Five Memphis police officers have been charged with murder following a late night traffic stop in which a civilian driver, Tyre Nichols, was thrown from his vehicle, pepper sprayed, and brutally beaten.
Nichols, 29, died three days after the incident in the hospital. Though his cause of death has not yet been released officially, the five officers involved, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmit Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and Justin Smith were charged with two counts of official misconduct, one count of official oppression, second-degree murder, aggravated assault-act in concert, and two counts of aggravated kidnapping.
Body camera footage shows officers forcefully removing Nichols from his vehicle, pushing him to the ground, failing to de-escalate the situation, and failing to contain Nichols, who was able to evade containment and ran away from the officers. Video shows one officer attempting to use his taser weapon to stop Nichols, which had little to no effect.
The footage also recorded a conversation between two officers who were out of breath, one officer can be seen flushing out the eyes of another, who said that he pepper sprayed himself and another officer while pepper spraying Nichols.
The other officers who chased down and caught Nichols can be seen viciously attacking him, punching, and pepper spraying him as he sat on the ground.
Prior to the department’s release of body camera footage, the Memphis Police Chief, Cerelyn “CJ” Davis, spoke with CNN host Don Lemon regarding the incident, and her reaction to the officer’s conduct. Many online have pointed out that her language was incredibly inflammatory, and was not conducive to easing tensions in Memphis, which saw some of the most violent protests during the 2020 BLM riots.
“You’re going to see acts that defy humanity. You’re going to see a disregard for life.”
Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis
She emphasized the severity of the body camera footage prior to its release last Friday night, likely encouraging the protests now being seen around the city.
BLM protestors and community members gathered Friday night, with signs already printed out with Tyre Nichol’s name, and lists of their demands premeditated.
Additional protests took place in New York City, as many gathered at Union Square and Times Square.
Typically in this situation, the liberal media narrative rests on highlighting race differences between the officers and the victim — whenever an officer causes the death of a black individual, racism is to blame. This incident should call for deeper evaluation however, given that every person involved was black, but mainstream media may have found away around this.
“Opinion: The police who killed Tyre Nichols were Black. But they might still have been driven by racism” one CNN headline read. The liberal agenda has been clear since 2020, when the “defund the police” campaign took off — anyone who harms a black individual can be accused of racist, regardless of race, effectively erasing yet another basic definition.
This tragic incident does not necessarily warrant the public outrage, given that all five officers involved were likely not acting on racist motivations, and have been fired from the police force and charged according to their actions.
