brutality on Wednesday, February 1, at the funeral of Tire Nichols, a young African American man whose fatal beatings at the hands of black police officers shocked the United States.
After embracing Tire Nichols’ mother for a long time in the church in Memphis, where this tribute was organized, the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, addressed sharp words to the agents, who kicked him to the screams that he had done nothing and called for help.
“Doesn’t he have the right to safety?” ‘ the Vice President began. “Here is a family who lost their son and brother after an act of violence” committed by “those responsible for their protection,” and “this act of violence was not intended to ensure public safety,” she said before the Quantity.
“We’ll win someday”
Tire Nichols was “a good man, a beautiful soul, a son, a father, a brother, a friend, a man gone too soon,” said the Rev. J. Lawrence Turner at the opening of the service at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. “Today, as we celebrate the life of Tire and comfort his family, we inform this nation that the repeat of this episode hashtag Black Lives Matter has been canceled and will not be renewed for a new season. ‘ he started. “We’ll win eventually. »
A powerful symbol, a brother of George Floyd, a black man in his 40s whose death at the knee of a white police officer sparked massive anti-racism demonstrations in 2020, was present, as was Breonna Taylor’s mother. Killed by police at her Kentucky home in the middle of the night in 2020, this 26-year-old African American woman has become an icon of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Reverend Al Sharpton, a figure in the civil rights struggle, delivered the eulogy. He was particularly affected by the fact that five of the police officers involved were black themselves. “In the city where [Martin Luther] King lost his life (…), you beat a brother to death,” he said. “There is nothing more insulting to us that we fought to get the doors open, that you would come through those doors and behave like the people we had to fight so that you could get through those doors,” he said the crowd rose to give him a standing ovation.
Through tears, RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tire Nichols, called for a round of applause for Congress to pass a police reform bill to be named George Floyd, which has stalled for now. “Because if we don’t do the blood, the next child that dies will have that blood on their hands,” she pleaded. “This is just the beginning,” promised Rodney Wells, Tire Nichols’ father-in-law. “We look forward to justice for all families (…), not just for ours.”
Seven police officers and three firefighters were involved
For a harrowing few minutes, a relative of Tire Nichols recited a poem she had written around Mr Nichols’ words to the police officers who beat him: ‘Just trying to get home. »
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Tire Nichols, 29, was arrested Jan. 7 by special forces officers in Memphis on charges of a traffic violation. Beaten up, he died in hospital three days later.
Images of the tragedy, captured by the agents’ onboard cameras and surveillance cameras, were released on Friday. We see the police brutally dragging the young man out of his vehicle. Pinned to the ground, he is sprayed with tear gas and attacked by an electric pulse gun. He then fled on foot to his mother’s house. If caught, he is beaten with kicks, fists and clubs.
Also read Death of Tire Nichols: the images of his violent arrest
Three firefighters and two new police officers face disciplinary investigations into the murder, for which five black officers have already been fired and charged with murder, the Memphis Police and Fire Department said Jan. 30. Preston Hemphill, a white police officer who has been on duty in this major southern United States city since 2018, was “suspended from the beginning of the investigation (…) at the same time as the other agents,” local police spokesman Kim Elder said , in a statement.
Tire Nichols’ ordeal caused horror and incomprehension in the United States. Several demonstrations in his honor took place across the country this weekend, without assuming the scale of the extraordinary mobilization that followed the death of George Floyd, who was choked to death by a white police officer in 2020.
Also read: Article reserved for our subscribers United States: the video of the fatal arrest of Tire Nichols revitalizes the debate on police violence
As a sign of the attention the White House is giving to this matter, President Joe Biden spoke to Tire Nichols’ parents last week. RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells were also invited by the parliamentary group that brought together African-American elected officials to attend Mr. Biden’s State of the Union address in Congress on Feb. 7 in Washington.